ScourgeBringer Looks Like A Mashup Of Doom And Strider

I’m a sucker for hardcore games. Dark Souls, Dead Cells, Furi, pretty much anything that gives me that good “smash my face into a brick wall until the wall loses” feeling. With so many games handing out participation trophies to entice kids to buy more lootboxes, it’s a mark of honor when a game isn’t afraid to hurt me plenty. Roguelikes also tend to embody this idea. Even if they aren’t mechanically difficult, their quick replayable nature means they usually aren’t afraid to kill you. I’m hoping both are the case for Flying Oak Games’ newest rogue-platformer, ScourgeBringer.

From ScourgeBringer’s the trailer, it certainly seems like I’ll be getting my fill of fast-paced action and carnage. You play as Kyhra, who is on a mission to uncover the secrets of an Eldritch monolith with her trust combat drone companion. Her preferred method of investigation? Sick areal slash combos. Ah, the Batman approach to detective work. I like it. The monolith is packed full of what appear to be cacodemons, so she seems like the right woman for the job.

What we don’t see in the trailer is a lot of how the game works. Luckily, I got a handy dandy press release to fill me in on the details. ScourgeBringer is a roguelike, but it isn’t all procedurally generated. Instead, the game procedurally assembles a series of pre-built challenge rooms. So you still get that hand-crafted level goodness with RNG replayability. It’s similar to how The Binding of Isaac built its dungeons. Along the way, you’ll also find giant bosses, ancient machines, spooky ghosts, and the remails of previous adventurers. I’m guessing it’ll take a few runs before you get the whole story.

The game is utilizing what they call an “open development” process. What this means is that the community has plenty of say into how the game develops. The team is just two people, so actually giving feedback is going to be crucial for ScourgeBringer to be the best it can be. You can get your hands on it when it launches into Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Pass for PC on February 6th. It’s planned to see full release on PC and consoles later this year. So check it out, and let the devs at Flying Oak Games know what you want to see next!