Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 was one of the first confirmed Xbox Series X exclusives, having been announced during The Game Awards 2019.
If Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is anything to go by, the new game will have you take control of Celtic warrior Senua and guide her through an emotionally harrowing quest that’s (hopefully) both immersive and ambitious. The Hellblade series takes a thoughtful look at mental illness through the lens of an historical action game, and Hellblade 2 looks like it will continue the trend.
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Even though Hellblade 2 was one of the first games we learned about for the Xbox Series X, we haven't learned all that much information about it yet. At the Xbox Series X games showcase on July 23, 2021, Microsoft confirmed that the game will take place in Iceland, but there wasn't much other information to glean. For the moment, here's what we do know:
Hellblade 2 trailer
As mentioned above, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 has a cinematic release trailer that debuted during The Game Awards 2019. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out below:
The trailer is mostly a mood piece, focusing on Senua herself undergoing some sort of intense ritual. Interspersed are images of oceans, mountains, fire, ships and runes. It doesn’t really tell us much other than that Senua will star in another game, and that it will be available for the Xbox Series X. (This also means it’ll be available for the Xbox One and the PC, since Microsoft has committed to making most of its first-party titles available cross-platform for at least a few years.)
Hellblade 2 release date speculation
As one of the first Xbox Series X games revealed, you may have expected Hellblade 2 to be a launch title. But it wasn't, and we still don't have any solid information on when it will come out.
The trailer doesn’t give a release date, nor has Microsoft discussed one in any other capacity. We'd hazard a guess and say it could arrive this year, but at the moment we have no solid release date.
Hellblade 2 gameplay
Since the Hellblade 2 trailer was all prerendered cutscene footage, it’s hard to say what the gameplay might look like. In theory, it’ll resemble the first game, which was part exploration and part combat. The exploration sections challenged Senua to interact with environmental objects and solve puzzles. The combat sections let Senua string together simple combos to take on both human and supernatural foes. Neither half was incredibly complex, but the balance between the two worked well, and helped keep the story moving forward at a respectable clip.
At the Microsoft July 2020 event, we learned that Hellblade 2 will take place in Iceland. The first game took place in the fictional realm of Helheim, so it should be interesting to see how the game plays out with a physical location to work with instead. Unfortunately, we didn't learn any specific details about the gameplay or level design.
Hellblade 2 latest news
On April 16, Melina Juergens, the actress who plays Senua, released a video that describes her experience behind-the-scenes. There's not a ton of information about the new game, but if you wanted to learn how Juergens tackles acting and motion capture, it's a pretty interesting watch.
