Hellblade 2 came out of seclusion for an extended gameplay premiere at The Game Awards 2021, and it didn’t skimp on the details. Fans of Ninja Theory’s action-adventure saw plenty of the game’s Icelandic world and the brutal combat they can expect there.
A six-minute trailer, recorded in-game just this past weekend, opened with a cinematic of Senua and her warrior companions hunting a giant deep inside its lair. The sequence blended rather easily between gameplay action and fixed-camera cinematics, with just slight pauses noting the breaks.
The giant crawls out of its cave, surviving the bloody assault, which sends up many of Senua’s comrades in flames. The scene concludes with the giant saying he recognizes Senua, foreshadowing her harrowing adventure to come.
Thursday’s trailer marked the game’s first substantial appearance since it was announced at the end of 2019. The game was not shown during Microsoft’s Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase at E3 2021; instead, a development update published at the same time portrayed the project as early in development.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is set in ninth-century Iceland, following the events of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, which was set in the late eighth century and took place largely in the Norse underworld of Helheim.
The sequel was first announced two years ago, at The Game Awards 2019, where it was billed as one of the first Xbox Series X games. It follows Ninja Theory’s critically acclaimed Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, which launched in 2017 and 2018 on Windows PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Microsoft acquired Xbox Game Studios in 2018, announcing the deal at that summer’s E3 keynote.
Source: Polygon
