You’ve seen through a Templar’s eyes in Assassin’s Creed. But have you truly known their suffering? Their eternal burden? In Dark Devotion, French indie group Hibernian Workshop wants you to kneel before the Lord and embark on a pilgrimage of bloody redemption.
That’s a pretty conflicting directive, but perhaps it’s supposed to be. Dark Devotion thrives on a sombre narrative and features deep-rooted RPG gameplay with ‘religious’ mechanics: every foe can be tackled in a number of orthodox ways thanks to the blessings, prayers and curses system. The price of failure is extreme. You see, it is decreed that all Templars make the journey to this one particular esoteric temple, inside which viscous, bubbling creatures squirm and writhe in malevolent glee as they clamour and compete for your soul. Wraiths, revenants and berserkers occupy four distinct worlds, thirsty for murder, but fortunately, there’s a myriad of weapons to fight back with. There’s even a bunch of wayward souls who might be able to tell you more about the temple’s secrets.
In my view, Dark Devotion‘s gloomy, chiaroscuro atmosphere and richly detailed pixel art carries powerful Blasphemous vibes, and I’m definitely not complaining.
Dark Devotion is a freshly announced title, so we’re expecting additional details on the game to emerge in the near future. It’s coming to PC and consoles in 2018. If you’re attending PAX East, you can also inspect it there.