Of Ash and Steel wants to be the love child of Gothic and The Witcher 3

Fire & Frost presents its upcoming RPG

Fire & Frost

Fire & Frost’s upcoming RPG, Of Ash and Steel, strikes all the right tones for gamers who miss the likes of Gothic and Fable. It promises to be an immersive third-person RPG in an evolving world that reacts to the player’s deeds and decisions, has a full day-night cycle with NPC routines and total freedom in how to approach the story and gameplay – without map markers or guides holding the player by hand and on an open-world map that’s big, but not unending.

Described as a low-fantasy 2000s RPG with modern convenience, Of Ash and Steel clearly is a product of much love – and a development team that knows its audience. Fire & Frost even filmed a real-life trailer for the occasion, which hits all the right spots between lofty promises and slapstick humor.

Players will rise from an unknown low-life to become a hero, shaping the history of the islands Of Ash and Steel’s world consists of. They can choose between supporting two different factions on the grand scale of things, but the developers promise a lot more freedom in everything else. You need to get into a city, but the guard doesn’t let in just any vagabond? If you’re very agile, you can climb over a rugged part of the city wall at night, coming and going unseen. Or you spend some time observing the comings and goings at the city gate. A keen observer may notice that those who work as lumberjacks in the woods nearby are allowed to enter, so you could sign up for a day-job to gain entry yourself – and that’s just two of many possibilities.

Such freedom is supposed to allow every type of character to shine and approach problems in their own way.

Outside of the hero’s journey, there is plenty of other gameplay to enjoy: Of Ash and Steel will feature a housing system, minigames like fishing, and a full-blown survival experience with the means to hunt, cook, and brew potions. As with all things, your character will start being quite useless in all of these areas. You’ll need to invest into Survival, War, and Craftsmanship skills, which will unlock new recipes and possibilities. Naturally, boosting your stats will improve your chances of success in any venture as well.

Of Ash and Steel is being built in Unreal Engine 4. / Fire & Frost

Some special skills will be locked behind taking certain gameplay actions. An example the devs gave was a skill reducing fall damage: Any character can obtain this skill by falling off a high place and being saved by landing on soft vegetation. Some abilities, the developers explained, will require incredibly specific conditions to be fulfilled – this should be a joy for players who love to experiment with seemingly silly things. 

By the looks of it, the game will make it easy for you to get into ridiculous situations anyway. In one of the scenes we were shown, the player character tries to sprint through the forest, only to get tripped by some roots on the ground and fall flat on his face. That’s pretty immersive, yep.

A lot of it is inspired by The Witcher, including the fact that your character won’t be a magic user. Instead, they’ll be able to call upon powers that the developers likened to the signs the Witchers can use. The world itself has a similar feel of grit and grayness to it as the Continent and the story look to be going in a similar direction, tone-wise.

Of Ash and Steel’s soundtrack will feature dynamic themes that change depending on the region, time of day, and weather. In combat, there will be different themes for enemy types – Fire & Frost doesn’t want to bring out the epic boss music every time a player faces a wolf.

Speaking of combat, players will have a variety of weapons and styles at their disposal. In melee combat, they can choose between three stances, which are all useful against different types of foes. Battles also feature environmental interactions – see a bucket on the floor during a duel? You can kick that into your enemy’s face. Everything’s fair in love and war, you know.

What’s most impressive about the footage we’ve seen so far is the actual swordplay shown. In a lot of games, you just slash and strike and hit the enemy. There isn’t much interaction between the blades. Of Ash and Steel’s developers are clearly enthusiasts of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA), because there is so much attention to detail in how the blades move and lock – it seems oddly out of place for a development project of this scale, but in a good way.

Fire & Frost explicitly stated that it wants Of Ash and Steel to feel like a “love child” between Gothic and The Witcher 3 and everything we’ve seen certainly transports that sentiment. Will it be able to live up to its inspirations? Only time will tell.

Of Ash and Steel is coming to PC via Steam at some point in 2025.