2024 is shaping up to be a year that expands the boundaries of what an open-world survival game can be.Enshrouded,Nightingale, andPalworldmight all be early access titles, but they all portend exciting new ways for players to craft, chop, and carve out their place in a grand virtual world.
Polish developer Donkey Crew is adding its new title,Bellwright, into the mix, and it brings a serious, realistic mood to the genre. Fans of theMount & Bladeseries in particular may want to give this one a look.
We had a chance to see Project Lead Florian Hofreither and his team expand their town and square off against nearby bandits in a hands-off demo. Like Palworld, Bellwright lets you join other players’ worlds and lend a hand in the fight against the Queen, whether that means gathering resources or commanding troops.
Like most survival games, you start with absolutely nothing. Chopping trees, hunting or foraging for food, and scrounging up a decent weapon are all familiar tasks by now. Once you’re on your feet, Bellwright places an enormous task before you; liberate the land from the tyranny of the oppressive Queen. Completing quests for nearby villages will earn their trust and ultimately convince them to put their lives on the line for a better future.
Once you control a village, symbolized by erecting a Belltower, the symbol of the resistance, you can order construction and assign tasks, producing food and equipment for the war effort. This part of the experience is like a city-builder played from the ground, as you’ll need to plan the layout of your growing towns for efficiency. Villagers need to carry goods from one place to another, lumber yards need ample trees nearby to cut, and of course, you’ll need to have defenses in case of a bandit attack or royal soldiers.
Players who like to micromanage are more than free to assign villagers to specific tasks, prioritize production, and optimize to their heart’s content, but the villagers are smart enough to handle any work that needs to be done on their own if you’d prefer to leave them to their devices. Large projects, especially construction and military action, require a lot of time and a lot of workers to complete.
“Time and resources are really an investment that you’re supposed to handle as a player, in terms of what you prioritize and what is more important to you,” Hofreither says. Conscripting a dozen villagers to take out a bandit camp or build a new smithy means twelve pairs of hands that aren’t growing crops or baking bread. Making sure you have enough stockpiles to cover that deficit is essential.
Of course, such large undertakings are necessary if you’re to have any hope of success in overthrowing the Queen. That’s where Bellwright’s other standout feature comes into play - combat. You might be the leader of the rebellion, but you’re still just one person. You might be able to handle two or even three foes with good gear, but to face an army you’ll need one of your own.
Soldiers have roughly the same power level as the player, which is to say that there won’t be anyDynasty Warriors-style hacking and slashing. While you’ll surely be swinging swords and lobbing arrows alongside your troops, your role is to set up encampments, place fortifications, and ultimately command the flow of battle. In the early build we saw courtesy of Donkey Crew, combat looks great; motion is fluid and realistic, and large skirmishes are as chaotic and dangerous as you could want.
Villagers who fall in battle return home wounded, and players respawn with few penalties if any. A wounded villager will eventually recover, but if they find themselves in combat again and go down while still injured, they’re gone for good. This adds a level of urgency when you’re on the ropes, but makes death non-punishing enough that you may afford to take risks.
Bellwright enters early access on April 23, and while it’s far from complete it has a lot to offer. It has an open world with multiple biomes - we saw forests and swamps in our short time with the game - and even liberating a small region should offer plenty of playtime. One feature that’s missing from the early access version, but that players and developers alike hope makes it into the final game, is sieges. We won’t be storming the walls of royal strongholds just yet, but Hofreither indicated that, like the players, he’d be “very disappointed” if they don’t make it into the final game.
