A brand new development studio based out of Egypt called Rumbling Games is working on a new action-adventure game based around the real life war between the Sassanid empire and the Arabs leading up to the defeat of the Sassanians at the hands of Islamic forces.
They don’t exactly say which side players will be fighting on, but the end result is that the Muslims eventually defeated the Sassanids. However, we do know that the game will center around the battle between the Arabs and the Sassanids over the land of Iraq during the 7th century around the 630s.
The medieval, action-adventure title will focus around a hero character who will be the main protagonist of the story, while there will also be bosses and other characters based on historical figures that will appear in the game as well. Essentially, this is going to be the Arab version of Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Some tech demos were released earlier this year showcasing some of the locations that players will visit in Knights of Light that you can check out below.
The game will feature 400 kilometers of wide open space for players to traverse, spanning a variety of locations from deserts to mountains, to forests, to valleys.
Visually it doesn’t look bad at all. The team also released a video showcasing some of the combat featured in Knights of Light, which is based on motion-captured data.
It’s a minute and a half of the main character – who is nice and roided up – hacking and slashing away at enemies in a forest while also dodging incoming attacks. You can check it out below.
It’s still early on in development, but the animations don’t look too bad. It’s smooth enough when the main character goes to dodge, and his footwork and swordplay are quite smooth.
The motion-blur is a bit disorienting, and it would be nice to see better blocking techniques at play, but Rumbling Game Studios at least made good use of the animation tree blending so that there’s a seamless transition between attacks, parries, and manual dodging.
The lead gameplay designer is actually a vet from the Assassin’s Creed franchise, and he’s designing the game around similar gameplay mechanics to The Witcher, since he was “greatly inspired” by CD Projekt Red’s trilogy.
The game is still a long ways off from release, but they’re expecting the full campaign and side-quests to total about 60 hours worth of gameplay, and are already planning two additional expansions post-release.
Rumbling Games Studio is also signed on as a developer and publisher for Xbox One and PS4, so Knights of Light will make its way to home consoles and PC.
