Following the massive success of Hades in 2020, we’ve seen a number of video games try and comply with in its mighty footsteps; even Supergiant has damaged from its custom of recent concepts for a sequel. Sworn, in the meantime, takes the essential ideas and construction of the most effective roguelike video games lately and lovingly adopts it to the fantasy realm of King Arthur’s Camelot, creating one thing that feels directly reassuringly acquainted and distinct sufficient to justify its existence. At Gamescom 2024, I sat all the way down to test it out with recreation director Sam Leonard and artwork director Sean Evans of Windwalk Video games, and got here away able to play much more.
On a floor degree, Sworn has all the important thing examine marks you’d anticipate from a recreation within the Hades mildew. There are 4 biomes you need to progress by means of as you problem the corrupted King Arthur and his Knights of the Spherical Desk. Your character has a primary assault, a particular assault, a spell solid, and a dodge, and these are amplified with varied skills bestowed upon you by the Fae Lords. But, apart from how completely the world of Camelot suits this roguelike construction, what actually units Sworn aside is the sheer degree of depth on supply.
To start out with, Sworn offers you 4 totally different characters to select from: Vigilante, Rook, Spectre, and Monk. Every of them comes with 4 base weapons to select from and 4 distinct spells, supplying you with a reasonably dramatic variety of potential mixtures even earlier than you set out on the run and begin choosing up all these build-defining upgrades.
I go for the Spectre: amongst her weapons is a bolt-blasting Armillary Sphere and a large, sweeping Scythe, the latter of which instantly catches my eye. On the spell aspect, there are a selection of selections together with a beam assault and a short-ranged teleport that explodes as you journey, however I go for Spirit Guardians, which I can summon to drift round her, mechanically firing off assaults at any close by enemies. There’s a incredible quantity of selection right here, and every of the choices feels nicely thought-out.
Each weapon will get its personal branching improve tree, and pleasingly every is formed to suit the weapon in query. As you unlock the assorted nodes, every providing incremental boosts to its potential, you’ll encounter two ‘main’ ones that supply a alternative between two stronger upgrades. For the Scythe, I can select whether or not I construct up souls over time or whether or not they’re earned as I assault enemies, after which decide how I spend them – my particular assault can both eat all of them to heal me proportionally to the quantity gathered, or deal bonus injury based mostly on my gathered souls, with the profit that they gained’t be spent if the strike kills my goal.
As you head by means of the areas, you’ll encounter the assorted Fae Lords who will give you their blessings – throughout our demo, I depend eight Lords in complete, not less than to begin with. Every has their very own theme: King Oberon affords you fury bonuses and the flexibility to summon damaging whirlwinds; Banshee Cliona enables you to weaken foes or fireplace out extra soul missiles as you assault; Frozen Witch Beira inflicts chills and freeze results. As a lover of vital strikes for these huge injury numbers, I’m keen on the boons of Lugh, the Hand of Destiny. Every Fae Lord additionally has an identical companion you may earn that can comply with you into battle.
You’ll begin out within the forest, however the environments get more and more attention-grabbing as you progress. The second zone, the Cornwall Township, is crammed with Skaven-style rat beasties and options sludge puddles that can limit your skill to sprint round safely. Past that lies the Deep Harbour, the place issues get extra eldritch and unsettling, with monster designs impressed by the Lovecraftian Cthulhu mythos.
Right here, Leonard factors out the staff’s experimentation with enemies within the unfavorable area, one thing I’m a selected fan of. In apply, this interprets to platforms separated by water that you could solely cross utilizing dashes or traversal abilities, and foes that dwell in that water. It’s a design choice that provides every zone a definite really feel – one thing that’s additional amplified within the ultimate space, the fortress of Camelot. Make it there and also you’ll discover that even the common enemies really feel extra like mini-bosses, every boasting a number of assault patterns to be careful for.
Very like Hades, it’s within the boss fights the place Sworn’s fight actually shines – I get to see a showdown towards Gawain, certainly one of Arthur’s main Knights. The visible design of those is great, and there are some intelligent assaults which might be designed to adapt in case you’re taking part in in co-op, reminiscent of a sequence of monitoring projectiles that can every lock onto separate gamers while you sort out him in a staff.
Between runs, there are much more methods to develop step by step stronger together with the aforementioned weapon tweaking. There are 5 additional bushes you may pursue – Life, Struggle, Devotion, Treasure, and Wealth – every offering everlasting upgrades to every thing out of your beginning stats to the prospect that you simply’ll encounter rarer boons.
As a lot as Sworn could be very very like Hades, to the purpose it felt instantly acquainted in my palms from the second I began, I can’t deny that, between the setting, the flexibility to play in co-op with as much as three extra buddies, and the sheer quantity of depth and selection on supply, I’m quite excited to play it. There’s clearly been a number of cautious thought and love put into how one can make each facet tick, and as somebody craving a brand new motion roguelike Sworn already has me hooked – I stored taking part in far past my authentic appointment time, and would have stayed even longer if I didn’t produce other bookings to get to.
Sworn is about to launch in 2024. In case you’re tempted to test it out for your self, you may wishlist it on Steam to obtain a notification when it arrives. Alternatively, have a look by means of extra of the best fantasy games in 2024, together with the best action games on PC proper now.
