Dark Envoy Announced – A Non-Linear Tactical RPG From the Creators of Tower of Time

Event Horizon, the studio behind 2018’s real time with pause RPG Tower of Time, has announced their next project. Entitled Dark Envoy, the game is said to be inspired by the Divinity, Dragon Age, and XCOM series. It’s expected to launch in late 2020 featuring a non-linear story in a colonial-flavored world that combines magic with technology, a total of 15 character classes, a deep and tactical combat system, and an opportunity to play through the game together with a friend.

Check out the announcement trailer:

And here’s what the game’s Steam description has to say:

Dark Envoy is a non-linear RPG inspired by the likes of the Divinity series, XCOM, FTL, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age to offer free world exploration with an emphasis on tactical combat layered with lore and strategy. A continuation of Event Horizon’s attempt, which began with the studio’s debut title Tower of Time, to shatter long-standing RPG tropes and to create something unique in the process.

Explore the world using your Skyship, it is your base of operations after all. Hunt for mythical locations, and procedurally generated dungeons with optional tactical objectives. Choose wisely where to travel however, as the world map adjusts with the passing of in-game time. Locations will randomly respawn, becoming progressively more challenging to travel for you and your party.

Story

As the Human Empire fights for dominance against the remnants of the Old Races, Dark Technology clashes against Magic — neither side is good and just. The strong prey on the weak taking whatever they please. This is total war, where the defeated will be entirely wiped from the pages of history.

Against this backdrop, Kaela and Kiros aspire to repair their parents’ broken airship in order to travel the world, seeking to face whatever dungeons, challenges, and riches may come their way. They are hungry to learn how to fight, build, and forge alliances and friendships across the known lands. Together, they search for ancient relics and forgotten places. Together, they look to leave a legacy in their wake…

Yet, their journey begins in blood and tragedy.

Your choices are everything and they can reshape your life in this place, even the world around you. Will you become strong enough to survive the journey and reach the end? Will you find the power to change this grim reflection of our own world? Will your legacy be one of peace and honor, or stained by bloodshed and destruction?

When you look in the mirror at the end, what reflection will you see there?

Features

• Non-linear RPG with turn-based combat accompanied by a real time pre-combat phase where tactics and party power are equally important.
• Player choices impact the world: it can be destroyed or saved, and the stories that unfold will lead to multiple endings reflecting the characters’ personalities and decisions.
• Co-written by Michael Chatfield, an Amazon Top 100 Science Fiction / Fantasy writer (specializing in litRPG genre).
• 15 unique character classes to discover – with the ability to mix skill trees – including some rare classes which can only be found in remote locations or through chained quests.
• New RPG system, promoting experimentation and requiring frequent adaptation to the new challenges.
• Can be played solo, two player co-op, as well as a unique mode called Player vs World where Player 2 acts as the final boss seeking to destroy Player 1 before he/she becomes too powerful.
• High-replayability factor due to large pool of quests, local, and world events. One cannot uncover all of the content in a single playthrough.

Additionally, you may be interested in this VentureBeat interview with Krzysztof Monkiewicz, Event Horizon’s founder. A snippet:

Colonial aims

Tower of Time was a story about exploring a postapocalyptic fantasy world. In Dark Envoy, you’re newcomers to a land with long-lived, powerful cultures — the Old Races.

“Tower of Time had a bit of a post-apocalyptic vibe, where the player was discovering the grim history of the world throughout the game. Dark Envoy is more approachable, as it puts the player in the shoes of two people who are quite average and unremarkable in the beginning. As the story confronts them with a world of mystery and conspiracy, a world we want to portray as the shadow of our own world, or the alternate Earth, their characters and attitude toward the events around them change,” Monkiewicz said. “The player can decide to take an easier path, at least in the beginning, of being ‘bad’ and following their desires by taking whatever they want, even from the poor and innocent. However, small evil steps would over time lead to greater evil and at the end it can turn out that, while they may have reached the final objective and won, it is not the ending they like.

“The world setting in Dark Envoy should be interesting, as it depicts a fight between Humans, newcomers to the land, and Old Races, where the human empire is the aggressor. We feel it’s a refreshing change from a typical Human vs Others conflict. As the story unfolds we find out that not everything is as black/white as it seemed and that something — or someone — might be manipulating us.”

And in related news, a press release informs us that Tower of Time will be launching on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch sometime in Q1 2020. More on that:

1 August, 2019 – Indie publisher Digerati and developer Event Horizon are excited to announce the innovative action-RPG Tower of Time is coming to Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One in Q1 2020. Already a hit with players on PC – it has a 9/10 rating on Steam – the console version of Tower of Time will launch with a revised control scheme developed specifically for gamepads.

The console release will also include the new game modes added to the PC version earlier this year, introducing an ultra-challenging ‘Permadeath’ mode and a more accessible ‘RPGlite’ mode.

Tower of Time is a sprawling 50+ hour adventure featuring gorgeous hand-crafted environments, story-rich dungeon crawling, flexible character development, and a unique Arrow-Time combat system that lets players pause or slow down time, allowing for unprecedented tactical depth.