The Green Knight meets Hellblade in this medieval horror fantasy game

It’s not often that a game starts immediately after your character is murdered. In the demo for Of love and eternity, a “stylistic dark fantasy horror adventure” released on Steam earlier this month, players see their character floating aimlessly in a cosmic void of nebulous gas giants and stars before awakening screaming in the desiccated husk of their mortal coil. It’s a damn good first impression, only reinforced by the obvious care put into the visuals and setting.

Created by Brazilian game developer Winston Powell, known as Acorn Bringer. Of love and eternity is a third-person action-horror game with a noticeably melancholic atmosphere. Players take on the role of an undead knight who, after being killed by a tyrannical king and resurrected in a dungeon-like crypt in a purgatory forest, learns that his beloved has been lost somewhere else in this realm. With nothing but a suit of armor and the burning azure light of his own soul to guide him, the knight ventures into the dark wilderness of this world in search of a reunion with it.

Image: Acorn Bringer

The demo covers the first act of the game and can be completed in around 15 to 20 minutes. I spent most of my time wandering the winding paths of a rainy autumn forest with only the flickering light in my character’s chest and an occasional strobe flash of menacing red energy to signal my path forward.

What immediately caught my attention was how damn Good the game looks; The art style and environments evoke similar comparisons Hellblade: Senua’s victim over the course of the 2000s Tramp story. The tone of the game’s expository dialogue and overall world is somewhat similar to David Lowery The Green Knight, a dark and detailed experience that emphasizes exploration and introspection over action or combat. The lighting mentioned above Of love and eternity is one of the strongest aspects of the game – it also reminds me of Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy in terms of its ethereal qualities as well as the colorful, ambigram-like design of the game’s logo.

You wander through the forest, discovering new passageways, collecting lightning bugs in your empty lantern to avoid swarms of moths blocking your path, and searching for a place to rest as you adjust to the strange horrors of your new surroundings. Of love and eternityThe Steam page promises that players will encounter other beings on their journey, both benign and malevolent, and will have to choose to help, ignore or fight as they explore every nook and cranny.

Of love and eternity currently has no release date, but development is ongoing – Powell posts regular updates on the game’s progress on his Patreon page. The game’s world seems to be filled with an aura of foreboding, a dark forest full of even darker secrets. It’s exactly the kind of environment that as a player I can’t wait to get lost in.