Blight Survival is an action-horror roguelite that looks like a day in the life of an Elden Ring guard

Blight: Survival
(Image credit: Haenir Studio)

Blight: Survival is an intriguing new co-op action-horror roguelite that bears some resemblance to medieval games like Chivalry 2 and even fantasies like Elden Ring, only here the player character looks more like one of the latter game's many dispatchable guards.

The game takes place in the war-torn lands of an alternate 14th-century Europe, offering a dark fantasy take on the real-world plague that ravaged Western Eurasia and North Africa in the late Middle Ages. As a new strain of the "Blight" spreads rapidly from the remains of the dead, you and up to three friends are tasked with answering the soldier's call and ridding the world of the monstrous pseudo-undead.

It's not exactly clear from the Steam description how you're supposed to do that, but it involves "violent co-op" action between you and your buds and "both men and monsters." Combat looks weighty and brutal; our hero pulls no punches goring the zombie-like humanoids trudging around. You've got to wonder if the undead lads outside Elden Ring's Stormveil Castle go through this kind of stuff when clearing out the surrounding lands. 

You can sample some more combat in this five-minute gameplay video from IGN:

The map may look familiar to recent travelers of The Lands Between – or, you know, medieval historians – with abandoned villages and active encampments full of dangerous foes to fight or stealthily sneak past, depending on your playstyle. Developer and publisher Haenir Studio also says there's a "a large selection of weapons and armor" you can customize to suit your methods, though it notes that "what has been found can once again be lost," seemingly hinting at the consequences of death. 

(Image credit: Haenir Studio)

Blight: Survival is being built in Unreal Engine 5, which lends the world a truly stunning level of detail. Recency bias may make you think of Elden Ring as you look over its world and character design, but this is no Soulslike, instead mixing elements of Resident Evil and multiplayer horror games into a medieval third-person roguelite formula. It's still in early alpha with no set release date, but Blight: Survival is officially on my radar.

In case you are looking for something to fill the void after FromSoftware's latest epic, here are some games like Elden Ring that should get the job done.

CATEGORIES
Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

Read more
a helmed soldier holds their arm up defiantly
Elden Ring spinoff Nightreign is a co-op roguelike with battle royale and Monster Hunter juice, but FromSoftware says it's "not what we'd consider a live service game"
Elden Ring Nightreign screenshot which shows the new Limveld environment from a high vantage point
Elden Ring Nightreign's blend of roguelikes and battle royales could leave other studios kicking themselves – assuming FromSoftware can overcome its biggest weakness
Hell is Us
Dark Souls meets Death Stranding in Hell is Us, a dark action-adventure game with an unforgiving open world – and it's coming very soon
Exploring and fighting in Blades of Fire
Blades of Fire plays like a lost Xbox 360-era mashup between God of War and Soulslikes, and it's coming from the studio behind Metroid Dread
Elden Ring Nightreign
Elden Ring Nightreign feels like a modded version of FromSoftware's best game ever – and after 3 hours, I only wanted to play more
Abyss Ring screenshot of two goblins in a stone dungeon, with the player facing them in first-person view
I didn't know how badly I wanted to grill and gobble up monsters until this upcoming survival roguelike made it look so tasty
Latest in Action
Death Stranding 2 Collector's Edition
Hideo Kojima reveals Death Stranding 2: On the Beach release date, and the Collector's Edition includes exactly what I predicted it would
Former Xbox boss says GTA: San Andreas and its infamously NSFW Hot Coffee minigame "signified a maturing of the industry" and put games "on par with movies and music"
Death Stranding 2 PS5 screenshot
Death Stranding 2 pre-orders are estimated to go live this month, and will reportedly include a $230 collector's edition that I pray doesn't come with another creepy baby statue
Assassin's Creed Shadows Claws of Awaji expansion Naoe and Yasuke in Awaji forest
Assassin's Creed Shadows roadmap, DLC and future content
Grand Theft Auto 3
A GTA streamer is trying to beat every single 3D entry without dying, and in 33 hours he's made it as far as San Andreas but keeps getting caught in Vice City purgatory
The Last of Us 2
Naughty Dog has done it: it's remastered the PS5 controller with a Last of Us-themed DualSense announcement 24 hours after Neil Druckmann dashed our hopes for The Last of Us 3
Latest in News
Balatro
Balatro creator started "properly playing the game myself about a week before launch" and had "a pretty emotional moment" where he realized it's "actually fun"
Death Stranding 2 Collector's Edition
Hideo Kojima reveals Death Stranding 2: On the Beach release date, and the Collector's Edition includes exactly what I predicted it would
Kingmakers
Kingmakers is a strategy game about taking on medieval armies with a gun, but its devs thought the giant mech was too much
The Witcher 3 lead says "not many games" were trying to match the RPG back in 2015, and that meant "there was a risk" to making it in the first place
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 dev says his new vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker wants to challenge genre conventions, but only if "we're changing them to actually achieve some goal"
Daredevil recap: The Defenders
Marvel fans are discussing which of the Netflix series characters would have survived the Blip