Darkest Dungeon mixed with XCOM and a dark and fascinating game world to boot? We took a closer look at Hexxen Hunters at gamescom.
We saw heaps of cool games at gamescom 2023. But Hexxen Hunters from publisher Hooded Horse (Manor Lords, Old World) manages to stand out in one particular regard: No other game at the show can offer such a cool game world as the role-playing game from Germany announced for 2024.
A gritty Germany as a game world
We met Jan Wagner from Ulisses Spiele, the game publisher also responsible for the (Tabletop template HeXXen 1733) game. Before showing us the game, he first explained the game world – and had us right on the hook.
The game is set in 1733, in a version of Europe marked by witch hunts, wars and political intrigue. But in this world there are witches, ghosts, vampires and mythical creatures – though in the version of the Grimm fairy tales, not the Disney fairy tales
, as Wagner points out.
After a gate to hell opened in the Black Forest, large parts of Germany and Austria are occupied by demons: Monsters eat little children, devil cults are ubiquitous, and parts of the Netherlands are submerged in the sea after witches summoned the biblical Leviathan – if that’s not cool!
In this captivating world, you’ll take on the roles of brave witch hunters who make a living by hunting down sinister creatures. Your travels will take you to historically authentic locations such as Hamburg, Cologne and Frankfurt. There you’ll encounter alternate representations of well-known personalities, such as Beethoven or Goethe’s father, who in this reality belong to mysterious alliances and take on unexpected roles.
A game against the clock
Hexxen Hunters is a tactical role-playing game and is reminiscent of a mix between Darkest Dungeon and XCOM, because the game is divided into two phases. In the village phase, each hunter can always perform an action, such as constructing new buildings, brewing potions in the alchemy lab, or having his wounds treated in the church, as known from the great role model Darkest Dungeon.
However, every village phase costs you time. And when the Doomsday Clock literally strikes 13, the game is over. Wagner explained it to us like this:
In this world, the morning star, also known as Venus, is steadily moving closer to Earth. At first, people think of this event as merely an astronomical phenomenon, but over time it becomes clear that there is more to it.
It turns out that Lucifer Morgenstern, one of the devils, resides on Venus. This planet is his domain, and he plans to conquer Earth by bringing Morgenstern ever closer.
However, you can also use your village phase to turn back this end time clock – for example, by temporarily allying with followers of other devils between missions. For example with the followers of Baal, the devil of greed and mammon, who, according to Wagner, naturally sit in Frankfurt
round battles à la XCOM
Once you’re fully prepared, you’ll assemble your party and set off on various missions. These are all handcrafted and tell the main story further – only some battles are partially randomly generated.
The missions, which last around 30 minutes, are divided into two phases: In exploration mode, you run through the world in real-time in the iso-perspective, talk to NPCs and discover hidden secrets. In combat, the game switches to the turn-based tactics mode, which is reminiscent of a mixture of XCOM and Baldur’s Gate 3.
We probably don’t need to explain much about how this works. However, the big unique selling point is supposed to be the focus on positioning your characters. You’ll have to position your characters in such a way that demons and witches are always knocking on your armored front-line fighters. This isn’t a completely new idea, of course, but the fact that you’re always fighting against large hordes of enemies makes it a real challenge.
Per mission, you can bring four of your eight fixed fighters, all of whom have unique skills and backstories: Alchemist Magnus, for example, can throw explosive potions, while boozy mercenary Götz can dish out some serious damage in both melee and ranged combat.
Hexxen Hunters promises a dark, engrossing journey through a historical Germany riddled with supernatural creatures and intrigue. Whether the gameplay can live up to the great setting, however, remains to be seen. We have only seen a very early pre-alpha version, which cannot be evaluated.
According to Ulisses Spiele, the game is supposed to be released in 2024, but there is no quarter yet, let alone an exact date.
