You might be all trailered out after one of the most exciting Game Awards lineups in the show’s 10-year history, but one of the coolest game announcements of the past week actually happened outside Geoff Keighley’s gameapalooza: Covenant, a dark fantasy, first person FPS-RPG whose devs boast some impressive shooter bona fides, as well as an aggressive, ambitious vision of how extensive the game can be.
Developer Legion Studios describes it as an FPS-Soulslike, and the FromSoft inspiration is immediately apparent in Covenant’s first trailer, with some truly striking dark fantasy environments that carry the “looks like the cover of a fantasy novel” energy I really love about Elden Ring. The voiceovers really scream Souls too: One of them sounds like Gurranq from Elden Ring, most of them make reference to impenetrable fantasy lore and proper nouns, while the first even straight up goes through the vaunted “Ahh,, fucked up little man” routine. I can dig it.
Our freaky robed assassin-looking protagonist has a host of Hexen-y medieval implements at his disposal, with a few melee weapons like a sword or great hammer, but it’s mostly some gnarly-looking crossbows that steal the show for me here. Legion mentions magical powers being a feature of the final game, and the one that really got my attention in the trailer was the main character launching an enemy into the air before riddling them with crossbow bolts like something out of Bayonetta.
And Legion cites some pretty far-flung inspirations for Covenant in its first FAQ. Dark Souls, Dark Messiah (hell yeah), and Dishonored all make a lot of sense with what’s on display, but the team also hopes to incorporate mechanics and feel from fighting games—Legion specifically cites Tekken and Smash Bros.
This first statement of intent also communicates a certain dissatisfaction with the state of the industry, particularly the layoff crisis and monetization of triple-A games. “Games offer less and less, charge more and more, and are built to squeeze every last drop out of the consumer,” Legion asserts. “That is not our aspiration.”
The 12-person studio touts experience working on Call of Duty, Battlefield, Halo, and Destiny, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to see that kind of design pedigree put toward my kind of game. At the time of writing, Legion characterizes Covenant as being in early development with no set release window, but you can wishlist the game on Steam and, if you’re really champing at the bit, join Legion’s Discord server.