Hellblade Studio Cancels 'Project Mara' to Focus on New Senua Game

Back in 2020, Senua studio Ninja Theory announced a new game, Project Mara, that aimed to "recreate the horrors of the mind" with a "real-world and grounded representation of mental terror." A year later, the studio gave gamers a glimpse of the game's absurdly photorealistic apartment, but beyond that, it pretty much fell off the radar. That changed recently when Dom Matthews, studio head, revealed that work on the project has been ended.

Cancellations are never ideal, but this one comes at a time when Ninja Theory is launching a new Senua game—simply titled Senua. In an Xbox Wire interview, Matthews described the upcoming title as "an out-and-out action adventure game" with "broader gameplay, more combat depth, and an interconnected world." That’s also part of why the new game isn’t called Hellblade 3: "The title of just Senua really reflects that this is something fresh and new and different."

A New Direction for the Senua Series

"It is a different style of game," Matthews explained. "I think Hellblade 1 and Hellblade 2 had an intention that we delivered on—but this is a different intention." He added, "I think of it as being additive—we’re taking all of that goodness and adding the types of things that people expect from a premium action-adventure game."

The new Senua game takes place after the events of Hellblade 1 and Hellblade 2 and is set in Purgatory—specifically, Senua’s vision of it. "She’s trapped between life and death on a quest to reach the afterlife and be reunited with the ones that she’s loved and lost," Matthews said. "Her belief is that by healing the wounds of her life, she can find the peace that is the key that unlocks the gate to the afterlife."

Fans of the Hellblade series will recognize characters and themes from those games, but "this is a game that welcomes in new players as well," Matthews said. "It’s all very much presented in a way that, if you haven’t been there, then you’re fully going to understand and get what’s happening in this title."

A Studio Reunited

This will also be the first time since DMC: Devil May Cry, which came out in 2013, that the entire Ninja Theory studio will be dedicated to working on a single game. To make that happen, Project Mara had to be scrapped. "I took the decision to not work on that any further," Matthews said. "These decisions are never easy, but I did so to take the opportunity to have all of the talent and expertise in the studio, all 85 creatives, working together to realize the potential of what Senua can be."

So it's a good news/bad news situation—obviously weighted toward the good, especially if you're a Senua fan. But it's hard not to feel a bit disappointed by the demise of Project Mara, a game that looked to "combine the best of game design and technology with cutting edge clinical neuroscience and psychiatry to help with mental suffering and to promote mental well being." Instead, the project seemed to be messing with players in the worst possible ways. I don't know if that sounds like a good time, exactly, but I'd sure like to try it.

Senua is set to launch sometime in 2027, and is currently up for wishlisting on Steam.