FORMAT PS5 / ETA 13 OCT / PUB CI GAMES / DEV HEXWORKS / PLAYERS MULTI
Having foolishly abandoned our trusty shield in order to dual-wield two giant pickaxes, a lucky shot from a pesky archer sends us tumbling down a hidden pitfall to our doom. We land on a pile of bloody corpses, face to toothy visage with a hulking boss who dispatches us to the realm of Umbral in a single bite.
Merely beginning to figure out how to defeat this giant creature seems like an insurmountable challenge, but it’s the kind of enormous obstacle that formed the basis for this pseudo-sequel in the first place. The original game, developed by Deck13, was a breakout hit that helped bring the soulslike subgenre into the mainstream. Now, almost a decade later, its ambitious successor, which boasts the same name but is in the developing hands of Hexworks, seems set to redefine the genre all over again. Getting all the pieces into place has been a boss-level challenge of its own.
“OUR FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS WAS PRETTY CLEAR: WE HAD TO INCREASE THE SPEED OF MELEE COMBAT.”
MIGHT OR MAGIC
Just like our
