Hellblade 2 Dev Announces Radical Changes to Combat System

The designer of the combat system in Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 revealed what changes await us compared to the original. There will be more realism, more options for defeating enemies and an increased variety of enemies themselves.

First Hellblade was impressive in many ways. One of the gameplay elements I remember most fondly was the combat system. As the producers of the game announced, in this aspect Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is supposed to raise the bar even higher.

New combat system designer in Hellblade 2

Although works on Hellblade 2 have been going on for a long time, so far the developers have not provided fans with much information or materials, so every mention of Ninja Theory's work sparks interest.

We know for sure that in the continuation of the bestselling action game from 2017 a new man - Juan Fernandez - will be responsible for the design of the entire combat system. As he stated in interview with Spanish website Vandal, compared to its predecessor, the combat in the sequel will be a deeper experience.

"We did a lot of things right [in the first game - ed. note], but I think there are a lot of things that could be improved and that I would like to change today.

You have to remember that the team that worked on Senua's first adventure was incredibly small for such an undertaking. Most of the time, there were about fifteen people working in the studio."

Changes to combat system in Hellblade 2

Fernandez also revealed what exactly he would change compared to the original. First of all, he wants to focus on a greater number of options of defeating opponents and the diversity of enemies.

"What I was least satisfied with in Hellblade was the lack of variety in enemies, the overly long battles, the way the difficulty was balanced - enemies had too much health, too much stamina.

We had a lot of different attacks and combos at our disposal, but it was the enemy features that discouraged from using everything the team prepared. People would find two or three moves they liked and kept repeating them.

I would also fix the overly generous [too long - ed. note] periods where pairings were possible, and the length of the story cut-scenes. Both things can be balanced in a smarter way."

Earlier, studio's creative director, Tameem Antoniadescommented on this topic, admitting that combat will be "real and brutal".

The actress who plays Senua using motion capture technology has even undergone special "combat training" over the past two years to make her performance in the game more realistic..

Importantly, there are also more people working on the sequel. As Fernandez admits, the team's previous work is their most important reference point.

"We raise the bar of doing more with less. We have more people than in the first Hellblade but the quality we're giving compared to the previous team... I think that's the true ceiling [limit - ed. note]."

It's been over two years since we first saw Hellblade 2 at The Game Awards. Everything indicates that the game's development is heading in the right direction and the developers are aware of the first part's shortcomings.

The release date of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 has not been publicly announced yet.