Jotun studio Thunder Lotus announces Sundered, a Lovecraft-inspired "replayable Metroidvania"

Thunder Lotus Games, the maker of the Norse mythology action-exploration game Jotun, has announced a new project, based on a wholly different sort of pantheon, called Sundered. As creative director William Dubé explained on the PlayStation Blog, it's a “horrifying fight for survival and sanity” in a ruined world filled with eldritch horrors.

“Sundered is a game that builds on the strengths of Jotun: Hand-drawn art, epic boss battles, and great immersion,” Dubé said. “However, we know Jotun was far from perfect. With Sundered, we’ve added more complex mechanics, tons of replayability, and meaningful choices. We’ve gone into a darker universe heavily inspired by Lovecraft’s writings.”

Dubé described Sundered as mainly a “replayable Metroidvania, close to Rogue Legacy and Super Metroid.” The game world is procedurally generated, there will be multiple endings, and your abilities will be “corruptible,” which sounds interesting. “Resist or embrace,” as the tagline says. “Harness the power of corrupted relics to defeat gigantic bosses, at the cost of your humanity.” 

There's not much to see yet at either Thunder Lotus' website or on Steam, but they're both live if you'd like to take a peek, and we've got a short trailer and some screens to look at too. Sundered is currently expected to be ready for launch sometime in 2017.
 

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.