A Rather Charming RPG That Doesn’t Take Itself Too Seriously

A Rather Charming RPG That Doesn’t Take Itself Too Seriously

From saving a dying king to leading an army of chickens.

Its name is Hardland, and it’s by a company called Mountain Sheep, a Finnish group known for their mobile titles, particularly their Minigore duology. Their current project, on the other hand, is a sandboxish-looking action-RPG for PC.

The game’s got an interesting visual style going on, with a mix of cute-ish, somewhat silly-looking (although not in a bad way) character models and actual beautiful scenery. It’s kinda like someone took illustrations from a children’s book and brought them to life — by its own admission, the game’s art style is inspired by stop motion films, which you can certainly see in the trailer.

Here’s the features list. As I said, it looks sandboxy, in a kind of Cube-World-meets-Elder-Scrolls kinda way. The mask mechanic, in particular, sounds fun (because, you know, chicken army):

PREMISE:

You wake up in a strange land ruled by the peculiar Elder King. Big changes are happening all over the world and it is rumoured the king who has ruled for 1000 years is dying. His minions have been dispatched to find a cure. You can try to help or you can do whatever you wish, this is your story!

FEATURES:

  • Procedurally generated towns and wilderness.
  • All characters can be killed if you wish to play an evil character.
  • Faction based quest system, some quests can only be completed if you meet the faction requirements.
  • You can craft and wear masks which disguise your true identity.
  • Objects have physics and almost everything can be destroyed.
  • Beautiful stop motion film inspired visuals.
  • Deadly travelling merchants.
  • Destructible terrain.

The Greenlight page for Hardland also mentions that the game will feature robust modding support, with everything from textures and models to character data being modifiable, even in-game.

Hardland is set to arrive on PC this year. Until it does, there’s an official site to bookmark and a Steam Greenlight page to possibly click “Yes” on.

Hardland [Steam Greenlight]

Questions? Comments? Contact the author of this post at andras-AT-kotaku-DOT-com.


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