The 3D, arena-based fighting game from 8-Bit Studio called Skara: The Blade Remains has officially entered into open alpha on Steam’s Early Access platform. The free-to-play multiplayer fighting game combines team-based gameplay with tactical combat awareness.

Unlike other online PvP titles, you actually have to use timing, dodging, parrying, blocking and countering to best your foes in the arena.

The game was originally Kickstarted a while back and the developers have been slowly iterating leading up to the open alpha for the general public. They released a launch video for the game to give gamers a look at what the combat looks like, which you can check out below.

The developers responded to some criticisms about the movement and combat being too slow, saying that their combat system in Skara: The Blade Remains is actually faster than Dark Souls and For Honor.

The game allows for up to 10 players to battle it out in the arena, with teams containing up to five members each.

The story is emergent and based around what the players develop for the game rather than the developers trying to shoehorn in a story for people to get interested in. Pablo Rodríguez, the creative director of Skara, went into more detail, explaining…

“The main idea we had from the very beginning was to put players in the center of this dying world, and make the Lore evolve based in their actions, not the other way around” “Our Kickstarter backers and Early Adopters are already part of the Lore: now it is time to open this to the rest of the world, starting with the four-days event called ‘Cataclysm’ that will initiate the ‘Time of the Two Suns’”.

Publisher Planeta will be releasing a novel based on the lore developed by the community, and the novel will be released at some point in 2017.

The game itself is available for free over on the Steam store as part of its Early Access run. 8-Bit Studios plan on keeping the game in Early Access up until around the summer of 2017.