It’s almost been an entire year in the quarantine and with so much time spent at home I’ve had a lot of time to play video games. Because so many games are on my plate right now it’s becoming hard to really sink my teeth into a game because so many different ones are begging for my attention. Some are better at holding it than others and that is the case here. ELDERBORN sunk its teeth into me and didn’t let go start to finish. Its short completion time taking me about eight hours to complete made it easy to pickup and play, and fun to finish. There is a high replay value from additional challenges, difficulty levels, and new game+ for consecutive runs all give me a yearning to return even while I watch the credits roll. While there are only two areas, they are fleshed out well and a lot of fun to explore. The game tracks all the alive enemies in each area and there are achievements for a complete massacre of every enemy in the game that is tempting me. This game is just plain fun, I could hop right back into the action and being my slaughter anew.

A melee focused hack and slash where you can play as a barbarian out for blood. There is a story here and while it’s interesting and sets up a cool universe with interesting locations, its nothing groundbreaking and is not what the game is trying to spend a lot of time on in the first place. The undertones of sci-fi and magics are interesting and the effort is appreciated since they could have done any copy paste story here.

ELDERBORN is pure adrenaline start to finish with its simple yet satisfying combat being a real showstopper. Easy to pick up and hard to put down just about every aspect of this game is simple, aside from its world design which is intricately complex and interwoven with many secrets, items, and shortcuts to be found. The graphics aren’t anything special, but the art direction and music is. These are all areas you’ve seen in games before, yet they feel fresh here. You’ve probably fought undead in a tomb but there is just something different about doing it to the heavy metal soundtrack the game has to offer.

The games mechanics are built around constant combat, with your healing item regenerating charges with kills, and healing from damage shortly after getting hit by doing damage like the revenge system in Bloodborne. Combat is light attacks, heavy attacks, and parries all woven in with infinite dashes and infinite bloodlust. The kick can be used to break the enemies guard but will be more commonly used to kick enemies to their doom. The comparisons to the Dark Souls series don’t end there as the game uses a similar bonfire system, but you can set a bonfire without resting at it so you can get checkpoints without healing if you don’t need to. I found myself cruising through checkpoints resting at them very rarely since the refillable healing item can keep you full health if you keep killing, as well as damage being healed back by continuing aggression. I never needed a break from the action, just more enemies to crush.

I was pleasantly surprised by the number of weapons the game had. I feel like every time I thought I found the last one the game threw two more at me with each of the five weapons having a separate variant that functions a bit differently. Each weapon has a function and specialty, but you could still play the entire game with your favorite. The weapons are all very fun to use and switching between several in a fight always feels slick. Sometimes I felt forced to use a weapon that could parry against certain enemies but that is not an issue but rather a preference.

The enemy variety is outstanding with minimal reuse of enemies between the two worlds. The enemy types vary from shield wielders, to ranged attackers, beefy berserkers, and various beasts. Individually, just about any enemy is easy prey to your frenzy, but the various combos of different types in different locations that require new ways to approach make the combat fun on a second-by-second basis. There is always so much freedom in how you go about your carnage through the levels and the freedom to explore and kill makes the levels feel more like a playground than a dank tomb. Kicking enemies off cliffs will just always be fun.

The game has the skeleton of an RPG with the stat tree’s being simplified down to three stats, each with three perks as you level them up. Might gives you more damage, speed makes you swing your weapon and move faster, and resilience gives you HP. You get essence from killing stuff and breaking jars much like Dark Souls. A cool feature is that each weapon and perk has challenges you can complete to gain a large amount of essence (a full level later in the game depending.) The perks are fun for what is there, I personally went might and speed and put very little into health, but it was worth it since the might perks are a long-range charge, ripping dead enemies heads off and throwing as a ranged weapon, and a midair stomp.

ELDERBORN is a game I can easily recommend. If you are looking for a cross between Doom and Dark Souls. The content for $15 is reasonable and the high replay value, especially if you’re the kind of person who likes to go for 100% completion, or if you like to self-impose challenges on yourself this game will have a lot of content for you. Kickass soundtrack, gameplay, an interesting world to explore, and beautiful level design filled with shortcuts to unlock make for a fun game start to finish. The combat is simple by nature but someone truly proficient at it can make short work of any horde of enemies.