Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice launches tomorrow
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a game that threatens to be a nice surprise. As its developers, Ninja Theory, have said – it is a game that’s half the length of an AAA game, so they are selling it for half the price, which means $30.
Looking at the trailer it can be seen why the team worked with neuroscientists and people suffering from psychosis in order to achieve a better way to present the things that Senua, whose path takes her through literal hell, meets on the way to fight for the soul of her dead lover. Judging from previous games by Ninja Theory, which include DMC: Devil May Cry (yes, the new Dante version) and Enslaved: Oddyssey to the West. Just looking at these two examples, one can see that the developer likes to take chances and be original, however, this has yet to bring significant financial benefits, being moderately successful but falling short from publishers expectations. This time they are both the developer and the publisher – it remains to be seen how this will affect the sales.
Ninja Theory have said that they have developed three key strengths in their games: strong characters, unique vision and uncompromising combat and that they plan to showcase this here as well. Senua, a Viking shield-maiden, travelling in a world where her visions meet reality will definitely be the right kind of set-up for Ninja Theory to prove themselves.
It has become quite common for smaller developers to take the plunge with one console version (PS4 mostly, as it is the market leader) and the PC, with the other console version coming out if the game proves to be a success. This is the case with Hellblade as well – it launches tomorrow, August 8th, for PS4 and PC, for the price of $29.99.
