ELDERBORN
Dark Souls FPS with Melee Weapons !
ELDERBORN THE CIMMERIAN
It's no secret that Elderborn was heavily influenced by Conan and Dark Fantasy Culture 😉 For me this game was a BIG Surprise ! After all it's generally the case when games are made by small independent studios, and then if you're lucky it catches your attention… Otherwise you might discover it years later, but then it will perhraps be too late in terms of sales for the devs…
That's what happened to a great but Independent RPG called Paper Sorcerer, and that's why i am speaking about this game right now a little more than 1 week after its release ! because i want the devs to sell as many copies as possible, in order for them to be motivated to create a SEQUEL ! Because this Barbaric experience… though too short to my taste… is Fucking Enjoyable ! For your Information it's sold on Steam for Only 12$.
Elderborn is a Mix between Dark Souls and FPS ! You're like in Doom but only with Melee Weapons, exploring and finding the right items to continue your journey, and you also have RPG elements like attributes you can raise and skills to acquire.
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Here are some screenshots below (just click to enlarge)
And of course as in every Dark Souls, you got a sort of checkpoint to heal yourself and revive all enemies…
Here… It's the Fountains ! However they're not acting in Elderborn as “Saving Places”… To save your game in Elderborn, you just need to open the menu and select “Save and Quit”. This way you're coming back to the main menu and your game is saved.
Important information : In order to prevent the corruption of your savegames, and as in Dark Souls you only got 1 save by slot (profile). It's good to make a copy of your savegame, the Elderborn Savegame path on your computer is C:\Users\profile\AppData\LocalLow\Hyperstrange\ELDERBORN
REWARDING CHALLENGES
Elderborn is no simple Doom ! By opening your character menu you'll have access like in every Good RPG to the “Knowledge” section. There you'll find informations on your enemies, places, weapons but even more than that… to the Challenges !
In Elderborn Every weapon and special skill have their own challenge, complete them and you'll get everytime a Huge Sum of Experience points ! These Challenges are unlocked whenever you acquire the new weapon or skill, and that's not all ! The more you use a Weapon, the better you'll become by obtaining the mastery grade offering a permanent +5% Bonus with it.
It's a good way for players to learn every weapons and even Grind more experience. Finally the more monsters you kill, the more info you'll get on their hit-points and weaknesses. It's like whatever you do in elderborn, even if it could look like a boring grind, will bring you even more benefits in the end 🙂
Some more screenshots (click to enlarge)
TASTE MY STEEL !
There will be many foes on your way and i highly recommend you to Play in “Hard AF” Mode, which is the hardest difficulty in Elderborn. In Normal Difficulty the devs said the playtime was roughly between 6 and 10 hours, but i assure you that playing in Hard AF will artifically increase this playtime to 15 hours !
All the better for your investment no ? There are also some secrets to be found, like jars or chests containing experience (which is called Essence), but also Codex entries by reading stone tablets. Speedrunners won't care about this, but the completionists (i am part of) will !
Just a little advice if you're playing in “AF Mode”, i'll recommend you to put all your experience points in the “Resilience” Attribute, and not stop before reaching 20 points. The resilience attribute can unlock 3 skills which are essential to your survival, even more in this level of difficulty !
Another set of screenshots (click to enlarge)
Oh yes i forgot one thing… You're mainly exploring places filled with undeads…
And undeads mean ? Traps of course ! So be careful or you'll might end up like me crushed by walls -_-
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IN CONCLUSION
Elderborn is surely one of the first BIG Surprises of 2020 ! I'll be honest with you, there are literrally hundreds of independent video games released (mostly on steam) every new year, and most of them are average to awful… But there are from time to time a Diamond emerging from this polluted sea, and Elderborn is sure one of them ! This game is Exciting, and Cheap as it's only 12$ !
Really worth the small investment if you ask me, as so far the reviews have been very positive on Steam ! And i really hope they sell thousands of copies ! Because as i already said it… I want a Sequel to Elderborn ! 3-4 times longer this time, with 3-4 times more challenges, and why not an Open World ? Crossing my fingers for you guys, you have designed an incredible game worth of becoming a Triple A one day !
update 02/18/2020 : I recently completed Elderborn in AF Mode after 15 hours of gameplay. I am not going to spoil you guys, but i just want to let you know that the game is split in 3 chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 were very good, that's why i had given elderborn a note of more than 4 on 5. But unfortunately the 3rd and last chapter seems to have been rushed, maybe to release the game faster i don't know… And so this final chapter wasn't really enjoyable. That's why in the end i have decided to lower the note to 3.5 on 5. Still elderborn was the very first game of this indie studio Hyperstrange, and so i am still hoping for big sales and eventually… A Big Sequel ! 😉 Let's hope for the best !
Here are the last 4 screenshots (click to enlarge)
Update of 2021 : Not sure there will be sequel one day… It already took them a few years to release Elderborn, and it's only a small studio, their sales haven't been that great too… Well if someone knows a kind of FPS / Dark Souls i'll be interested ! Just post your suggestions in the comments below.
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