Ashburrow

Beneath the Goldcrest Hills, the gnolls of the Ashmane Clan have dug down to the dragon's cavern, where the rock runs hot. Ashburrow is a third-person action RPG with a roguelite heart: one life per run, a world that remembers where you fell, and up to six players sharing the same world. VR is optional, so a friend in a headset and a friend at a monitor can play in the same session.

Fight with your own hands. Put on a headset and the character you've been playing steps into the world, weapon in hand. Swing your arm to strike. Raise your shield into a creature's wind-up to turn the blow aside and stagger the attacker, something you physically do rather than trigger with a key. Bows require both hands: nock the arrow, draw the string, aim, and release. Casters form spells in their free palm, hold them, and throw them.

Every swing is a decision. Attacks sweep an arc in front of you and consume endurance, so every flurry is a commitment. Read a creature's wind-up, then take the blow on a timed shield, roll clear of it, or step back out of its reach. Break a creature's guard and it staggers, taking double damage while it reels. Casters prepare spells into runes and open their spellbook to recover, choosing from over forty spells of healing, warding, charming and ruin, while a Grovekeeper can take the shape of a wolf, a spirit bear or a tree.

Every run is one life. Alone, a fall ends the run on the spot. With friends, a fallen character lies where they dropped until someone still standing clears the fight and raises them, and the run ends only when the last of you goes down. Either way, the gold you carried is banked in full, a headstone marks where each of you fell, and the next character to reach it recovers half of the experience the fallen one learned. Banked gold unlocks tiles on a 39-tile upgrade tree, with each tile opening the ones beside it. Begin as a Champion, Hunter or Magister, then work your way toward several additional races, five more classes, and permanent perks that carry from one run to the next.

The world keeps its own hours. Five connected regions await: the Goldcrest Hills, the Ashburrow warren beneath them, the snowbound Frostspire Reach and the Rimehold beneath its glacier, and Cinderscar, a scorched crater where the dragon's heat breaks the surface and the dragon-folk of the Cinderbrood roam. Creatures keep a day-and-night cycle, with ghouls and bats prowling after dark and orcs holding the hills by day, and the Reach brings snow storms of its own. Use the world to your advantage: a creature facing away never sees you coming, while a thrown rock can pull one gnoll away from a camp of three.

Hold the gate. Twenty gold hires a swordsman, archer or battlemage for any of the four posts at the town gate, and every road you've unlocked can be given a picket of its own. Kill enough of the Ashmane Clan and they muster a column of gnolls to take the gate back, with seers healing their front line. Hold the wall and earn a 100-gold bounty; let it fall, and the trainer and merchant who make every run more possible are driven away.

Choose your race, choose your class, and bring a party. Ten races and eight classes give you different ways to approach the world. A Grimalkin's purr helps a resting ally recover faster. An Irbis pounces for extra damage against an unaware creature. A Tuskar regains endurance with every worthwhile kill. Play alone, or host up to six players online through Steam or over LAN by IP address, in any mix of headsets and screens. Friends can join mid-run with the character they're already playing, scale up to the session's level while they remain, and keep everything they find.

Look beyond the obvious path. Eighteen chests are hidden across the world in every run. Each chest requires a key and offers a choice of three boons, with your choice lasting for the rest of the run. Illusory walls and hidden levers reveal side chambers where named creatures wait, many carrying arms worth taking from them, while some of the best finds are hidden beneath water you'll have to hold your breath to reach.

And at the bottom of it all, a dragon. Vorgrath the Cinderwyrm waits in a lava-filled cavern five levels below anything a character can easily reach. Bannoch the Sporecrown waits in the Bloomdeep, the Eternal Judge holds the top of the Old Keep, and the Hollow Jarl rules the Rimehold. Some battles can be survived alone. Some are meant to be faced together.

Feature list

• Third-person or first-person action combat: swing arcs, an endurance pool, timed shield guards, a dodge roll, staggers, critical hits and knockback.

• Roguelite runs: death ends the run, gold is banked in full, and a grave returns half the fallen character's experience to whoever reaches it.

• Down, not out: in co-op, anyone still standing can raise a fallen friend, and the run ends only when the whole party falls.

• A 39-tile upgrade tree of races, classes and permanent perks, bought with banked gold.

• 10 races, each with its own trait, and 8 classes, with 3 of each available from the start.

• Co-op for up to 6 players with Steam online or over LAN by IP address, with VR and flat-screen players together, mid-run joining and level syncing.

• 46 learnable spells prepared into runes, abilities that improve the more you use them, and a Grovekeeper who fights as a wolf, a spirit bear or a tree.

• Five connected regions, from a sunlit valley to a gnoll warren, a storm-swept snowfield, a giants' hold under a glacier and a scorched crater above the dragon's lair.

• A day and night cycle that changes which creatures are abroad.

• 18 hidden chests a run, drawn from 46 hand-placed spots, each dealing a choice of run boons.

• Stealth by facing, thrown rocks to pull a single creature, and hirelings to recruit at the gate.

• Guards to hire at the town gate and on every road beyond it, defending against Ashmane raids that you can command from the world map.

• More than twenty named creatures and bosses, the hardest of them beyond the level cap.

• Optional VR in the same sessions as flat-screen players: third or first person on a headset, with the weapon and shield in your own hands, a bow drawn with both of them, and a spell made in the palm and thrown.