Tackle A Corrupt Knights Of The Round Table And Rebuild The Afterlife In Wardens

Preview

Written by Andrew Stretch

Published: September 2, 2026 11:00 AM

Wardens of Avalon tasks you with taking on the corruption head first and rebuilding a safe afterlife in this dark Arthurian ARPG from Runes Studio, published by The Arcade Crew and Dotemu. We had a chance to get hands-on with the opening of the game to get entrenched in the combat and crafting elements that Wardens of Avalon has to offer.

Fight Corruption In Wardens Of Avalon

Starting up Wardens of Avalon, we were met not with the halls of victory and merriment in the afterlife, but with a derelict castle and warnings of the corruption that has spread through the land. The Afterlife, which used to be a nice place, became corrupted after King Arthur drank from the Holy Grail. This corruption has become a blight on the land, not just making areas dangerous to move through, but by infecting denizens of the afterlife, it will also turn their minds.

Early signs of this corruption through investigation manifested in tentacles flooring that grasped at me as I quickly dodge-rolled through it, or came in the form of zombie-like knights that would claw their way up from the dirt and attack.

Learning more about the state of the world, you're recruited by Morgan Le Fay, the sister of Arthur, to become a member of the Twilight Knights and rebuild their Citadel to build up your forces and strength, to take on the corrupted member of the Knights of the Round Table, and ultimately stop Arthur himself.

It's a really effective story hook, quickly bringing together the idea of a world that has already fallen and your struggle to correct the status quo, as well as the promise of meeting and taking on mythological figures. The stakes are immediately set, and your objective is clear.

Gameplay is a top-down ARPG that those familiar with games like Diablo will know well. Make your way through the world with your melee weapon and shield (or just block with your sword if you've taken up a two-handed weapon). Adding to the combat of melee and well-timed blocks and rolls, you also obtain spell runes that let you cast powerful, damaging spells, adding more whimsy to this dark adventure.

You have good freedom over the rotation of the camera, but panning it up and down has quite a limit. You can move between the 45-degree angle more common in isometric titles and a proper top-down look, but there's no way to lower the camera to get a better idea of your surroundings. A few times, I got caught in a loop just because it was harder to get my bearings, and I wasn't able to really look past the smaller view of the world I had access to.

The combat is easy to get into, and you'll quickly understand the importance of a well-timed dodge roll. To start with, you'll face the previously mentioned zombies and a wolf or two. The difficulty very quickly scales up as you reach the Citadel and have to take on a human 2x taller than you with a giant shield and lance.

This enemy does a fantastic job of really setting correct expectations for the rest of the game. With four or five different attacks, each with a telegraphing pattern, and the shield forcing you to attack from the side or back, you very quickly go from only really needing to slash to planning each of your movements with far more care. There's always a chance to back away and use a bandage and re-engage, so while it's a tougher fight, you'll not feel helpless, and you'll learn to watch for opportunities to attack.

You aren't just looking out for enemies as you explore the world, but also different places to gather resources. Craft yourself some basic tools like a woodaxe, pickaxe, and sickle to collect wood, stone, and fibers as the basis for crafting. I was somewhat surprised by just how many resources you needed when it came to crafting. You're able to make the basic tools with just 10 wood and 10 stone, but after getting to the Citadel, where you'll really begin to craft, each building required at least 100 of multiple resources at a time.

It's certainly not going to take you away from the action for hours at a time, but my methodology very quickly swapped from "I'll pick up something when I need it, or I see a lot of it" to spending more time looking for trees and large rocks than exploring or seeing out combat challenges.

There's a LOT of work that needs to be done at the Citadel and across its different regions. Each level up gives you access to more resources but also upgrades the Citadel's stats. I'm interested to see just how much it changes from the dark and corrupted state it's in when you first show up, to how it will look further into the game as it becomes a safe haven for all.

While different upgrades were provided during my time with the game, swapping out some weapons and getting access to new armor, these were all pretty linear upgrades that just provided better attack and defense. How much you can really customize your character and separate their fighting style and build from another player's will also be something interesting to learn more about closer to the game's full release.

Overall, I had a fun time launching into the opening of Wardens of Avalon. The combat was tough, but not punishing, and there are a lot of different systems that I only felt I was barely scratching the surface of. The crafting system is something that can't be left to the side, so if you're interested in playing, know that you'll need to invest heavily in resource collection. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, I can imagine feel like a lot of roadblocks will get hit if you're not farming fibers and stones at every turn (provided there isn't some way to automate it as you progress further).

At the moment, there is no release date for Wardens of Avalon, but it's planned to be released in 2027 for PC via Steam. At the moment, there are only plans to release on PC, where the development team at Rune Studios has stated it will "remain our focus until we've hit our quality and stability targets."

Wardens of Avalon was previewed on PC via Steam with a copy provided by the published over 2 hours - All photos were provided by the publisher

Andrew Stretch | Senior Content Manager

Andrew has written Video Game and Entertainment news, reviews, and guides for 10+ years. As Senior Content Manager, he assists in creating and editing… More about Andrew