Tonight at The Game Awards, we were provided a first look at the latest permutation of the soulslike formula. Created by a former Starbreeze and Avalanche developer, Decrepit calls itself "a dark fantasy first person soulslike." And based purely on the number of wretched undead being hacked at with medieval weaponry in its debut trailer, it seems like an apt description. One of them is attached to a wheel! That's Dark Souls, to me.
Set in an accursed castle, Decrepit seems to have something of a roguelike structure: You venture out from your dungeon cell, gather what loot you can, and try to fight your way to freedom before you're most likely killed and dragged back to the dungeons. But while enemies and encounters are shuffled every time you die, publisher Three Friends said in a press release, the castle's layout remains the same between runs.
"Inspired by classic first-person action games like Hexen, dungeon crawlers like Eye of the Beholder, and modern souls-likes, Decrepit emphasises spatial mastery over power creep," Three Friends said.
It's hard to tell from the trailer how well the tempo and rhythm of traditional soulslike combat will translate into a first person format, but it sounds like it's approaching environmental design with a FromSoft mindset. Enemy encounters might reset every time you beef it, but shortcuts you open and hidden secrets you discover persist. It sounds a bit like if Sen's Fortress was an entire game—presumably with fewer snakemen, but time will tell, I suppose.
"I've always loved first-person games because they immerse you in the world like no other genre," Olof Hagelin, founder and solo developer at Jämmerdal Games said. "I also like my dungeons dark and terrifying, and in Decrepit I've tried to recapture that feeling of dread and excitement I felt when I played the old classics for the first time."
Decrepit is set to launch sometime in 2026, and you can wishlist it on Steam now.
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