Do you bear in mind Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem? It’s a Diablo-like ARPG from a small indie crew that got here out within the D3-to-D4 drought. It spent years in Steam early entry growth, following a really profitable Kickstarter marketing campaign. It took so lengthy, in reality, that many merely misplaced hope that it will really come out resembling the preliminary promise.
Wolcen Studio, the crew behind it, stunned everybody with a 1.0 launch that took it out of limbo and into the highlight, instantly making it one among Steam’s greatest launches in 2020. Although opinion has since turned on the sport considerably, primarily because of a collection of post-launch updates, anybody who loved Wolcen’s gameplay by no means stopped questioning if there’s extra to that studio than simply that recreation.
It’s now 2025, and we now have a solution.
This week, Wolcen Studio unveiled Venture Pantheon, a brand new ARPG with an fascinating twist. The developer calls it ExtrAction RPG, as a result of a core part of the sport is extracting, just like shooters like Escape from Tarkov.
What this implies in follow is that Pantheon’s gameplay will retain the identical hack n’ slash motion fight you realize, however throw it into PvEvP conditions, as you battle AI enemies whereas heading off different gamers.
The setting takes inspiration from a number of established fantasy worlds and historic mythologies. There’s no gameplay to observe proper now (simply the beneath teaser), however the Steam web page does have a number of very handsome screenshots.
Venture Pantheon is a free-to-play recreation that’s designed as a reside service challenge. If you happen to haven’t already clicked off the web page, Wolcen Studio says it’s going to function giant, various maps and a few beneficial loot for gamers to struggle over. It’s not clear whether or not you’ll be preventing over normal ARPG loot that different video games give out naturally, or one thing a bit of extra fascinating.
Outdoors of the principle extraction and motion parts, you’ll additionally be capable to use a few of these sources to improve your base, and even commerce what you haven’t any use for on the participant market. The press launch does reference Tarkov by identify, so it’s clear what a lot of that’s based mostly on.
If any of that sounds intriguing, Venture Pantheon is internet hosting two alpha checks very quickly. The primary takes place January 25-26, accessible solely to gamers in Europe. Then, the weekend after that – February 1-2 – the second, North American leg of the take a look at opens up. You may join on the official website proper now for an opportunity to be chosen.
Venture Pantheon doesn’t have a launch goal but, however extra checks might be held this yr, so maintain an eye fixed out.
