Image credit: Bellring Games

On its surface, aesthetically Mistfall Hunter certainly looks like a game where if you were doomscrolling and briefly saw a gif of it in action, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's from Elden Ring. The game certainly apes FromSoftware's dark fantasy, selectively colourful vibe, but it is offering up something different under the hood at least, as rather than your dime a dozen soulslike, it's opted for the slightly trendier extraction approach.

The general brutality of Soulsian games can still be found here, the game's trailer puts plenty of bits of dodge rolling, parrying, a range of classes to play around with from those that lean towards melee and others that have a focus on magic, and various subsets of builds to be found within those. Pace-wise, combat seems to be a bit faster than the usual FromSoft affair, it's not necessarily as slow and methodical.

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The key thing here is that extraction loop, in which you find yourself in a land where you must hunt for something called Gyldenblood and hunt for some relics, attempting to get out safely while you do so. It's a PvPvE kind of situation, so while of course you may find yourself up against some nasty NPC beasties, other folks might waltz up and finish you off after a tough battle. Best to keep yourself on your toes. It's also playable in solo or trios, so perhaps round up some friends if you're one who typically avoids PvP in Souls games.

It also sounds like there's plans to change things up from season to season. As explained over on the game's Steam page, "The battlefield beneath the Gyldenmist constantly mutates, unleashing new classes, forbidden arcana, uncharted zones, and ancient relics to keep the hunt fresh and fiercely competitive." Certainly sounds like it's taking a similar approach to other live service extraction games, I'm just curious to see whether the soulslike audience will enjoy this particular flavour of challenge.

Mistfall Hunter is also out soon! Very soon in fact, slated for release July 30th. You can wishlist it on Steam here.