I played an hour of Sworn at Gamescom, and I didn’t want to put it down. Of all the many new roguelike games following in the powerful footsteps of Supergiant’s Hades, the Arthurian spin on the format from Windwalk Games and Team17 is one of the closest to its inspiration mechanically. Yet that’s certainly no bad thing, and with a fantastic amount of build variety, excellent art design, the option to play in co-op multiplayer with a group of up to four, and a pitch-perfect choice of setting, Sworn has my attention. If you’re curious, you can try it for free on Steam right now, but you’ll need to be fast.
If you’ve played Hades, you’ll already have a good idea of how Sworn works. Setting out to reclaim a fallen Camelot from a corrupted King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, you fight through four biomes, room by room, earning upgrades and materials, and ultimately taking on deadly boss fights. You have light and heavy attacks, a dash, a magical skill, and these are all further amplified by the blessings you claim from the various Fae Lords you meet.
Taking cues from one of the best roguelikes is a great stepping stone, but where Supergiant has opted for a complete change of scenery and loadouts in Hades 2, in Sworn Windwalk has instead leaned into sheer variety, depth, and the aforementioned co-op compatibility. With four playable characters, each offering four base weapons and four skills to choose from, and a wealth of themed upgrade trees for all of them, there’s a lot to keep you coming back and experimenting.
If you want to learn more, you can read my full Sworn preview – but suffice to say that I was immediately taken by the feel of combat and the sheer amount of options on offer. There’s such a broad range of ways to tweak your loadout even before you head out on a run and start collecting Fae blessings that further adapt your build. As far as settings go, the world of Arthurian legend is perhaps one of the most perfect fits for the format, and the whole package has put it at the top of my list while I wait for the full Hades 2 release date.
Interested? Then you can give it a try right now, but you’ll have to move fast. A new Sworn demo has just landed on Steam, but it’s only around for a few days. If you played the previous offering during Steam Next Fest, Windwalk notes that you can expect three months worth of new content and features. You can check out two biomes, some of the in-game cinematics, the improved balance and combat improvements, and of course full multiplayer.
The Sworn demo is available on Steam through Monday November 4. You can download it for free, so don’t miss your chance to give it a go and see what you think.
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