Hellblade Will Not Have QTEs, And You’ll Be Able To Cancel Attacks

Earlier this week, Ninja Theory conducted a Hellblade Q&A via Twitch, where the studio answered questions from fans about the game’s development. While Hellblade is still early in development and a lot of different facets of the game haven’t been finalized yet, Ninja Theory were able to answer a few questions about their plans.

Here’s a brief overview of what was said:

• No 2-player co-op. The focus of Hellblade will be on telling a single-player story. There are two aspects of the story—the Senua (Celtic) side, and what she perceives to be the hellish, Viking side.

• No QTEs in the game.

• Cancelling out of one move into another will be present. This is already a feature in the prototype.

• What kind of music will be used for Hellblade is currently being figured out. Electronic music being considered, but Ninja Theory don’t want one specific genre.

• Gameplay will be shown off in full sometime in Spring 2015.

• Fans will be involved with alpha/beta-testing and providing feedback on the game’s combat.

• No big ensemble cast of characters, but there will be characters important to Senua involved with the game’s story.

• Ninja Theory won’t be relying on cutscenes to tell Hellblade’s story. Characters and story information will be incorporated into the game’s stages.

• Part of the reason for this is budget constraints. When you have a large development team and plentiful resources, cutscenes tend to be the easiest way to convey story information. However, there’s only one person assigned to cutscenes for Hellblade, and this member of staff is also responsible for animation and mocap, so this is forcing the team to find creative solutions to storytelling.