Mistfall Hunter surprised MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus: a role-playing game that does not conform to conventions and copies the gameplay of shooters like Escape from Tarkov. Can something like that work? Apparently yes, even if some worries remain.
“Have you seen this yet?”, came the message on Saturday afternoon with a link to Mistfall Hunter on Steam. A quick look at the shop page explains: “Extraction-ARPG in dark fantasy style”. Yes, you read that right.
On Sunday, my colleague Benedikt Schlotmann and I decided to give the game a chance and damn, I didn’t expect that Mistfall Hunter would be SO much fun for me.
Oh, another Extraction… RPG?
Elden Ring meets Extraction – or Dark and Darker. What sounds like a wild combination works surprisingly well. You can imagine the gameplay like Escape from Tarkov and co.:
- You search for a round and land on a map with NPC enemies and human opponents – PvPvE indeed.
- Your gear corresponds to what you previously took from the stash, so it is more or less good.
- The good loot can then be found somewhere on the map in battles against bosses, in rare chests, or by completing small events and quests.
However, you’re not shooting your way through rundown warehouses with an AK or sniper rifle, but instead you face off with sword and shield, two-hander, or magic – solo or in teams of up to three players.
Mistfall Hunter gets a completely different dynamic from this. Hiding somewhere in the bushes and waiting for someone to come by to take down doesn’t work. Without exploration and taking certain risks, you leave the map without any significant loot.
On top of that, there’s the Nordic flair: the architecture, the NPCs, and also the gods and opponents remind me of beings from Nordic (and other) mythologies. Something that can easily captivate me.
A class design that more games of this kind need
What convinced me the most, however, is the class system. Where extraction shooters usually forgo something like this and define your role only based on gear, Mistfall Hunter has real classes with their own skills and talent trees.
The mercenary, for example, is the tank of the group, exiled knights are the heavy melee fighters with two-handers, black arrows shoot, well, arrows from a distance, and sorcerers… cast spells. Each class has unique equipment, can be leveled up, and plays differently:
- Sorcerers must juggle different schools of magic in combat to combine effects and keep enemies at bay.
- Black arrows set traps and use various types of arrows for effects like stunning, knockback, or piercing.
- Even the similarly sounding classes mercenary and exiled knight are fundamentally different: one is designed with a shield to block attacks or breaks through cover with a two-handed hammer, while the other melee fighter is an excellent swordsman, combining strength with finesse.
Surely, there is an advantage to everyone being able to do everything, but that’s not why I play RPGs. Having my role to immerse myself in and fulfill makes team games particularly more interesting – and in the case of trios, it even matters in which combination you play.
“Man, this stamina is getting on my nerves!”
Now I say that I cursed at first and yes, I did, several times and loudly. Ask Benedikt and his poor ears. Because even though I really liked Mistfall Hunter, I didn’t immediately get used to it.
As an exiled knight, I had to manage my stamina carefully, as it was depleted after three or four hits. Only with the right combos can you get ahead here, and in combat against other players, I was initially at a strong disadvantage.
On top of that, there are nuances like the environment, where you can easily get stuck, or NPC enemies that don’t behave reliably but seem to make random decisions.
In the end, I even cheat on my coop partner
Although Mistfall Hunter couldn’t completely captivate me due to such small bumps, the gameplay convinced me so much that I left Benedikt alone after a short break and continued solo.
In my defense: it was a free demo weekend and only went until Monday, June 22. So I had little time anyway and wanted to use it as much as possible. The game will be fully released on Steam on July 30, 2026.
Playing solo is even a little more fun as you can move more quietly through the map and thus stand out less. Escaping from or ambushing other players is much easier. Quest progress, as well as the expansion of your own stash (such as levels of blacksmith, auction house, and loot chest), is shared among all characters on the account.
A nice detail that I really liked: before every run, Sigrid lets you take a sip to toast to victory. This provides buffs for the entire match, a bit like quickly eating before a hunt in Monster Hunter.
What raised some question marks is mainly the monetization. There will be microtransactions, but we don’t yet know exactly what kind. Since Mistfall Hunter is backed by a subsidiary of ByteDance (TikTok) and the game apparently targets the West as its audience, I assume there will be less aggressive shops.
Mistfall Hunter was indeed a lot of fun for me, but the same could be said for Hood: Outlaws and Legends and Highguard. Both have already been buried and did not last long. What this means for the fate of Mistfall Hunter… I will just leave that open. At least in the ARPG sector, another jewel is in development that looks very exciting: New ARPG on Steam looks like Warhammer with divine powers, reminiscent of Diablo 4
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