It shows just how vast PC gaming has become that I had not heard of Barony until now, despite it being over a decade old and attracting thousands of players every day. After a wobbly start in 2015, the cooperative dungeon crawler has grown steadily in popularity over its lifespan, and in the last 12 months has received more players than ever.
Not resting on its laurels, developer Turning Wheel has fed this success back into the game, resulting in one of its most significant updates ever. Titled Instruments of Destruction, the update is so big it's being delivered in two parts. The first part is available now, and it makes some pretty big changes to the Ultima Underworld-inspired RPG.
The primary change is an overhaul to Barony's magic system, which replaces its magic, casting and swimming skills (one of which seems unlike the others) with three new skills that oversee all magical abilities. Sorcery is all about direct abilities like fireballs and magic shields, while Thaumaturgy focuses on buffs, piercing arcane secrets, and going ham on evil spirits. Finally, Mysticism lets you harness the powers of manipulation and transformation, messing about with enemies and the environment to your indirect advantage.
You'll use these abilities to progress through reworked locations, thanks to Barony's changes to dungeon generation. While the devs say a broader level design overhaul is coming in part two of the update, the first part makes several changes like introducing treasure rooms stuffed full of loot, and improving the variety of its crystal caves and mystic citadel biomes. The former now includes pumphouses, kobold barracks, traps and puzzle rooms, while the latter has bigger halls, courtyards, staterooms and plazas to mooch around in.
