Call of Saregnar Preview

The early to mid ‘90s are extremely nostalgic for PC RPG gamers of a certain vintage. With classics like the Eye of the Beholder series, The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall and Betrayal at Krondor along with quirky affairs like the Realms of Arkania series. It’s easy to see why it’s a fondly remembered period. Call of Saregnar’s developer also remembers as it works on rekindling the spirit of adventure from almost 30 years ago.

Call of Saregnar wears its inspirations on its sleeve, the most obvious of which is Betrayal at Krondor. The retro visuals the game has, combining live-action stills with pixelated 3D exteriors, immediately conjure up memories of wandering the countryside in that seminal classic. Saregnar isn’t trying to ape Krondor however, it’s more a love letter to the period than any one game. Exploration, for example, feels more akin to Daggerfall whilst combat emulates Krondor’s combat, puts it on a hex grid and channels the European strangeness of the Realms of Arkania series.

The demo build is relatively short, consisting of a town with a few non-player character interactions, a small hint of how your questing will play out, a taster of combat and a whole heap of charm. What is here hints that the final game has a lot of potential but it’s hard to get a real feel for how it all clicks together.

It kicks off with landlady Dina kicking you out of a bar to chase down the scoundrel who robbed you during a perfectly fair card game. This naturally leads to you checking every house and naturally exploring the small town you find yourself in. The first-person exploration is simple, mostly triggering things in the environment for clues. Visually it looks wonderful, very much hitting that spot where it’s how you remember games from this era looking and not how they actually looked.

Some locations are enterable and allow you to interact with the aforementioned live-action characters. Their nostalgic pixelated forms begging to be clicked on for dialogue or information. This information provides backstory as well as hints to what is going on in the world and what you should be doing.

Combat is a tactical turn-based affair that takes place on a hex grid. Clearly inspired again by Krondor but also feeling like it’s winking at the Arkania games too. Because it’s so early, it’s hard to gauge how this will pan out but presentation-wise it looks the part. There is something really charming about seeing live-action people moving around the retro 3D environments that is really hard to not smile at.

At this early stage, the demo serves as the promise of an idea and the individual parts on show here are all great taken at face value. There is clearly a lot of love put into the whole affair and Call of Saregnar has the potential to be a great homage to a fondly remembered time.

Call of Saregnar is still early in development but hopefully as time marches forward we’ll see each aspect fleshed out and it’ll get within touching distance of the classics it loves and is clearly inspired by. It’s definitely one to keep an eye on for those of us after an old-school RPG fix.