Ninja Theory is restarting the production process for its Celtic-themed combat game Hellblade. The DMC: Devil may Cry and Enslaved developer made the announcement over Twitter, though it stressed that this doesn’t mean the entire project is starting over from scratch.
”A vertical slice is a testbed of ideas, not part of the final game. It has been retired and we have started #Hellblade production afresh,” the team wrote, referring to an initial slice of gameplay shown off at this year’s E3.
”Retiring a vertical slice and moving on into full production is good news. It is not starting again, it is moving forward as expected,” they clarified, after just about everyone (understandably) took that to mean the entire project was basically being scrapped.
The concept, art style and general basics of the game will remain, says Ninja Theory, but the process of transforming those ideas into gameplay has started over from the beginning. That means the final game, which has been confirmed for PC and consoles, will probably not bear much in common with the E3 trailer below.
Hellblade centers around a Celtic warrior who suffers from PTSD, and finds herself battling manifestations of her own troubled mind. The original plan was for a 2016 release, but that will presumably change due to the delay in production.
