‘Second Sun’, by Grey Wolf Entertainment and published by Iceberg Interactive, reminds me of old-school dungeon-crawling adventure games. It harkens back to a time when games like the Elder Scrolls series were in their prime. Second Sun feels like a nostalgic throwback to early RPGs, finding its stride in looter-shooter dungeon-crawling, with some interesting sci-fi fantasy elements that take the game to intriguing places.

Second Sun is set during a civil war between the Empire and the Order of the Second Sun. As a Sunborn, a warrior chosen to defend the Empire, your hero of choice must save the world and the Good Sun’s light from fading before it’s too late. Choosing a Sunborn is the first step, between a Marauder – a frontline soldier, Sentinel – specialising in swift combat, both close and long-range and the Diviner – using the light of the White Sun to take down evil.

Exploring the world of Rowen, I found myself exploring a fairly sizeable open-world, leading to quite a decent amount of room for exploration, including points of interest, camps, collectables, and of course – dungeons. The dungeons of Second Sun are procedurally generated, filled with all manner of grotesque beasties and creepy crawlies. Most dungeons had simplistic layouts, and without music, they lacked some atmospheric quality in visuals and a lack of musical ambience. Where the dungeons hit hard is when it comes to combat.

The main enemies I encountered during my travels through them were Nightmares and Torments, and they definitely fell quite fittingly into those terms, being incredibly threatening and not hesitating in the slightest to attempt to lash out and sink their claws into my Sunborn. The fast-paced shooting made a massive difference in such confined spaces, allowing players to run and gun through them with hefty boomsticks, execute well-placed grenade throws, and utilise class abilities that work incredibly well in a bind, especially toward the end of dungeons where massive waves of enemies and bosses come into play.

Finding loot to change out to higher-tier gear really makes the Sunborn warriors feel tankier, which I imagine playing an “Ironman” character (the permadeath mode during character selection) is crucial to survival. The skill tree and levelling aren’t too much of a slog, and powering up your hero feels relatively straightforward.

Movement around the world is incredibly quick, with no stamina limitations, so while there was a fair amount of distance between objectives, ground could be covered quickly. With some fast-travel points, it was possible to bypass certain areas. I enjoyed speeding through areas, wiping out enemy factions as I went, stopping at the occasional shrine and completing some simpler tasks along the way.

Where I lost interest was in the monotony of completing tasks and in the dungeons, which lacked distinct charm due to being procedurally generated. The camp and its NPCs lacked depth, with little charm to truly invest in their plight. Completing tasks to level up the base didn’t feel overly rewarding, and it didn’t seem like the soldiers stationed there were very appreciative of my efforts, which left a little to be desired.

The gorgeous opening cutscene had some promising voice-acting, but I was a little dismayed to find that it didn’t make it into the in-game dialogue, instead opting for text only, which took me a little out of the fantasy. Likewise, the epic score in the opening cutscene was the pinnacle of the soundtrack, where, during exploration and combat, sounds were primarily environmental with less music and more of a droning sound that I can tell thus far, which, while great for awareness of enemy presence and my surroundings, took away some of the magic.

Where Second Sun lacks some shine is in the visuals. The character models and UI appear somewhat dated, with a low-resolution look at times. The world can have quite a bland colour palette, and textures aren’t always as detailed as I would expect from a sci-fi fantasy title. Still, there’s enough density in foliage and landmarks to keep topside interesting.

There are some nice lighting and effects in the environments, such as fog in dungeons and beams of light through the trees above the surface, which do spruce up the graphics a bit. Mostly, the game ran smoothly on PC, with minor frame rate drops and a few instances of slow load-in.

Mouse and keyboard controls are standard fare for an FPS. Playing on a controller lacks some support, with some cases requiring keyboard clicks, which hopefully will be addressed down the line. As an FPS, I found it played perfectly fine on mouse and keyboard, my preferred way to play shooters.

Second Sun is a fun, fast-paced run-and-gun looter shooter. There are glimpses of old-school RPGs that feel like a return to the past, with some blending of the new (the fast shooter mechanics almost feel akin to the “Doom” series). Mercilessly gunning down enemies feels great, but the lack of charm in the characters, story and world left me wanting a little more brightness amongst all the doom and gloom.

Written by: Yasmin Noble