Since fights are fast, frenetic affairs, there's also a genuine buzz in balancing your saber slashes with well-timed claw smacks.ĭo bear in mind that the game's tricky, though. Instead, you must wound them, then use your special claw to secure that damage as a permanent sting to the health bar a bit like hitting lots of one-two combos, until they finally go down. Basically, you can't knock an enemy's health bar down to zero with only swipes of your saber, as it's designed to open wounds, not finish enemies off. It's more akin to Bloodborne than it is Dark Souls, yet I'd say it has its own unique rhythm thanks to the special health bars it's rocking. So far, Thymesia lacks any of these tricks, instead opting for what I'll dub the "Ten Pin Bowling Approach": knock down all the enemy pins on your way, strike the boss down, and you're golden.Īnd I understand why the game's obssessed with getting you to fight, because the combat is excellent. But more so, they're good at breaking up the rhythm of combat, transforming moments of respite into stressful obstacle courses and little puzzles. ![]() Twisting staircases might have assassins that'll drop behind you as you climb upwards, with a big ogre waiting to greet you at the top. Having played the likes of Elden Ring, Bloodborne, and Nioh 2 just to name a few, they're all adept at forming unique challenges at every turn. In many ways, the game's enemy placement and level design I've encountered seem a bit old-fashioned. So far, Thymesia lacks any of these tricks, instead opting for what I'll dub the "Ten Pin Bowling Approach": knock down all the enemy pins on your way, strike the boss down, and you're golden. I've explored a yellowy brown circus town and a generic fortress with a bloody hue, and both have left me wanting. Except that the levels I've sampled haven't been all that memorable, opting for samey architecture and simplistic layouts that rarely – if ever- elicit a "woah" or a "huh, that's smart" reaction. If you've played any Souls game or Soulslike over the years, you'll be immediately familiar with how everything is structured. Ghostly chairs stand in for bonfires, Memory Shards are your Souls, locked doors signify nearby shortcuts, and you'll find notes on the ground for touches of lore. The game follows the Soulslike formula to a tee. For reasons I've not ascertained just yet, you're aided by a spirit child who helps you rediscover those worst of times. ![]() To figure out how the heck the land's become such a disease-ridden hellscape, you must plumb the depths of your memories. It might all be far from the brooding atmospherics hinted at in 2013, but Draugen's current incarnation sounds extremely intriguing, and there's no denying the beauty of its world.ĭraugen is scheduled to release on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 some time next year.In Thymesia, you play as Corvus, an assassin dude dressed as a plague doctor who's suffering from memory loss, most likely caused by an actual plague that's swept across the world. Crucially, the developer notes that Edward is an increasingly unreliable narrator, and the world will change not only with the weather, but with his mental state - likely where any remaining horrors reveal themselves.Īs for Harden's ward Lissie, she's described as a "living, breathing, independent companion" that you're able to interact with through "a realistic and dynamic dialogue system". ![]() The new trailer (which, while wonderfully atmospheric, is considerably less bleak in tone than its pitch black predecessor), dramatically downplays any horror elements that might still remain.Īccording to Red Thread, Draugen is "a story about what lies beneath", and delivers a "gripping narrative with unexpected twists and turns". It was initially pitched as something like a first-person survival horror, which writer and designer Ragnar Tørnquist later described as "Gone Home meets Amnesia". Interestingly, Draugen's latest trailer, which you can see below, suggests that the game has undergone quite the transition since its original unveiling back in 2013. It's here that protagonist Edward Charles Harden and his "gregarious and enigmatic young ward" Lissie find themselves, as they search for Edward's missing sister. Five years after it was first announced, Dreamfall Chapters developer Red Thread Games has released a new trailer for its single-player psychological mystery, Draugen.ĭraugen - a first-person "Fjord Noir mystery" - takes place in 1923, around a scenic coastal community "nestled amongst the fjords and mountains of rural Norway".
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