Development for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is nearly finished and, day by day, more bits of info regarding its progress are surfacing. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II launches in a little over a month for Xbox Series X|S and PC on May 21. Not a whole lot has been shared about the game other than it continuing Senua’s journey to save more souls in Viking Iceland, and that it’ll be a $50 digital-only release with gameplay lasting roughly eight hours, and retains a photo mode for players to show off their favorite moments showcasing the game’s next-gen graphics.
PC and Xbox Target FPS
As the launch date nears the game’s developer, Ninja Theory, has been providing some media coverage detailing its progress and answering questions. While PC hardware specifications still have yet to be revealed. The Verge’s Tom Warren has reported that the Xbox Series X|S version will be locked at 30 fps. There is speculation (via DSOG) that the PC version could target 60 FPS but PC owners are undoubtedly hoping for more.
Hellblade 2 looks like it’s going to be one of the best looking Xbox games yet. A true next-gen game built on Unreal Engine 5, but it’ll only run at 30fps on Xbox Series X / S https://t.co/JOg11q7kwx
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) April 4, 2024
Another interesting tidbit regarding the PC version is that while its hardware requirements have yet to be published Steam does list the OS exclusively as Windows 11. Now while it is very likely this listing is just a placeholder of such it is odd that Windows 10 is absent.
Hellblade 2 VR?
Virtual Reality seems to still be experiencing a kind of ebb and flow with adoption among both PC and console gamers. Quite recently it was announced that a new Metro VR game is in development so some might wonder what it could be like to witness Senua’s journey in virtual reality. PCGamesN posed that question to Ninja Theory Studio head Dom Matthews when it visited its Cambridge, U.K. main office and got a hard no.
Ninja Theory co-founder has left the company and more…
Polygon’s Oli Welsh also visited the studio in Cambridge where he was able to play the game and tour the facility. It was during this tour that he noticed one of Ninja Theory’s co-founders was absent. Not much was said regarding this but it was acknowledged by an official Microsoft spokesperson that Tameem Antoniades was no longer with the company. Tameem had previously been its chief creative director, and (per VGC) was the writer/director on many of its other popular games.
Per VGC:
“While he worked on numerous games at Ninja Theory, Antoniades notably served as writer-director on Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, DmC: Devil May Cry and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.”
During the press event, it was announced that a trio comprising Dan Attwell (art director), Mark Slater-Tunstill (visual effects director), and David Garcia (audio director) are now the game’s creative leads. The press were also showed how the game has been developed using 100% mo-capped fight scenes which incorporate actors and stunt professionals, onsite photogrammetry for locations in Iceland, and authentically reproduced costumes made using period-appropriate methods which were then scanned into the game.
Per Polygon:
“The lengths to which Ninja Theory is going to ground this digital video game in physical reality might seem quixotic — even contradictory — but the proof is in the playing. The game, which I played on Xbox Series X, looks stunning, whether it’s rendering the black, smoking slopes of an Icelandic volcano or the pale, haunted eyes of Senua performer Melina Juergens.”