A crazy thing under Unreal Engine 5
Since 2021 and the furious combat trailer leaked at The Game Awards, we haven’t had much to spend on Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. The scarcity therefore ended during the Xbox Showcase 2023, with a new gameplay trailer delivered by the English studio Ninja Theory.
The Ninja Theorists did not do things by halves, since no less than four minutes of gameplay images were revealed. In Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, we will therefore find the Pictish warrior Senua, heroine of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice still struggling with her demons, both interior and exterior. The sequence, captured here on Series X, is intended to be more intimate than the previous images already broadcast, which gave pride of place to the dueling talents of the heroine.
AAA Psychoanalysis
The least we can say is that Ninja Theory has done everything to impress us. The modeling of German actress Melina Juergens seems to have taken a new step towards photorealism. Which only reinforces the ambient unease when the sets begin to spin and distort, testifying to the more than fragile mental state of the protagonist. It must be said that in the first part of her adventures, the warrior still had to undertake a hellish journey to the lands of Hel, the Goddess of Death to try to bring her companion back to life. And this while her mental state was already hanging by a thread, since she presented psychotic symptoms. In this second opus, Senua returns to service, this time in Iceland and revives with his old demons.
If the graphic aspect is clearly one of the strengths of the trailer, it would be inappropriate not to mention the enormous work done on the sound (we also suggest that you watch the trailer below with headphones to fill your ears). Hellblade 1 had been a masterclass in the matter, and the English studio seems to have pushed the cursor even further. Hearing the voices coming from all sides is unspeakable anguish… Which only reinforces even more the expectation that we have to finally be able to return to the land of madness. We will have to wait until 2024 to take up arms again on PC and Xbox Series with Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. Ninja Theory title will arrive day one in game pass.
