Elderborn
ELDERBORN is a Metal Action Fantasy Slasher with brütal FPP melee combat and souls-like/RPG character progression. In the times of legend, the barbarian tribes need a new dark messiah. The player becomes a merciless slayer who will uncover ancient secrets in the city of doom, and forge their own destiny. This ambitious indie game, five years in the making, combines old-school single-player feel, a classic heroic story, and modern level of skill-based challenge. All this and more creates an action-packed, lore-filled, engaging adventure that will last 8-10 hours in a single play-through. Prepare for: Skill-based, souls-like melee combat in first person perspective, complete with 11 varied weapons to master Character progression and skill system that allows you to play the game in your very own way A hand-crafted, mysterious, and dangerous world to explore – catacombs, ancient, monolithic city, and more
Game Discussion
Steam User 11
Dark Souls meets Diablo meets Doom. Slash and hack your way through the land of the dead facing monsters through the fire and brimstone. Everything a dungeon crawler should feel like without any unduly complex extras.
Here's the thing, a game (as an adult) should be 1) Good and 2) Short. These games that claim over 50+ hours worth of content require you to sit there for over 2 days' worth of time. I can't do that anymore. I need something that knows what it's doing and does it for less than 10 hours.
Robocop is like that. This is too.
Steam User 8
Elderborn is almost a good game. It's got most of the ingredients that would require, such as strong visuals, tight gameplay, and varied enemies. But the placement of those enemies is so terrible and ill-conceived that it basically ruins the entire game.
Steam User 7
Soulslike first person fastpaced melee game, with a high selection of weapon choices and satisfying combat mechanics, especially parrying.
The parry in this game is absolute Chef's kiss.
Steam User 6
Really fun ragdoll physics, kick and bash them everwere! Really good combat!
Steam User 3
Great first-person slasher. Very heavy on the Conan vibes and reminiscent of the Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Blade of Darkness, and Deathtrap Dungeon. It surprises me that very few people actually played and completed the game. Awesome soundtrack.
Steam User 5
Okay, I don't think this was *fantastic*, but for a short indie hack-n-slash with soulslike elements, I give it a pass.
The good:
The difficulty is fine. Once you learn the patterns for all the baddies, no enemy is particularly insurmountable.
The graphics are pretty good, especially for an indie.
If you're old hat at soulslikes, I think you're going to find the combat very simplistic. As I'm a relative newbie to the space, I was ok with it. If you're expecting crazy combos, forget it, but you eventually end up with a large collection of weapons, and the strategy comes knowing which ones to use when.
The music is appropriately rocking.
The meh:
I wasn't a big fan of the level design. The caves early on were confusing, and the city later on was rather sprawling - though I eventually got the lay of the land.
Some of the objectives could have been spelled out a bit better.
The story and voice acting are nonsensical and overly melodramatic.
The progression system is just a bit too minimal. I would have liked a few more upgrades to spice things up.
The verdict:
As a baby's first soulslike, I have to admit I kinda liked it - though a lot of my 8 hour run time was spent lost and accidentally backtracking. As long as you keep your expectations low (and get this on sale - I got it in a bundle), I think you can have some fun with Elderborn.
Steam User 4
The first chapter is a complete mis-fire. This type of game demands an open air environment. Putting it in a cave for the beginning just feels claustrophobic. The rest of the game is insanely good OMG please make more of this