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Ever wanted to go on an anger-fuelled medieval rampage across a magical pre-Anglo-Saxon England? Me neither, but if that sentence suddenly sparks a desire then Arthurian Legends may well be the game to sate your urge. Powered by the 001 Game Engine, Arthurian Legends is a retro-styled FPS from Scolaro Games. With its low-res crispy textures and pseudo-photorealistic sprites, it invokes the look of classic first person dungeon crawlers but with the gameplay styles of retro FPS fantasy games like Hexen or Witchaven. From the moment you punch the first Saxon to death that barges into your bedroom, to when you finally defeat the dark forces in their undead crypts, Arthurian Legends level design and combat is superb throughout.

Each of the three episodes has a unique style, with the first beginning in a forest on the outskirts of a Saxon keep, before taking you through the war-ravaged keep itself as you descend down into the poison-filled caves that run below. The quality of these levels really stood out to me, with a huge variety of combat arenas from large open areas to cramp guard barracks scattered throughout. Where it really shines though, is with the corridors, pathways and bridges that connect these arenas. These connecting sections are full of traps, secrets and enemies, so you never feel like you’re just walking from set piece to set piece. The real achievement is how immersive it feels. I never once felt like I was inside a video game level, rather an actual place that people could live in.

Of course, traversing these levels means you’ll be cutting down dozens of enemies. That’s where the game's diverse arsenal of weapons comes in. When you start, you have both fists raised but it won’t be long before you get the hunter’s axe and then move on to bigger and better things. With 13 main weapons, two off hand weapons (for use with one-handed weapons) and a dozen single use items including magical runes like fearsome fireball and the one hit-kill smite power, you’ll have plenty of tools with which to carve through the forces of evil. My personal highlights include the stun locking spiked club, the two handed powerhouse bastard sword and the legendary Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch itself, minus the 1, 2, 3 (but 5 is right out) ritual.

The combat itself is somewhat of a mixed bag. Despite the satisfying weightiness of the weapons, it is mostly dependent on which enemy you’re facing. The human enemies have clear stun and pain states with nice, crunchy sound effects, as do the larger enemies. But when it comes to the smaller and flying enemies, the feedback on ranged weaponry is very lacking and the pain states can be hard to read. This can result in some frustrating encounters, as you can’t tell if you’re hitting enemies or doing any damage, but these are rare enough that you soon forget about them once you move onto the next section or level. There are additional game modes available, including an arena mode and horde survival mode that are appreciated additions for some post-campaign content but I didn’t get too much out of them myself.

If I had to point to one thing that could prove divisive, it’s the performance. Even when the game was at its most hectic, I never went below 30fps but the game sat between 45 and 60 on my Ryzen 7 3700x & 1060 rig. The game rarely requires fast reflexes, so I didn’t find this to be a big issue. I don’t know if the frame drops are a result of the 001 game engine or if the developer is just still working on optimisation post-release, but Scolaro Games has released several patches since and is still supporting the game.

Arthurian Legends brings a great uniqueness to the boomer shooter revival, making it stand out among its cohorts while still feeling like it belongs amongst them. While far from perfect, especially optimisation and damage feedback, I enjoyed the time I spent in the world of Albion fighting Saxons and skeletons. Any game that makes me immediately click New Game after the end credits gets a solid recommendation from me. Hopefully Scolaro Games continues to support the game and I can’t wait to see what future projects we see from them.

Rating: 4/5