The new role-playing game Dungeonborne has launched on Steam as a free Early Access title over the weekend and has already surpassed the most anticipated MMORPG.
What kind of game is this? Dungeonborne is a new offshoot of the “Dark and Darker” principle. A type of Battle Royale as Dungeons and Dragons archetype characters with medieval weapons and magic. In the game, you will be competing not only against real players but also against NPCs in the form of monsters.
In the dungeon, you will encounter all kinds of enemies. Included are skeletons, giant flies, and nasty bosses that will stand in your way. Your goal is to leave the dungeon alive with as much loot as possible in your pockets.
However, you cannot loot and fight forever; you only have a certain amount of time before the map darkens and you are done for. To survive, you should use one of the curse portals in time.
Here you can watch the trailer for the game:
Early Access starts better than Throne and Liberty
What makes the game special? While the long-awaited MMORPG Throne and Liberty started on Thursday night with over 60,000 players, the player numbers have been continuously decreasing since the start of the open beta. On Sunday evening, during peak times, only about 34,000 players were playing the game simultaneously (via SteamDB)
In contrast, Dungeonborne, the Battle Royale role-playing game, started on Friday with player numbers of 17,000, but since the game’s launch, these numbers have more than doubled and climbed to over 38,000 on Sunday evening, surpassing those of Throne and Liberty.
But it seems that not only fans of Dark and Darker are convinced by the new role-playing game.
More accessible than “Dark and Darker”, but with forced PvP
How is the game received by players? The game is rated at 73% positive reviews on Steam, which is “mostly positive”. The game seems to engage and convince players, even though it is only the first Early Access version of the game.
“crxssaegrim” writes on Steam: “Dark and Darker for people who are not masochistic. Dark and Darker, but more balanced, clearer, smoother, and more functional.”
“Schizophrenic on Adderall” describes the game in his review on Steam: “Compared to Dark and Darker, it is a noticeably more relaxed game. I can’t say it’s better, but it has a few nice different features and is more accessible to others.”
But there are also many critical voices, especially from players who wish for a PvE mode.
One of them is “Steelhead”; he writes on Steam: “Basically, it’s fun, but running through the dungeon and then being taken out by a Mage in PvP who is in a higher position and unreachable for a melee fighter is frustrating. It would really be a mega good game if you didn’t have to play forced PvP!”
Dungeonborne is free to play on Steam. While not on Steam, the genre founder Dark and Darker has been free for some time. You can find out which features are available to free players here: Dark and Darker was removed from Steam, now it’s suddenly free to play, but there’s a catch
