Survived By

When you think of fantasy MMOs, your mind probably jumps to things like World of Warcraft, with the third-person perspective letting you see the lands from over the shoulder of your hero, but Human Head Studios' Survived By looks to change things up a bit by merging the existing MMO formula with the spirit of a bullet hell shooter, putting the perspective right above the action and painting everything in a nostalgia-driven pixel art style.

Since we've been testing the closed alpha there aren't as many players as will be in the full game, but MMO does of course mean a lot of players together in one world, and since bullet hell means a lot of projectiles, having more players will suit that to a tee. For now though this alpha test is all about getting a sense of how it works and the mechanics, preceded by a tutorial that give you all the RPG basics like attacking, interacting with NPCs, and of course crafting.

Once you've got your head around the basic elements of the game you're pretty much just dumped in the middle of the world and let loose to do as you please, whether that's wander into a dungeon and be disappointed because you're turned away from the door for being too low a level - which totally happened to us - or attack any and all creatures in your path as soon as you leave the gates of the town... again, that was us.

Like with all open worlds you can roam about where you want when you want, as you uncover the map exploring lands and unlocking shrines that act as fast-travel points. Throughout you'll come across a plethora of enemies to destroy, items to collect, and locations to explore, but if you die on your travels it's game over. Yes, permadeath is here to make its mark on the game, and who you're Survived By (get it?) is another member of the faction you establish at the beginning of the game.

You can choose from three classes so far - Infiltrator, Harbringer, and Alchemist - and whoever you choose impacts your playstyle. For instance, the Harbringers can hit multiple enemies with their special ability, while the Alchemists can throw potions for a burning AOE effect, and are faster when moving as well. As you might expect, you then level these up and improve their equipment and stats, making it all the more crushing when you take your eye off the ball and a high-level character bites the dust.

While the main quest requires you to help the people around the tower after Harsa Village is lost, there are plenty of other things to be getting stuck into. After all, you can improve your health, energy, swiftness, endurance, focus, and more, and there are challenges to complete and relics to collect, so it's not just about mindlessly walking round slaying beasts; it's a full RPG experience mixed in with the bullet hell action.

The environments we've seen thus far are pretty varied and the whole thing feels expansive, as one short 10-minute walk can leave you in the middle of nowhere and a long way from home, which really makes it feel like a true online RPG, especially since you're bumping into players regularly who are on their own quests. Everywhere you turn in this world there are enemies aplenty, so nothing is ever as straightforward as moving from one location to another, as you'll be swivelling your mouse shooting enemies and trying to stay alive in no time.

Once we'd put down Survived By after dying a few times, we reflected on just how much we'd been drawn into the world and the gameplay loop it offers. There's every reason to explore, but every reason to be cautious and avoid the dreaded permadeath, and it's really a deceptively deep experience that brings the world of bullet hell into the realm of the expansive RPG nicely, without losing the frantic nature of the former or the depth of the latter. It'll be interesting to see where it goes from here, but for now, colour us interested.