Blending the best bits of WoW and Diablo, Fellowship is my dream MMORPG

Every now and then, the videogame gods deliver something fresh that feels laser-targeted towards me. In the past two years alone, there's been Deadlock, Valve's MOBA shooter hybrid that blends the best parts of Dota 2 with Overwatch's hero-focused combat. Then there was South of Midnight, which brought one of the world's most fascinating regions to vibrant, Compulsion-style life. But what I've been lacking is a new MMO. Even the ones I've loved for years don't interest me these days - I don't have time to spend hours grinding through World of Warcraft's latest raid. That's where Fellowship comes in, and it may just be the game I've been searching for.

I was lucky enough to go hands-on with Chief Rebel's debut title at Gamescom 2025, trading out my Bloodlines 2 fangs for something even more fantastical. Fellowship, at its core, is World of Warcraft but without the 'massive,' trading out an ever-expanding, sprawling open world for a select group of streamlined dungeons. The aim is simple: clear missions, get good gear, upgrade your characters, and repeat.

Described as a 'MODA' (a multiplayer online dungeon adventure), it borrows elements from League of Legends and Dota, as well as Diablo. There's a set roster of heroes that perform specific roles, and refining their builds is the key to making them shine. In short, it's a chimera of all of my favorite videogames.

As a Priest main in World of Warcraft, I instantly gravitate to Vigour, a radiant scholar whose kit revolves around single-target and AoE healing. With the ability to bring his comrades back from the brink of death (and toss books at people to force them to read), the pressure immediately starts to mount - not helped by community director Hamish Bode promptly telling me that the dungeon we've been sent to clear out, Sailor's Abyss, is one of the hardest. I immediately regret telling him that I have far too many hours in World of Warcraft.

Our adventure largely goes to plan: Bode draws aggro, our fellows deal damage, and I heal. As we continue to progress and pull larger mobs, I start to think 'maybe this isn't so hard after all.' Boy, was I wrong - this area's called 'Sailor's Abyss' for a reason. As we descend towards the region's boss, Sinthara, a giant siren-esque monster, Bode warns that no one has managed to clear this fight on their first try. I take that as a challenge.

Things initially seem fine - Sinthara can interrupt spells, inflict bleed, and bind two characters together so that, as they move apart, they take more damage. Then, she unleashes her Siren's Song, and each and every one of us noobs is yeeted off the side of the boat (willingly, of course). We run the boss again, and the same thing happens to almost all of us, but we notice that Bode has strapped himself to the ship's rotting mast. Ah, understood. While Sinthara wouldn't feel out of place in a WoW dungeon, the tether requirement is a fun little twist.

But while Fellowship is immediately reminiscent of WoW, there are a whole slew of other influences in there, too. Bode, who worked on Diablo 3, cites the series' second installment as one of his favorite games, and you can see its influence. There are obtainable gems that, on paper, grant simple boons but grow more complicated as you progress, and, unlike with World of Warcraft's talent trees, you can pick up abilities in whatever order you like - no prerequisites here. Some items also grant unique powers, but these are included in your 14-slot roster, which includes a character-specific ultimate, so you'll have to choose wisely.

"We've always described our game as a mixture of our favorite parts of MMOs, ARPGs, and MOBAs," Bode tells me in an interview. "The game did actually start out as a PvE MOBA, but there's a lot of ARPG inspiration in there for sure: some people on the team are absolutely obsessed with Path of Exile, Diablo, and other ARPGs. People who put a lot of time into Fellowship do say that the combat feels more ARPG than MMO, especially because of the more pared-back menu of abilities."

He recalls that players have already started to refine and test the limits of their builds, finding "unexpected power." I ask if there's a sense of joy in that, and whether or not having a PvE game versus a PvP one allows the devs to be a little more hands-off when it comes to finding the perfect balance.

"That's one of the things with a PvE game: I feel like you have a little more bandwidth in terms of things being overpowered and underpowered - it just has to be fun. In PvP, that turns to frustration for someone else on the receiving end of it. But we also don't want to trivialize our whole game and have people feeling like 'well, to be competitive, I have to be doing this thing.' One of the things that our team is really good at is, because we're small, we're quick, so we've seen things that have been unintended and they're gone within a day.

"It's one of those things that we'll have to take on the fly," he continues. "Once we're in the live service portion of the game, we'll have to answer those questions: is it impacting the enjoyment of the whole community? If so, we'll have to take steps. But is it just making this season that we're running fun, and we'll adapt it next season? That's a consideration we'll have to make. People having fun is what we're most concerned about."

But, much like any game of this nature, there is a bit of a grind. Bode shows me some of the myriad character customization options, as well as several mounts that include everything from horses and tigers to a rat with a bomb on its back that's aptly called 'Sir Bombastic' (I'm informed the 'Sir' is very important). While some of these will be purchasable with earnable in-game currency and others with actual IRL money, much like WoW and Diablo, some things will be locked behind in-game achievements. Fighting through all of the game's Leagues, which offer progressively harder dungeons and a climactic boss fight, will net you unique goodies, and if you manage to top the leaderboard, you can expect some serious rewards.

How, then, do you balance the level of grind in a game that doesn't exactly want to be Diablo or World of Warcraft? I ask Bode. "We want people to progress through the power fantasy - that's the really enjoyable thing about these kinds of games," he muses. "But we don't want that power fantasy to be drawn out and frustrating. I love a grindy game, but that's a different experience from what we're offering here.

"We have personal loot, so every time you complete a dungeon, you're going to be getting something that's pushing you forward. There's this constant momentum; if you play, you will progress. The general time from zero to gear cap is a lot quicker than in other games, too."

"Another thing we've been talking about over the past few months is the idea of a lower barrier to entry and making the game accessible to people," he continues. "I've been thinking about that a lot - especially this week - and how it means different things to different people. We want to make our game accessible - some people on our community council have vision issues or mobility issues; I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, where I couldn't use my hands properly, so controller support is absolutely something that's on our list.

"But then accessibility means a lot of different things: it can be financial accessibility. We don't have a subscription. I think our $25 price point is achievable for a lot more people. Especially with games being so expensive at the moment, there are a lot of games that I'd like to play that I'm like 'I don't feel good spending that much money.' People will only ever have to spend $25 if that's what they want to spend."

Fellowship ticks a lot of boxes for me. As someone who can't find the time to grind out WoW or FF14's MSQs anymore, it gives me my dungeon raiding fix quickly without the constant fear of being left behind. But, more than that, Fellowship feels like a love letter to both its existing community and inspirations, blending the best parts of some of the biggest games out there to create something truly different.

While the Fellowship release date is set for Thursday October 16, a brand new open beta has just begun on Steam, so you can dive in right now. Here's a link to its store page. Make sure you tell Sir Bombastic that I say hi.