Unto the End

Is cinematic combat platformer a genre? If not, Unto the End is making it one. This is a 2D platform that vaguely brings to mind cinematic, exploration-heavy platformers like Limbo and Inside, though it also has some sort-of-Dark Souls-like combat as well. Oh, and there are often nonviolent alternatives to combat situations.

With such a complex mishmash of a premise, this has the potential to be a disaster. However, it actually looks really, really good. Perhaps that’s partly because of the art style, which brings to mind a 2D version of The Long Dark, but you can also tell that 2 Ton Studios put a ton of love and effort into this.

In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Stephen Danton of 2 Ton Studios talks quite a bit about the difficulty of the combat system.

Gameplay is challenging and demanding but never difficult for difficulty’s sake. Three things were really important to us.

First, every single encounter should have multiple ways to overcome it and be very easy to overcome once you master it. 

Second, difficulty settings should be designed into the gameplay. Being observant and careful, exploring the nooks and crannies of the world, should give you more tools to work with, opening alternatives to fighting.

Third, the challenge of fighting should not be about reflexes, but rather skilfully reading and reacting to your opponents and the environment. We do have a ‘Combat Speed’ setting that allows players to slow down the action just during combat moments. It gives them more time to read and react while still offering a challenge.

This sounds very good, and I can’t wait to get my hands on this.

Unto The End will be available December 9 on PC (via Steam and GOG), Stadia, PS4, and Xbox One. It will also be available as a day-one Game Pass title for Xbox One. The Nintendo Switch version will launch December 17.

You can watch the EGX trailer for Unto the End below.

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