Tactical CRPG Dark Envoy shows off its many steampunk-fantasy classes and specialisations

Upcoming tactical CRPG Dark Envoy caught my attention when it was announced last year, mainly because it has the undeniably cool combo of high fantasy magic and steampunk firearms. Casting you as a refugee adventurer, you’ll be shooting and/or spell-flinging across the war-ravaged world of Jäan, and you can even bring a friend along for the ride in co-op. We already knew all that good stuff, but the developers have now released a new video that delves deeper into the game’s classes and specialisations. Take a look below.

Our leading siblings, Kaela and Malakai, can choose between four classes and 12 specialisations in the game. The above trailer has the duo roleplay as a flashy adept elementalist and a gadget-throwing engineer. But for those who are similarly indecisive and scared of commitment, the game also has six other companions who are all assigned to their own classes. So you can mess around with all the movesets and skill trees regardless of what you choose for Kaela and Malakai. Awkward-faced Tet, the robo-ranger, will probably be a permanent fixture in my squad, though.

Battles in Dark Envoy can take place in real-time, or you can happily slow things way down in tactical mode. Phew. Pausing the action will likely come in handy when all the flamethrowers and area-of-effect moves get overwhelming, although I always appreciate steamrolling through weaker enemies in real-time, too.

Dark Envoy comes from developers Event Horizon, who were previously behind the similarly tactical CRPG Tower Of Time. That one got RPS’ Bestest Best stamp of approval, as our early access Tower Of Time review called it a “huge, deeply developed, beautifully crafted RPG, novel in all the right ways.”

There’s no release date so far for Dark Envoy, but it should be coming to Steam and GOG later this year. Hopefully we'll have all finished Baldur's Gate 3 by then...