Sundered, the Lovecraftian Metroidvania, is out now

Sundered, the "replayable Metroidvania" with giant boss battles, is out now. In it, you slash and stab your way through a procedurally-generated 2D labyrinth, gradually unlocking new skills and abilities that help you delve deeper.

Developers Thunder Lotus (of Jotun)  want it to be tough as nails—one of the  elements of the "core gameplay" listed in the summary of the game is simply: "die". And when that happens you'll be hauled back to a central hub and have to set off again. 

But there's a clear progression system, with success in a given area netting you items that will let you access new areas of the map. There's also a branching skill tree and "hundreds of upgrades" to play with.

It's available on Steam, GOG, and Humble Store for £13.49/$17.99, which includes a 10% launch week discount. You can also pick it up on Uplay (sans discount) and Origin.

I've been trawling through the early Steam reviews and the two most common words seem to be "beautiful" and "frustrating". That might just sum it up: if you don't mind dying an awful lot then it will reward you with some gorgeous environments and set pieces (those boss battles really do look epic).

Here's the launch trailer:

Samuel Horti

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.