Short, sweet, and shockingly well-tuned, Elderborn's sheer confidence and charm are more than enough to make it easy to recommend, even if some odd design choices clutter the edges.

Elderborn feels like it might owe Robert E. Howard some royalties, but we'll give it some slack. Set in an unidentified age of swords, sorcery, and bloodshed, the player is cast as a nameless barbarian who is tasked with entering the sealed city of Jurmum for reasons that are initially unclear. Mechanically, the first two thirds of the game are a treat, a heavy metal, high-octane dungeon crawl. Navigating traps and monsters alike, the player begins to piece together the sordid history of the necropolis and their role in the destiny of this place.

Mechanically, I'd say that the game feels oftentimes like a first-person Dark Souls, but that's reductive. Combat's light-attack, heavy-attack, and parry combos are certainly reminiscent, but there's no real stamina bar to contend with and combat is often as stylish and brutal as it is fast-paced and a tad jank. The kick move is the culmination of these points, being at tactically useful, not quite as responsive as I'd like, fun to use, and wickedly funny all at once. It feels extremely good to play, but when the game eschews its tight dungeoneering for combat arenas, the influence of more modern arena-based shooters becomes evident. In this way, Elderborn feels like a game trapped between the design ethos of yesteryear but the game genre conventions of today.

That's not a mark against it though; like I said, Elderborn feels great to play. The levels are sprawling and reward exploration, a great way of pacing out the more intense pace of moment-to-moment combat. Accompanying this is a dynamic, heavy metal soundtrack that is, in a word, awesome. Seriously. It's the real star of the show here. If nothing else, you owe it to yourself to give it a listen.

That said, I've got gripes; nothing deal-breaking, but they're worth noting nonetheless. Some of the enemies, namely the scutum-bearing undead, are a pain to deal with, and the game almost has too many weapons for all of them to be useful. The XP/Skill tree in the game is a little under-baked, not always explaining how different stats impact play, as well. However, I really want to call out the game's ending for being, while not inappropriate for genre, a bit of a let down. I couldn't shake the feeling that the game's third act was cut short; due to development time constraints or budgetary constraints, I cannot say. The last act of the game pivots away from dungeoneering entirely for a variety of combat arenas, and doing so feels unnatural and stilted in a way the rest of the title didn't; combined with a somewhat weak narrative denouement that I won't spoil here, and I'm left feeling like Elderborn couldn't quite stick the landing.

That said, I think it's hard not to recommend Elderborn, even with its rough edges. As indie games go, Elderborn isn't interested in wasting your time, and the design on display is solid indeed. Just think of it like the video game equivalent of one of the lesser Conan the Barbarian - short and sweet but maybe not likely to stick with you long afterwards.