Kicking dudes never gets old in videogames, and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic nailed it all the way back in 2006. There have been pretenders to the throne since, but the newly announced The Nightscarred: Forgotten Gods wants to continue Arkane’s legacy with an incredible combat system and plenty of first-person action. If you’ve been looking for an action RPG that gives you full control over how you fight, look no further.
With a combat system initially reminiscent of Skyrim, where you independently fight with a weapon in one hand and magic in the other, The Nightscarred wants to give you complete control of how you play. With unrestricted movement, you can dart around between enemies while slicing and casting all you want. You’ll sneak, smash, burn, freeze, and shock your way through a Turkic-inspired mythology setting, and in true Dark Messiah fashion, you’ve got a mean right foot.
Boot enemies through spikes, off of cliffs, or into frozen chunks to your heart’s content in The Nightscarred – I can’t ask for anything more in an RPG. There’s an entire spellcrafting system, too, so you’ll create magic with runes you find across the world and then dictate how the spell is cast, imbued, and even the stats each has as well.
The Nightscarred reminds me of Dark Messiah in the best way possible, with fluid and creative combat at the core of the experience. Arkane may have playfully forgotten Dark Messiah in 2023 before co-creative director Dinga Bakaba said “Its spirit lives on in other ways,” but the team at Shadowfall Studios sure hasn’t.
There’s even co-op, so if you get tired of booting enemies into walls of spikes and crafting unique spells all on your lonesome, playing with a friend will cause unmitigated chaos.
“Our top priority is to give players freedom on how they want to play in this immersive action experience,” Shadowfall co-founder Doğa Can Yanıkoğlu says. “We give players the ability to craft their own magical abilities, and leave them the creativity of how to combine them with melee combat mechanics.”
The Nightscarred: Forgotten Gods currently has no release date, but you can wishlist the game on Steam right here.
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