I've never played a hero shooter or character-driven multiplayer online battle arena game in which you don't get to pick the hero you control from the jump. But that's pretty much exactly the conceit of Arkheron--this player-versus-player, strategy-driven action game doesn't let you just pick your hero from a roster. No, instead you have to earn the right to play as your favorite character (or just be extraordinarily lucky), all while fending off the desperate attacks of enemy players and racing to the top of a tower being overtaken by darkness. It's tense. It's challenging. It's a game I really want to keep playing.
In Arkheron, you fight in a squad of three within a dark fantasy world of swords, axes, bows, whips, hammers, and magical spell-producing artifacts. As the first round of a new match begins, your team picks where they want to spawn on the first floor of a tower. The corridors and dungeons of this first floor are full of loot-filled chests that contain weapons and expendable items, computer-controlled enemies that can ruin your team's day, locked doors that hide secret pathways and vaults of legendary equipment, hidden portals that can transport you to other locations on that particular floor, and, of course, the other teams. As the round reaches its end, a dangerous darkness begins to encroach on all the players, funneling everyone to flee for one of the handful of glowing beacons that randomly spawn on the map.
Each beacon can only be claimed by one team. If your squad is the only one present at a beacon when the round ends, you ascend to the next floor, no problem. But if at least one other team is present, it's a fight to the death to determine which single squad moves on. Teams that are killed--whether during the exploration phase of a round or during the final fight over a beacon--are knocked out of the match for good.
Those who ascend to the next floor repeat the process, with each floor getting smaller and each including fewer beacons. Eventually, only two teams make it to the top for a final confrontation, and the winning team is declared the victor of the entire match.
You spawn in as an entity devoid of personality and distinguishing markings--a nameless thrall attempting to climb a magical tower. Each level is also randomized, and the wide variety of equipment to loot from chests means that you're never sure what exactly you're going to find. Arkheron is much like a battle royale in that respect, where you're entirely defenseless from the jump and have to scavenge for weapons and items while contending with other teams.
Unlike most battle royales--which are largely viewed through a first-person or third-person camera that gives you great line-of-sight on whatever is in front of you--Arkheron has an isometric free-aim camera that limits your view to only whatever is directly around you. So while multiple ranged weapons (like bows) exist, the close- and mid-range options (like swords and magic-spewing mirrors and staves) are king for Arkheron's extremely fast and hectic combat that puts emphasis on lining up your shots, dodging enemy attacks, and concentrating your efforts as a team. While chaotic to watch, there's a lot of strategy involved when it comes to positioning and movement, with certain spells capable of making choke points with spikes or one-way shields, and lots of weapons having secondary effects to control the battlefield, like grapple hook-like whips and enemy-pushing swords. It's not unlike games like For Honor or Absolver in that regard, but with a greater focus on teamplay and ability combos of a hero shooter or MOBA.
As a result, each round is a tense scramble for resources and yelling at your teammates to shut up because you think you just heard the footsteps of another team down the hallway, and you're not sure if you're about to be ambushed because the top-down camera restricts how far off you can see. It's more than a little stressful to play a game where you will almost always hear an enemy before you see them (the existence of portals in the environment and equipment that lets players stealth means you can still be snuck up on). Like so many of its peers, Arkheron feels like a game that will be agonizingly irritating to queue into solo and delightfully chaotic with friends who are talking to each other and communicating enemy positions via microphones.
Tied into its match structure and gameplay is Arkheron's build system. Every piece of equipment (each of which is referred to as a "Relic") is tied to the memories of one of a dozen characters called Eternals and fits into one of four equipment slots. You can mix and match these different Relics to create your own "shattered" build that combines different playstyles, but if you happen to find all four Relics of the same Eternal, you can choose to transform into that particular hero and specialize in one particular strategy. This transformation not only improves your equipped Relics but also unlocks that specific Eternal's unique ultimate ability as well. Once you make this transformation, you can't undo it, and since loot doesn't carry over between matches (only individual rounds), every match becomes a question as to whether you plan on building something custom or pursuing the strength of a specific Eternal. And like similar loot-focused PvP games, luck may be against you, forcing you to scramble and cobble something together with whatever you happen to find, not what you want.
This Relic system creates an additional level of tension in every match--at least, in those I played. Too often near the beginning of the preview, analysis paralysis got me killed, as I was left standing out in the open mulling over whether to pick up the Relic that belonged to one of my favorite Eternals and starting my build basically from scratch, or to continue with the Frankenstein's monster of a build I had created leading up to that point. As time went on, I got better at strategizing on the fly and adapting my role in the squad depending on whether my abilities leaned toward melee, support, defense, or range. By the end of the preview, I was having a lot of fun.
