ELDERBORN

ELDERBORN is a first-person melee slasher built around heavy-metal action fantasy. The barbarian tribes need a new dark messiah, and you become the merciless slayer who descends into a city of doom to uncover ancient secrets and forge a destiny. An indie project five years in the making, it pairs an old-school single-player feel and a classic heroic story with modern, skill-based difficulty.

Combat is the heart of it: skill-driven, souls-like melee in first person, with eleven distinct weapons to learn and a character progression system that lets you build the slayer your own way. The hand-crafted world runs from catacombs to a monolithic ancient city, populated by enemies that each fight with their own tricks, strengths and weaknesses.

An original heavy-metal soundtrack, occasionally laced with electronic beats, drives the roughly eight-to-ten-hour campaign. The whole thing reads as an unapologetic tribute to Robert E. Howard-style heroic fantasy and the pop culture of the 1980s and 90s, and a New Game Plus mode waits once you reach the end.