What goes on during a lunch break at a games development studio? They get together and play games of course! But, in the case of French studio Artefacts Studio, the game in question was Descent: Legends of the Dark, a cooperative tabletop dungeon crawler.
And when the studio has built their foundations on dungeon crawlers and turn-based RPGs with the likes of The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos and recently released Disciples: Domination, their next game was literally already on the table…
We were recently invited to a presentation and early access to the demo for Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent. Set in the world of Descent, this brand-new adventure is designed for both newcomers and veterans of the board game. And after our time with it, it ticks both of those boxes.
A Prequel Tale: Forging a New Legend in Terrinoth
Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent is set one year before the events of the boardgame, featuring a completely original story. Rather than simply retelling the events of the boardgame for a video game audience, a new tale has been forged with new characters and more to entice both.
The demo introduces players to the world of Descent with a well-paced tutorial, giving us a little taste of both the crawling and the battling.
Dungeon Crawling
Starting with the crawling aspect, like any good dungeon-crawler, it has an isometric point-of-view. During the demo, there were some light puzzle elements such as splitting your team up to stand on different panels to open a door, or wandering round to find a key. However, these moments aren’t going to require much in the way of problem solving; developers during the presentation assured us of that.
If anything, the exploration is secondary to the combat itself, which is where the most fun was had.
Entering a battle sees the landscape resemble something more traditional for those who have played the boardgame. It becomes a grid with elevated terrain and plenty of environmental hazards to be weary of.
What is surprising is just how fast-paced the combat is for a traditional turn-based affair. Characters can have three actions per turn, and with a decent amount of movement, you don’t have to spend two or three rounds just getting into a position to fight. You can quickly get into combat and start slashing away with melee attacks. Or, keep your distance with a variety of ranged attacks too.
Overpowered Abilities
Playable characters also have some very overpowered attacks, but these are limited in use. One character, Myria, had a lightning-based attack that would strike five times at random enemies in an area. Typically, three strikes on one foe were enough to kill them outright.
Another attack allowed me to highlight an area to be hit by falling icicles. That area would stay highlighted and icicles would fall again after a number of turns. The only downside is that friendly fire is activated, as I found out to my detriment.
Once combat is completed however, your health returns to full and you are quickly back to exploring the world.
Detailed Spells and Clean UI
Even during our short time with the demo, it felt like the developers had nailed what they were trying to achieve. There is no complex lore or rule book to first digest here, you can jump straight in and play. But that doesn’t also mean the combat is basic: each character has a number of spell slots that will increase as you level up, but each one has a detailed description of what it does if you hover over it. You don’t need to spend hours before a run customising characters, but the option is there for you if you want to get into the nitty gritty.
“As fans of Descent, stepping into Terrinoth has been both a huge responsibility and an incredible joy,” said Bruno Chabanel, CEO of Artefacts Studio. “With Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent we wanted to capture the feeling of a tense tabletop dungeon crawl and translate it into a tactical RPG that flows naturally on PC and consoles with a multiplayer cooperative mode to accurately convey the atmosphere of the board game. It’s easy to pick up, but there is always another strategy, another synergy or another build to discover.”
“This project sits exactly where we love to be: at the crossroads of strong IP, character-driven stories and smart, meaningful gameplay,” said Cédric Maréchal, CEO of New Tales. “We’re excited to partner with Artefacts Studio and asmodee, and we can’t wait for the Descent tabletop community, and tactical RPG fans in general, to discover this new way of becoming heroes of Terrinoth.”
And the UI isn’t so cluttered that you can barely see the action. It gives you the most important elements such as turn order and remaining HP, but stat changes and the like can also be viewed if that is your bag too.
Four-Player Co-op
Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent is fully playable in four-player co-op. In an attempt to echo those board game nights as well, each of the 20 missions should take no longer than a couple of hours. You can choose to play through them sequentially, following the story as you all play along, or pick a favourite for a one-shot experience. And with eight varied characters to choose from, each one fully voiced with dynamic speech depending on who is in the party, it is looking likely that Terrinoth will be played for a long time to come.
But if the prospect of having to sync up four calendars to find one evening where everyone is free is the definition of daunting, Terrinoth is playable solo with you controlling all characters. And who knows, you may just prefer things that way.
Ready for a Q2 2026 Launch
The demo for Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent is available on Steam now. A launch window of Q2 2026 has also been given, so the full launch on Xbox, PlayStation and PC isn’t too long away either.
In fact, I’d say you have just about enough time to wrangle up a few friends for an online games night.
Huge thanks go out to New Tales and Artefacts Studio for the opportunity to learn more about the game, via a press presentation and hands-on demo.
