We’re hardly short of excellent, third-person RPGs these days, and there’s an abundance of brilliant co-op games around. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of ways newcomers to these realms can stand out. In Eydigard’s case, it’s to give the world’s legions of World of Warcraft players a pang of familiarity, chuck in loads of gorgeous Scandinavian scenery, and let you shapeshift into a bear.
Eydigard hasn’t blipped on my radar before now, but having checked it out for the first time, it looks like a very interesting RPG project. With its dialled back graphics, the camera positioning, and some of the environments you find yourself in, I get some light WoW vibes, but with its setting among the forests, farmlands, and fjords of northern Norway, there’s plenty of Valheim energy floating around in there too.
The general premise of Eydigard isn’t all that revolutionary, even if it does house that premise in a part of the world less commonly explored by RPGs. You travel around a once vibrant land that has been ravaged with a plague that has forced people out and let mythical beasts move in. Your job is to explore this open world and clear the plague from all the farms scattered within it. Along the way, you’ll meet various groups and factions with different sets of beliefs and agendas that will test your moral compass – you can pick who to align with and watch how it affects the balance of power in Eydigard. Choosing which farms to liberate from the plague may also sway things.
Exploration and combat can be a solo or co-op affair, and you’ll come up against lots of giant corrupted beasts and creatures from Norwegian folklore. However, you harness a rare and valuable power – to shapeshift into a multitude of animals. Each animal comes with different abilities and use cases. So far, gameplay footage has only shown a lynx and a brown bear, but I expect there’ll be a few more options later down the line.
If this all sounds up your street, I’ve got some good news for you – you haven’t got long to wait until you can give the game a try for yourself. A free demo for Eydigard will arrive during Steam Next Fest, which is currently slated to run between Monday, February 24 and Monday, March 3.
If you want to find more hidden gems like Eydigard, take a look at our best indie games list. Or you can head to our best co-op games guide for our favorite titles that you can play with your pals.
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