Frostkeep Studios, a team made up of former World of Warcraft and League of Legends developers, have announced their debut game at this year’s PAX East.
The new PC game is titled simply Rend, and it blends survival elements with a large-scale multiplayer action game focused on challenging the norms in the somewhat crowded genre. Featured above, you can view the debut trailer for the game.
Here’s a brief rundown on the game from Frostkeep co-founder Mat Milizia:
With our first game Rend, we are delivering on the fantasy players expect from a survival game while also challenging the traditional mold by introducing new experiences and solving many of the genre’s accepted player pain points. Our team has been fortunate to work at many of the industry’s leading studios throughout our careers so we have learned valuable key lessons along the way that we are now applying to our studio’s development philosophy and game making process.
Like most of the titles Frostkeep has worked on previously, Rend will also have three factions: Order, Conclave, and Revenant – all of which constantly being at war with one another. However, all three factions are constantly fighting an army of demonic beings known as the “Lost Ones.”
Each faction will fight for collecting Souls, a process done by harvesting, gathering, and crafting – or just killing things as expected. You can also venture out into the dangerous game world to find powerful artifacts that can help turn the tide of war in favor of their chosen faction.
In terms of overall progression, each map is expected to go from beginning to end (the end being essentially the winners becoming the new gods) in a few months at most. Each faction will have their own main base, which gets opened up for attacks once a week for a time.
Once the faction has reached enough Souls to obtain ascension, the map will end and all players will be awarded meta-points to unlock both customization and progression options. A key factor in Rend is that skill will always win in terms of combat. There’s also a number of classes like Assassin, Survivalist, Soldier and Mystic, all of which are customizable with talents and skills.
Rend is set to launch on Steam Early Access sometime this Spring.
