Anti-Skyrim: Iron Age Roguelike UnReal World Goes Free

This unfortunately-named roguelike (it's never wise to call your game something that sounds like a 1990s Epic fansite) had a brief mention from Adam back in 2011. This scares me because Adam's still the new boy in my mind, and now it seems he's been working here for going on two years. I digress! UnReal World is an iron age-set roguelike about survival, and the difficulty thereof. Though lo-fi, it's a brutal affair, with the frozen early Scandinavian Finnish environment as likely to do you in as wolves and roaming warriors are. It's now gone donation-based, which means you can download and play it for as long as you like for free, hopefully then sending a few groats the developer's way if you enjoy it.

If something like Dungeons of Dredmor is what springs to mind when you think of roguelikes, you'll be in for a shock with UnReal World. And I don't mean in terms of the DOS era graphics. This is a game where you need to hunt, find shelter and build fires just to survive the day. I've yet to give it a spin myself, but it might just be the antidote I need to the bluster of Crysis 3.

UnReal World is available in PC, Unmendable Expensive PC and Still-command-line-dependent-no-matter-what-people-say PC flavours. Again, the full version is free for now, though that may not last apparently. Devs Enormous Elk (a splendid name) says they're doing this "Foremostly to keep up hasty release pace. Massive AI, end-game and graphics improvements are underway and I'd like to keep releasing new versions whenever substantial new features are up and running. Shortly: less licensing, more development."

Donations of $35 more buy 'lifetime membership' which will grant you access to pre-release versions and suchlike.

Let us know you how get on with UnReal World. I want to hear stories of being eaten by bears in the middle of the night, eating your own clothes to survive, that sort of thing.