The first-person hack-and-slash and spell-slinging game is coming to PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 sometime next year

Sep 19, 2014 09:25 GMT  ·  By

Developer Techland has released yet another gameplay video with commentary for the upcoming first-person fantasy dungeon crawler Hellraid, showing more crazy hack-and-slash action.

Techland also created the first two entries in the Dead Island franchise, famous for its zombie-bashing and ample use of melee weapons, and this time around the team is kicking it up a notch with the inclusion of even more weapons, as well as some pretty powerful-looking spells.

Smash that skeleton in the face!

The new video shows two of Hellraid's developers playing through the beginning of the single-player story mode, and also features the game's prologue.

The story follows a lowly foot soldier making his way to his home village, deserting his post in the wake of a demonic assault in order to make sure that his family was safe.

The game has great visuals, but the true focus is on the combat system, the first-person action implementation enabling gamers to make use of various melee weapons to take down their enemies.

The video shows the protagonist cutting down skeletons and parrying and dodging attacks, as well as using several weapons, which are designed to be more efficient in fighting specific types of enemies, as well as introducing subtle shifts in fighting styles.

The biggest challenge with such a game is nailing the movement of first-person combat, which Techland already has experience with, and which looks pretty well-implemented, with a lot of footwork and dashes used to avoid incoming attacks or get up close and personal in order to deliver deadly blows.

More about Hellraid

Unfortunately, the team chose to take the route of linear hack and slashing, with a classic level progression, instead of allowing players to approach the game's challenges in a more open-world manner.

In any case, up to four players can choose to go through the campaign together, and if that's not enough, there will also be an arena mode, where friends have to cooperate in order to survive waves after waves of enemies.

The game is making its way to the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC platforms sometime next year. The devs initially wanted to release the game earlier this year, for last-generation consoles, but fortunately they had a change of mind.

In case you're wondering why would that be fortunate, why, it's because the game is now powered by the new Chrome 6 engine, the very one that also makes the upcoming first-person action horror survival game Dying Light, the developer's other project, slated for release on January 27, look so good.