My biggest qualm with Arkheron is the same I have had with every live-service PvP game I've previewed over the past two years: Can this game survive in an industry where juggernauts already have a chokehold on people's time?
By the end of the three-hour preview, I was very much looking forward to playing more of the game when it officially launches. That's not how I was feeling after the very first two matches though, which were a tad confusing and felt frustratingly unbalanced against me. (With the benefit of hindsight, I now know my first few builds were just not very good). There is definitely a learning curve here, and I think I would have struggled with it even longer than I did if not for a member of the dev team on the squad talking our teammate and me through it. To be successful, I think Arkheron needs to not only attract enough players to keep lobbies full and matchmaking flowing when it first launches, but those players also need to stick through its steep learning curve to see the magic that convinced me to put it on my live-service gaming roster. That feels like a tall order for a studio's debut title.
The story Arkheron is telling might be where the game can gain some traction. I didn't get to see much of its narrative elements during the preview, but there's the potential for an intriguing narrative underlying the loot system and environmental design. In Arkheron, your character isn't truly transforming into an Eternal. Instead, each Relic represents a memory of the hero in question, and collecting all of their equipment gives you a chance to "relive" a battle that particular Eternal had in the tower. Memories and time are the main driving forces behind what's going on, making the character you play something of a detective who is piecing together the mystery of what's happened.
Adding to that, on Arkheron's Steam page, developer Bonfire Studios writes, "These shifting, distorted memories reshape the Tower and everything in it, as the haunting histories of the Eternals gradually unfold over time. This evolving narrative will add new layers of depth to the world around you as you fight to ascend the Tower once again."
Again, I didn't get a chance to see this evolution in action or ask what it will exactly entail, but I'm definitely intrigued. I'm a sucker for a good story, especially those that evolve and are told over time (I blame Dungeons & Dragons, but Apex Legends isn't entirely innocent here), and so the concept of the battlefield of a PvP game visually evolving through player choices during the match just sounds so cool. An interesting story filled with characters that players want to understand could be just the right incentive to keep them coming back and tackling the game's learning curve.
I'm pulling for Arkheron. I don't know if it will find the audience that it needs to thrive, but I hope it does. We'll find out whether it can soon enough--Arkheron is scheduled to launch for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC later this year. If you can't wait--which is understandable, there's still a lot of 2026 left and "later this year" could still be months away--an open demo for Arkheron is coming to Steam on February 20, remaining live until March 2.
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In Arkheron, you fight in a squad of three within a dark fantasy world of swords, axes, bows, whips, hammers, and magical spell-producing artifacts. As the first round of a new match begins, your team picks where they want to spawn on the first floor of a tower. The corridors and dungeons of this first floor are full of loot-filled chests that contain weapons and expendable items, computer-controlled enemies that can ruin your team's day, locked doors that hide secret pathways and vaults of legendary equipment, hidden portals that can transport you to other locations on that particular floor, and, of course, the other teams. As the round reaches its end, a dangerous darkness begins to encroach on all the players, funneling everyone to flee for one of the handful of glowing beacons that randomly spawn on the map.
Each beacon can only be claimed by one team. If your squad is the only one present at a beacon when the round ends, you ascend to the next floor, no problem. But if at least one other team is present, it's a fight to the death to determine which single squad moves on. Teams that are killed--whether during the exploration phase of a round or during the final fight over a beacon--are knocked out of the match for good.
Those who ascend to the next floor repeat the process, with each floor getting smaller and each including fewer beacons. Eventually, only two teams make it to the top for a final confrontation, and the winning team is declared the victor of the entire match.
You spawn in as an entity devoid of personality and distinguishing markings--a nameless thrall attempting to climb a magical tower. Each level is also randomized, and the wide variety of equipment to loot from chests means that you're never sure what exactly you're going to find. Arkheron is much like a battle royale in that respect, where you're entirely defenseless from the jump and have to scavenge for weapons and items while contending with other teams.
Unlike most battle royales--which are largely viewed through a first-person or third-person camera that gives you great line-of-sight on whatever is in front of you--Arkheron has an isometric free-aim camera that limits your view to only whatever is directly around you. So while multiple ranged weapons (like bows) exist, the close- and mid-range options (like swords and magic-spewing mirrors and staves) are king for Arkheron's extremely fast and hectic combat that puts emphasis on lining up your shots, dodging enemy attacks, and concentrating your efforts as a team. While chaotic to watch, there's a lot of strategy involved when it comes to positioning and movement, with certain spells capable of making choke points with spikes or one-way shields, and lots of weapons having secondary effects to control the battlefield, like grapple hook-like whips and enemy-pushing swords. It's not unlike games like For Honor or Absolver in that regard, but with a greater focus on teamplay and ability combos of a hero shooter or MOBA.
