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.
Even though Hellblade 2 is (probably) a launch title 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, Microsoft confirmed that the game will take place in Iceland, but there wasn’t much other information to glean.
While we haven’t learned much about Hellblade 2 since then, we did get our hands on an Xbox Series X and an Xbox Series S. You can check out our unboxing video to learn a little more about the systems that will run Hellblade 2 when it comes out — hopefully in the near future.
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 all of its first-party titles available cross-platform for at least a few years.)
Hellblade 2 release date
As one of the first Xbox Series X games revealed, you might expect Hellblade 2 to be a launch title. And you may be right — or you may be wrong. At present, we have no idea. The trailer doesn’t give a release date, and Microsoft hasn’t highlighted the game in any other capacity yet.
Let’s put together a few factoids and hazard an educated guess, though. Hellblade 2 was one of the first Xbox Series X games announced, which means that if it’s not a launch title, it will probably at least be within the launch window. A launch window generally contains anything released within three months of the console in question.
Assuming that the Xbox Series X launches in late November, the launch window will last until late March. That would put Hellblade 2’s release date somewhere between November 2020 and March 2021. The original Hellblade launched in the summer of 2017, so it seems reasonable to expect a sequel either this year or next.
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 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.
