Sundered, The Next Project By Thunder Lotus Games Hits Kickstarter

Eldritch horror often seeks to answer some dark questions. One consistent theme of such stories is learning how far people are willing to go to obtain not only knowledge, but power. Sundered, an upcoming title from the creators of Jotun, takes this concept and applies it to gameplay.

Sundered is a hand-drawn metroidvania style game with an eldritch theme. Apart from beautiful visuals, the biggest draw of the game is its upgrade system. Like most Metroid-style titles, players obtain unique powers that can grant access to hidden parts of the world. The unique twist of Sundered is that abilities can be “corrupted.”  A corrupted ability is far more lethal than it’s un-corrupted counterpart. But the increased combat prowess comes at the cost of your own humanity.

This feature plays into the game’s tagline: “Resist or Embrace.” Corrupting yourself will make traversal easier, but will also affect the game’s ending and which bosses you face. It’s an interesting concept that places real value on your choices and rewards a riskier play-style.

Time To Face The Strange Changes

The game also features a procedurally generated world. The overall structure of the worlds remain unchanged to allow for back-tracking to unlock new areas. However, in true eldritch fashion, large parts of the world will change each time you visit.  Hordes of enemies will spawn based on a number of factors (time, difficulty level, and the current region). Sometimes, a horde of monsters will even wait in hiding to trap the player.

Despite Jotun’s massive success, Thunder Lotus Games took to Kickstarter for Sundered. The biggest reason was to invite players to participate in the game’s development. To put it in their own words, “It’s about polish, feedback and using Kickstarter funds to make Sundered the best it can be.”

You can read more about Sundered on the official Kickstarter page.