This is not a human being's face - it's PS4's most realistic protagonist yet

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Hellblade's Senua is getting a facelift, but it's not like this hasn't happened before. Just compare the "before" and "after" pics of Nariko.

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Enslaved: Odyssey to the West gave us the highly-detailed Monkey and Trip.

DmC: Devil May Cry (2013)

Dante's redesign, while controversial, is anything but lifeless.

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Thanks to some outside help from a company called 3Lateral, heroine Senua from the upcoming Hellblade might end up being the PS4's most lifelike character yet. UK-based developer Ninja Theory, creators of Heavenly Sword and DmC: Devil May Cry, are behind the Celtic goddess' design.

Although Senua was revealed alongside the game in late 2014, the dev diary above shows that her design is getting tweaked and refined before the game's release date. There's a new range and level of expressiveness to the character, and proportions are more human. The eyes in particular stand out as having a lot more depth. The diary also points out that this is not uncommon for Ninja Theory to do. Just look at how much their designs have changed over the years with the gallery above.

Although very little of the game's plot has been revealed thus far, Ninja Theory calls Hellblade an "independent AAA game" about a Celtic goddess diving into the underworld - possibly literally, possibly metaphorically. That supernatural spelunking puts her in plenty of danger, and she'll engage in melee combat - another of Ninja Theory's trademark focuses - with monstrous entities. Considering these production values, it certainly earns the latter half of that label. Hellblade is slated to hit PS4 and PC in 2016.

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