Recently, MKAU Gaming was invited to attend a Hands-On Preview of ‘Renown’, an upcoming title from Aussie developers RDBK Studios. After multiple successful crowdfunding campaigns and years at the development grindstone, the team at RDBK Studios were ready to show us what they have been forging behind the scenes.

Before I dive into everything I had the pleasure of experiencing during the preview hosted by Game Director Jesse Jacobson, I must first answer the question, What is Renown?

Renown is a multiplayer survival experience set in a vast and ever-changing medieval world. Players begin with nothing, gather resources, build a kingdom and fight to survive, hoping to become renowned across the land.

Rooted deeply at its core, Renown is a first-person medieval fighting game with a strong emphasis on competitive skill-based combat. As it goes with a lot of these events, there is never enough time to explore every detail, though it was more than enough time to be served a hearty helping of the close-quarters combat that players can expect during a siege battle.

Before splitting up the group into our respective attacking and defending teams, Game Director Jesse Jacobson led us through a village safe area as he showed off some of the various structures that players were able to construct.

These buildings ranged from a humble hunter shack, a small fortified village, to a fortified castle, which we would later try and fail miserably at defending. Before I get into the thrill of combat and misery felt in defeat, let’s talk progression.

Players will start their journey with nothing and must gather resources from around the world, gathering wood, stone, plants and animals, which are all used for crafting. To be able to build the highest quality gear, players will also need to fight over points of interest and seek out precious gold to upgrade tech trees and build better weapons, armour and buildings. Silver must also be obtained, which is the currency for being able to craft siege weapons that will certainly come in handy when the enemy players come charging through the castle gates.

My immediate concern as a new player was, oh great, I’m going to join this server, and everyone is going to have progressed so much that I’m just going to get slaughtered. I was more than relieved to learn that each week the servers are wiped, meaning that next match all players would start out on equal footing.

Coming out on top for the week is certainly going to be hard-fought and require a lot of team strategy. Do you farm like a madman and build the most fortified castle in modern history? Do you build humble dwellings and try to wear down your enemy all week? The choice is yours.

With time running short and our teams set, it was time for our mini-siege, even though our team suffered a humiliating defeat, plenty of discoveries were made in the heat of battle. The combat is much more complex than my initial button presses, and hoping for the best. Simply swinging your sword around is not going to cut it, pardon the pun. Combat feels weighty and satisfying, though it does require a little physics manipulation to be effective.

Attacking somebody bare-handed still felt as if I had a sword equipped and lacked the speed that one should gain from not having a heavy item in hand. Even though it had this downside, brawling like two drunkards outside of ye old pub was still extremely satisfying.

Renown brings to the table the best mechanics and fundamentals of survival games like Rust and fuses it with the skill-based combat of the likes of ‘For Honour’ and ‘Chivalry’. This is quite an exciting blend of genres that makes me intrigued. I look forward to seeing how the team at RDBK Studios improve the game as they head toward release.

Written by: Gary Nielsen