If we ignore the many, many negatives that came with the late 90s/early 2000s era of video marketing, there was a certain charm to the edginess that I kind of wish was still around in some ways. I say that because of a recently revealed immersive action horror shooter named Ringwyrm, that, were it to have released in that era, so easily could have had a tagline like, “The only time you’ll be happy you’ve got Ringwyrm.” Alas!

With my bit out the way, let’s take an actual look at the game, ‘ey? Ringwyrm is the next outing from Scumhead, the developer behind Mohrta, which Nic previously quite accurately described as Morrowind meets Doom. Ringwyrm leans a tad more in the direction of boomer shooter this time around, but with a vibe that mixes and mashes fantastical and lightly Soviet aesthetics, all viewed through a murky, dirty ragcloth covered lens. The world itself is apparently nonlinear and interconnected, so I’m curious to see how that plays out. I certainly mess with it architecturally so far.

It’s hard to tell from the trailer, but over on the Steam page it sounds like a slightly novel approach has been taken to the sort of survival horror elements it features. If you want to aim your gun, you have to stand still, and conversely, if you want to move out of the way quickly, you can’t aim your gun. I can picture this taking some getting used to, but mostly because of the first-person perspective it takes; this kind of thing isn’t that unusual in survival horrors of yore.

Narratively, Ringwyrm explains itself thusly: “Sixteen years after Schovekia’s defeat in the Iron War, the young nation of Nordin-Gotts learns that the remnants of the defeated Schovek have migrated to a small island far to the north, known as the Umbral Isle. There, they find ‘Milk,’ a strange and arcane element that rapidly transforms their society.” You apparently play as a war orphan named Edna Gotts, who ends up conscripted in a military operation along with her sisters. Compelling!

There’s no release date for Ringwyrm outside of sometime in 2027, but you can wishlist it on Steam while you wait.