Today marked the 2023 edition of State of Unreal, and the big takeaway from an Xbox perspective is that Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is perhaps looking ever more impressive than we expected. This game is going to be special!
The video in the presentation is short but sweet (you can watch it above), showing off the power of "realtime facial animation" in the game. We don't know about you, but we're more hyped for Hellblade 2 than ever after watching this!
"We're pushing the boundaries of realtime facial animation in Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, as showcased at GDC 2023 with Unreal Engine."
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Unfortunately we still don't have a release date for Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 as of yet, although reports have suggested that the game, along with Obsidian's Avowed, will be the next big focus for Microsoft following the launches of Redfall, Starfield, Forza Motorsport and Minecraft Legends. In other words, we're probably looking at a 2024 launch.
To be honest, after watching this, we're happy to wait as long as it takes for Ninja Theory to create something truly special with this highly-anticipated sequel. Our expectations just got raised to another level with this trailer.
What are your thoughts on this? Tell us down in the comments section below.
Comments 22
LOL, I just sent you all a tip about this in case you didn't notice.
This looks insane! UE5 is incredible and this is even a step up from the initial gameplay demo we saw.
If we get this level of fidelity on consoles, that would be just..uhm...unreal.
Very nice and pretty.
Now show me the game, the game graphics, the game play, the game environments all in action etc. Then we can talk.
Damn! that looks impressive. Looking forward to this one. My Headphones are ready.
The first game is what got me back into gaming. That and A Plague Tale. Both are ridiculously good games. Hellblade was the first game to keep me on edge the whole time I was playing.
This is why i'm glad MS is buying up studios, so those studios can have a bigger budget to make stuff like this. Can't wait.
Jeez, that’s amazing tech. I was not big on the first game, but I want to see what the second one can do, regardless of if I play through it or not.
Looks great. Unreal engine demos always do - I’m still hoping we’ll see a game soon with the same quality visuals as the Unreal 3 Samaritan demo.
Would be lovely though if they could pull off every character having this level of facial animation in games this gen…let’s see just how close they get with the actual game…if it ever comes out.
I can't wait for this! Definitely my most anticipated Xbox game.
@Moonglow
Don’t care what Sony or even Nintendo are doing.
Let’s see some top end controller in hand real proper gameplay say five minutes in various locations doing various things.
Then if all is great I will get excited.
Been about to long I’m afraid to even think about any excitement for this game until I see a lot more.
Not a huge fan of the first like others...but this game is going to be a graphics powerhouse
Wow, that's really impressive for real time! This looks like it will be state of the art graphically.
I'd like to know more about gameplay, but this is looking very promising..
I don't feel good about this game
All trailers of it just want to show how realistic is it's graphics like it don't have anything else to show
Anyway, I still should play the first game
@Dezzy70 will most likely it will be shown in a couple months and launch later in the year.
@Moonglow would be nice but i doubt avowed will be this year. if anything, i think contraband might make a surprise launch this year.
This game looks so atmospheric. Have a feeling I'm going to love it.
Am I the only one that finds the lips movements offsetting? It is too pronunciated showing a lot of teeth in a way I would not call natural. Apart from that it looks amazing
@Moonglow I would argue with those 5 games Xbox already has a very solid year in terms of first party releases. They should save hellblade 2/others in the pipeline for next year to avoid another 2022 (but definitely show more of them at E3)
The first game was really annoying to play imo, I finished it but didn’t find it enjoyable. Still I’m interested in a sequel, I’d just like to see more of it away from tech demo stuff. The ‘gameplay’ they showed a couple of years back was barely that. I know it’s the cool thing to give a Dev as much time as they need to make their game, but after so many years you have to start asking where is it and let’s be honest this won’t be your open world 40+ hour game. It seems to be taking an incredible amount of time to come out of the oven.
@Dezzy70 all this tells me is what i already knew, and thats Gears 6 is going to look INSANE!
@Green-Bandit
I’m definitely ready for gears 6, bring it on.
@Wiiiiiiii You could say the same for most games to be honest. Most specifically games that are using new technologies. This was released at a game developers conference. Not sure what else someone would expect. Even to realize the jump from when they made the original Hellblade is just amazing. I'm looking forward to playing this game more than a lot of other games releasing in the next couple years. Mainly because the original was soo good.
@Balta666 it was actually really bad and distracting in the first game. Looks liked they toned it down a little just based on footage we have seen. You can always write it off as her being on the spectrum and living a sheltered abusive life, or she was a theater major.
@fizban3332 oh ok. I didn't know it was something already from the first game as I have not played it (not really into any type of horror)
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