Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 Gets a New Look and a Release Date – Xbox Direct 2024 [IGN]

After five years of waiting, it’s finally almost time for Hellblade: Senua’s Saga 2. During today’s Xbox Developer Direct, we got a brand new, deep look at the game as well as a release date at last: May 21, 2024 on Xbox Series X/S and PC, digital-only.

The new look focused largely on the steps that it took to be immersed in Senua’s journey, from the binaural audio that aims to surround the player to the darkly gorgeous landscapes, the result of several reference-gathering trips to Iceland. The developers also revealed some impressive research to make Senua’s psychosis feel real, including consultations with those with “lived experiences” of such.

As Xbox called it in a blog post published right after the Direct, it’s attempting to depict “a brutal journey of cinematic immersion.”

“You can once again expect to join Senua in understanding her world through perception puzzles led by her experiences of psychosis, in brutal and visceral combat and in traversal gameplay, this time across the harsh but beautiful landscapes of 10th Century Iceland,” reads the blog post. “Crucially, all these elements are intertwined in a unique visual and audio experience, where everything is in service of Senua’s story.”

Notably, the blog post adds that it’ll be “similar in length” to the original game, “with a focused narrative.” According to our sister site How Long to Beat, the original took about 7.5-9 hours to complete.

Hellblade 2 was first revealed way back in 2019 at The Game Awards with a haunting teaser, and we’ve since seen several looks at gameplay in 2021 and summer of 2023, and at The Game Awards just last year. In our review of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, we called it “a masterclass of atmosphere, storytelling, and the marriage of mechanical and conceptual design.”

To catch up on everything announced in today’s Xbox Developer Direct, check out our roundup.

Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.