As a result, each round is a tense scramble for resources and yelling at your teammates to shut up because you think you just heard the footsteps of another team down the hallway, and you're not sure if you're about to be ambushed because the top-down camera restricts how far off you can see. It's more than a little stressful to play a game where you will almost always hear an enemy before you see them (the existence of portals in the environment and equipment that lets players stealth means you can still be snuck up on). Like so many of its peers, Arkheron feels like a game that will be agonizingly irritating to queue into solo and delightfully chaotic with friends who are talking to each other and communicating enemy positions via microphones.
Tied into its match structure and gameplay is Arkheron's build system. Every piece of equipment (each of which is referred to as a "Relic") is tied to the memories of one of a dozen characters called Eternals and fits into one of four equipment slots. You can mix and match these different Relics to create your own "shattered" build that combines different playstyles, but if you happen to find all four Relics of the same Eternal, you can choose to transform into that particular hero and specialize in one particular strategy. This transformation not only improves your equipped Relics but also unlocks that specific Eternal's unique ultimate ability as well. Once you make this transformation, you can't undo it, and since loot doesn't carry over between matches (only individual rounds), every match becomes a question as to whether you plan on building something custom or pursuing the strength of a specific Eternal. And like similar loot-focused PvP games, luck may be against you, forcing you to scramble and cobble something together with whatever you happen to find, not what you want.
This Relic system creates an additional level of tension in every match--at least, in those I played. Too often near the beginning of the preview, analysis paralysis got me killed, as I was left standing out in the open mulling over whether to pick up the Relic that belonged to one of my favorite Eternals and starting my build basically from scratch, or to continue with the Frankenstein's monster of a build I had created leading up to that point. As time went on, I got better at strategizing on the fly and adapting my role in the squad depending on whether my abilities leaned toward melee, support, defense, or range. By the end of the preview, I was having a lot of fun.
My biggest qualm with Arkheron is the same I have had with every live-service PvP game I've previewed over the past two years: Can this game survive in an industry where juggernauts already have a chokehold on people's time?
By the end of the three-hour preview, I was very much looking forward to playing more of the game when it officially launches. That's not how I was feeling after the very first two matches though, which were a tad confusing and felt frustratingly unbalanced against me. (With the benefit of hindsight, I now know my first few builds were just not very good). There is definitely a learning curve here, and I think I would have struggled with it even longer than I did if not for a member of the dev team on the squad talking our teammate and me through it. To be successful, I think Arkheron needs to not only attract enough players to keep lobbies full and matchmaking flowing when it first launches, but those players also need to stick through its steep learning curve to see the magic that convinced me to put it on my live-service gaming roster. That feels like a tall order for a studio's debut title.
The story Arkheron is telling might be where the game can gain some traction. I didn't get to see much of its narrative elements during the preview, but there's the potential for an intriguing narrative underlying the loot system and environmental design. In Arkheron, your character isn't truly transforming into an Eternal. Instead, each Relic represents a memory of the hero in question, and collecting all of their equipment gives you a chance to "relive" a battle that particular Eternal had in the tower. Memories and time are the main driving forces behind what's going on, making the character you play something of a detective who is piecing together the mystery of what's happened.
Adding to that, on Arkheron's Steam page, developer Bonfire Studios writes, "These shifting, distorted memories reshape the Tower and everything in it, as the haunting histories of the Eternals gradually unfold over time. This evolving narrative will add new layers of depth to the world around you as you fight to ascend the Tower once again."
Again, I didn't get a chance to see this evolution in action or ask what it will exactly entail, but I'm definitely intrigued. I'm a sucker for a good story, especially those that evolve and are told over time (I blame Dungeons & Dragons, but Apex Legends isn't entirely innocent here), and so the concept of the battlefield of a PvP game visually evolving through player choices during the match just sounds so cool. An interesting story filled with characters that players want to understand could be just the right incentive to keep them coming back and tackling the game's learning curve.
I'm pulling for Arkheron. I don't know if it will find the audience that it needs to thrive, but I hope it does. We'll find out whether it can soon enough--Arkheron is scheduled to launch for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC later this year. If you can't wait--which is understandable, there's still a lot of 2026 left and "later this year" could still be months away--an open demo for Arkheron is coming to Steam on February 20, remaining live until March 2.
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