With Tribes of Midgard, developer Norsfell says it's looking to create a new genre within the survival game space. We spent about two hours playing the game and got a sense of Norsfell's "Surthrival" game for ourselves. Most notably, Tribes of Midgard takes a lot of the ideas of current survival games and streamlines them, making for a more chill experience that still requires you to find materials, craft tools and armor, and upgrade a base, but with a lot fewer things to keep in mind to stay alive--like keeping yourself fed and constructing buildings.
We spent two hours in Tribes of Midgard's Saga mode, which provides you with objectives as you fight to protect a piece of Yggdrasil, the World Tree of Norse mythology. Since less emphasis is put on keeping yourself alive and constructing your base, you can spend more time building your character to defend your settlement. Each session sees you leveling up your viking not just by getting new gear, but by unlocking character classes and skill tree upgrades. There's also an element of randomness thanks to "runes" you can find in the world that give you various perks. By combining the roguelike elements of the runes with your character choices, you can create a new viking in each session who is tailored to your strengths, what your team needs, and what items you've already uncovered.
Check out our full written preview on Tribes of Midgard, which digs deeper into our hands-on time with the game. Tribes hits PC, PlayStation 4, and PS5 on July 27.