Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, will be coming out August 8th at half the price of a traditional AAA game. Ninja Theory, the developer behind Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and DmC: Devil May Cry, also announced that Hellblade will release at $29.99 for the PS4 and PC.
In the “Ragnarok” trailer released by Ninja Theory this morning, the developer emphasized the game’s AAA quality. They said it’s “An independently developed, AAA quality game created by a small team of 20 people,” and that their goal is to bring back the midsize game. The game will be digital-only to facilitate this.
Hellblade: A Journey Into Madness
Hellblade made the cover of GameInformer’s May issue, a surprising feat for an independently developed game. Even more surprising, Ninja Theory has decided to center its plot and gameplay around protagonist Sauna’s mental illness. The game uses auditory and visual hallucinations as part of its design. They even went so far as to consult a psychosis specialist to make sure their game was as accurate and true to this mental illness as possible.
Protagonist Senua, a Celtic warrior, slips into psychosis after Vikings invade her hometown. She also bears a resemblance to Heavenly Sword‘s Kai. In fact, Hellblade originally began as a spiritual successor to Heavenly Sword. Early in development, you played as Kai and experienced her journey into Hell. The current version of Hellblade, too, follows Senua’s descent into Hell – both literally and psychologically.
Hellblade was announced during Gamescom 2014, where The Game Fanatics included it on our list of five best new IP’s announced during the convention. But now it looks like its lengthy journey to release is coming close to an end.
Ninja Theory finished the trailer by encouraging fans to preorder the game to ensure its success. Though sequels to any Ninja Theory game are fairly unlikely, if Hellblade manages to sell well enough to warrant its own sequel, Ninja Theory appears to be interested in exploring other facets of Norse mythology in the future.
