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

rockpapershotgun.com:

Mithril Interactive have announced that their (deep, rasping breath) first-person player-versus-player-versus-enemy dungeon crawler extraction sim (FPPvPvEDCES) Dungeonborne will launch into early access on Thursday July 18th. Here are some more intuitive, albeit no more elegant, ways of summarising what you do in Dungeonborne than "FPPvPvEDCES": sword go clang, goblin go eek, treasure chest go jingle-jangle, other player go stab-in-the-back.

In Dungeonborne, you and up to two friends descend to a subterranean place of ill-repute, rinse it of riches, and get the seven hells out of there before you're gobbled up by vermin or mugged by other player teams. There are eight, largely self-explanatory classes - Fighter, Priest, Rogue, Swordmaster, Pyromancer, Cryomancer, Death Knight or Druid - each with a few eye-catching signature tricks such as using the Force to quad-wield, spinning with your blade held out, and summoning violent shrubs to guard an entrance. There are two major areas, Clouseau Castle, which somehow doesn't feature any bloodthirsty pink panthers, and Sinner's End.

I dipped into the last playtest, and had a reasonably grand time thwacking the undead with a bog-standard sword and shield. It feels like a melee combat game in which circling, poking at defences and waiting for an opening are legitimate and suspenseful possibilities, though I'm sure some high-level obsessive has already worked out that they can bunny-hop straight into a finishing move, or similar cheesing strat. The dungeon-raiding aside, there's also a competitive arena mode for straight-up player-killers, which I fear to set foot in. I prefer my murderous intent to be veiled initially, thanks.

As somebody who files catacombs under "cosy" and is given to warbling about the good old days of Rune and Deathtrap Dungeon, I'm keen to give Dungeonborne a decent shake. Find it on Steam. The big question for contemporary crypt-diving enthusiasts will be how it stacks up the already-released