Dark fantasy sword-flying sim Dungeonborne gets early access launch date

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Mithril Interactive has announced that its player-versus-player-versus-enemy (FPPvPvEDCES) dungeon crawler Dungeonborne will launch in Early Access on Thursday, July 18. Here are some more intuitive, but no more elegant, ways to summarize what you do in Dungeonborne than “FPPvPvEDCES”: sword rattles, goblin rattles, treasure chest rattles, other player backstabs.

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In Dungeonborne, you and two friends descend into a notorious underground location, purge it of its riches, and escape the Seven Hells before being swallowed up by vermin or assaulted by other teams of players. There are eight classes, largely self-explanatory – Fighter, Priest, Rogue, Swordmaster, Pyromancer, Cryomancer, Death Knight, or Druid – each with a few catchy tricks like using the Force to wield four weapons, spinning with your blade outstretched, and summoning violent shrubbery to guard an entrance. There are two main areas, Clouseau Castle, which doesn’t feature bloodthirsty pink panthers, and Sinner’s End.

I dove into the latest playtest and had a great time smashing the undead with a standard sword and shield. It feels like a melee combat game where circling, breaking through defenses, and waiting for an opening are legitimate and suspenseful possibilities, though I’m sure a high-level obsessive has already figured out that they can jump right into a finishing move, or some similar strategy. Aside from the dungeon raid, there’s also a competitive arena mode for hardcore player killers, which I’m afraid to step into. I prefer my murderous intent to be veiled from the start, thank you.

As someone who categorizes catacombs as “cozy” and loves to sing the praises of the good old days of Rune and Deathtrap Dungeon, I’m eager to give Dungeonborne a good run. Find it on Steam. The big question for fans of contemporary crypt-diving will be how this game compares to the already released Dark And Darker. I’ve played a bit of that too, and my early verdict is that it has better beards.

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