When Hades came along in 2020, it quickly built a reputation as one of the best roguelike games around. Naturally, such a successful game has inspired many others, but how can other developers improve on perfection? With co-op, of course! That’s the clever approach that games like TMNT: Splintered Fate from Super Evil Megacorp and SWORN from Team17 and Windwalk Games have taken. SWORN doesn’t outshine Hades in length and depth, but it certainly makes for a great cooperative experience.
Whereas Hades told a story based on Greek myths, SWORN draws from the stories of King Arthur and his knights. The twist here is that Arthur and most of the knights of the round table have gone bad, with some taking on monstrous forms. Merlin revives a handful of fallen warriors and sends them to stop Arthur and recover the Holy Grail. Along the way, a few familiar characters like Gwenevere and Nimue will join the cause as well. Despite the fantastic premise, however, SWORN has precious few story scenes. If you scoffed at the abundance of cinematics in Hades, then this game’s minimalistic story should be more to your liking.
The game begins with a 5–10-minute single-player tutorial. Initially, players control the Knight, a general-purpose character. He starts with a sword but can unlock a bow and two other weapons before long. As players participate in more runs (and collect the in-game Fairy Ember currency), they will unlock the female Monk, the tank-like Rook, and the magic-wielding Specter. Each character will eventually gain a choice of four weapons and four spells to wield. The lineup of characters, weapons, and spells is more varied than Hades, though the usefulness of some weapons and spells is questionable.
Runs are structured similarly to Hades, with players progressing through a series of rooms in four main realms (plus a hidden fifth one!). After clearing the enemies from a room, the team will choose from one or two exits, each promising a specific type of reward. Various random events can occur and provide benefits to players. However, some random events (like taking a small reward for a major health penalty, and Morgana’s “blessings” that bestow both a positive and negative consequence) are practically useless. Each of the first three realms features a miniboss fight at the midpoint and a proper boss fight against a corrupted Arthurian character at the end. There are two possible minibosses and two possible bosses per realm, adding a bit of variety to runs. The bosses are fun and challenging, but they always begin with an annoyingly unskippable cinematic.
Fae blessings are the main way that players can increase their offensive and defensive powers during a run. Whereas the original Hades features 9 gods who offer about 15 standard boons and 8 Duo and Legendary boons each, SWORN‘s 8 Fae offer a whopping 36-43 blessings apiece! One Fae’s powers bestow cold damage, one offers poison, one increases crit chance, and so on. Oberon, the Fury Fae, seems to be the worst of them, but maybe I need to give him more of a chance. The downside to each Fae having so many blessings is that it can be hard to get the ones you actually want. Instead of a 1/15 chance to get a choice blessing (ignoring prerequisite blessings), you have a 1/28-to-1/35 chance here. SWORN’s dashing powers seem to be less useful than in other games of this style, but each Fae does have the chance to bestow a unique companion who fights alongside the player, and an Ultimate attack. Ultimates work like the Call in Hades. After the Ultimate meter fills up, the player can briefly transform into the Fae and deliver one or more powerful attacks.
Long-term goals include clearing the first four realms with all four characters and each of their weapons, clearing the super tough fifth realm, clearing a four-realm run on each of the five difficulty levels, and (after the Version 1.2 update) completing the Boss Rush with all four characters. The fifth realm inexplicably lacks the random events and item-filled breakable barrels found in the other realms. This makes it harder and less enjoyable than the rest of the game, but at least players don’t have to clear it multiple times for Achievements or anything.