Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Trailer Shows Stunning Facial Animation

wccftech.com:

At GDC 2023, Dutch actress Melina Juergens appeared on stage for the State of Unreal live keynote; after a short demonstration of the new features coming to the Metahuman software, a brief new trailer of Senua's Saga: Hellblade II was played and then shared by developer Ninja Theory on YouTube.

Ninja Theory wrote:

We're pushing the boundaries of realtime facial animation in Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, as showcased at #GDC23 with @UnrealEngine.

The facial animations shown are indeed absolutely spectacular. If you can't check out the video right away, we'll also report the brief voiceover of Senua, a teaser for the game.

I see through your darkness now. I see through your lies. I will show them how to see as I do. I will not appease your gods. I will destroy them.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II was announced at The Game Awards 2019, roughly a year and a half after Microsoft acquired Ninja Theory (alongside Playground Games, Undead Labs, and Compulsion Games). It would be a long time before Ninja Theory was properly shown again, though.

The first and only gameplay trailer aired at The Game Awards 2021. In the video, Senua leads a band of fellow humans in a fight against a giant. Not much is known about this sequel. So far, Ninja Theory said it would be a journey of hundreds of miles across Iceland.

Around a year ago, we had a few developers boasting about the game's quality. Founder and chief design director Tameem Antoniades stated outright that Senua's Saga: Hellblade II would make the original game look like an indie game by comparison. That would make sense, as the original game was after all billed as a triple-I title at the time.

A month later, combat designer Juan Fernández said the game's quality was through the roof