Bellwright, an open-world survival game set in a medieval realm ruled by a brutal ruler, will hit Steam Early Access in the beginning months of 2024, challenging players to claim the throne and forge a better kingdom for all. Bellwright offers co-op support and features town building, intense combat, an extensive villager recruiting system, a wrongfully accused murder and so much more.
Unravel the Truth and Clear Your Name
Many open-world survival games are built around you and your friends discovering their secrets. With Bellwright, the developers aim to give the story much more of a spotlight as you soon find yourself framed for the accidental death of the prince and punished with the death sentence. Forced to live undercover, you must protect yourself from hidden attacks from unexpected places.
Was it bad luck that you became a suspect or is there more to the story? To clear your name and uncover the truth, you have to become the Bellwright and lead a rebellion against your homeland’s oppressive Sovereign, delving into your family’s true history and unraveling the dark mystery surrounding the prince’s murder.
Survive, Build, and Prepare for War
Leading a rebellion isn’t easy, but it certainly can be fun if you prove yourself a worthy leader. The world of Bellwright in the low Medieval times, is a harsh, but not impossible world to live in. Learn to survive, and build a home for yourself and those who are deeply loyal to you.
To do so, you’ll need to gather resources, hunt, build, and craft to foster a bustling settlement that can withstand not only the Crown and its Royal Army, but bandits, nature, and more. Don’t worry though, as you won’t have to do this alone. Bellwright is all about liberating and freeing oppressed people and recruiting them to your cause. However, people won’t just come running to your side. You’ll have to build enough Renown by constructing buildings, completing quests, and taking down enemies to prove yourself to others.
Once you recruit a villager, they will come with their own individual abilities, strengths, and weaknesses and can be given tasks like constructing a building or gathering food and other resources. They can also be placed into a squad in your army. Want to create a cadre of archers to keep you safe from a distance? Go right ahead. Want a group of shield bearers that can clear you a path to take down the heart of an enemy encampment? You can do that too.
Lastly, each villager can have a profession like Worker, Soldier, or Guard. Familiarize yourself with the villagers and identify any professions that may be lacking to best utilize their skills in your town. Build up the perfect team to protect your home and then go out and take down the Crown.
Recruit or Conquer those Around You to Become More Powerful
Don’t get too content with just your settlement, however, as that won’t be enough to clear your name and help the kingdom. Along your journey, you’ll need to handle threats both large and small in different regions to claim them for your own. These victories will earn you “Insurgency Points” and new resources that will allow you to learn advanced technologies to grow your home and strengthen your forces.
Some of these outposts and towns will remain functional after you conquer and liberate them from the Crown, however their responsibility will now fall under you. You’ll need to build, manage, and upgrade these outposts and towns with recruits, ensuring their resources are plentiful so they’ll be ready when called upon for battle.
There are Bandit encampments littered around the map that will also pose a huge threat if ignored. These camps can either be easy, medium, or hard, and each has a Radius of Threat that you can see on the map. This red area is one where bandits can attack your villagers gathering resources, attack your settlements, or guard valuable resource nodes. So, if you want to build something in one of these areas or have an outpost nearby, make sure to clear out the camp first!
Take caution though, as the bandits will get increasingly more angry as you take out their camps, causing the Raid Threat meter to rise. Once the meter is full, the bandits will launch an onslaught on your settlements, killing villagers, stealing resources, and damaging buildings if your defenses aren’t up to par.
Lead Your Armies to Victory Alone or With Friends
Once you are confident in your forces or ready to risk it all for the ultimate glory, you can leave the comforts of your home and take to the battlefield to secure a victory for the ages. Combat in Bellwright is described as directional combat, meaning you can choose where your attacks will land on an enemy. With a sword and shield in hand (or other weapons like axes and bows!), you can charge head-first into battle, feeling the weight of every swing and defending yourself against every strike.
You won’t have battle alone as you can bring squads of your villagers with you. While you are taking down foes left and right, as the powerful leader you are, you can also direct your squads to follow you into the fray, charge and lead a path, move to a specific spot, or attack a group of enemies while you focus on another.
While Bellwright can be played entirely solo, it also allows you to bring in a few friends! Build and fight together because, as it’s always said, it’s more fun with friends!
Bellwright is coming soon to Steam Early Access and will continuously update as it approaches its launch. For more, wishlist Bellwright on Steam or check out Bellwright’s Discord. Creators interested in covering the game prior to its Early Access release can contact bellwright@noiz.gg.
