Dark fantasy ARPG with Souls-style invasions has a new playtest you can join now

Amid the heavy hitters of Diablo 4, Path of Exile 2, and Last Epoch, we've seen some brilliant smaller ARPGs pop up recently. The Slormancer encourages outrageous combos, while Hell Clock takes us on a roguelike revenge romp. But newcomer Fractured Worlds, built by Laser Guided Games, finds a way to integrate other players into your experience much more seamlessly than most of its rivals, and it does it by drawing inspiration from the likes of Demon's and Dark Souls.

Set in "a reality that has been broken into pieces by the ambition of its inhabitants," Fractured Worlds tasks you with hopping between broken realms to find those responsible for the cataclysm. That distortion of time and space causes the lands of other players to occasionally, briefly overlap with your own, giving you the potential to interact. For most people, multiplayer in the best games like Diablo tends to boil down to either playing entirely solo, running in a full group of friends, or occasionally engaging in trading. By adopting concepts from the best soulslikes, Fractured Worlds opens up new possibilities.

You can choose to interact with the adventurers that appear, or simply continue on your path if you prefer. You're able to provide assistance and support, or alternatively you could attempt to invade, disrupt, and deceive. "Share a profitable loot pile," Laser Guided Games suggests, "or lure other players into a particularly deadly mob of enemies and collect the spoils once they are dealt with."

You're able to share pieces of your world with others through 'map shards,' which are used to create a co-operative instance with monster modifiers much like Diablo's nightmare dungeons or PoE's endgame maps. Once again, the FromSoft influence is immediately apparent - you're able to write a description as you post it, but must do so using preconstructed formats and phrases: "If only I had a […], in other words, […] ahead." Will you be up-front and helpful, or trick people into a threatening encounter?

As for the actual combat, Fractured Worlds ditches classes altogether, with a flexible progression system that's respec-friendly. Weapons each come with their own move set, from slow, staggering two-handed maces to versatile spears for crowd control, or wands that control the flow of aether. You're able to adjust quickly to try out various builds, or perhaps reconfigure to make the best use of that powerful legendary item you just discovered.

From enchanted forests and medieval dungeons to industrial futurescapes, Fractured Worlds has all the variety that its name promises. Expect similar mixups among its boss battles too, which include the likes of treasure golems, noble dragons, ghostly knights, and even "the mind-altering Rorsch." If you're curious to give it a try, there's a public playtest running as we speak, and while you do need to request access I was instantly granted a spot upon registering my interest, so you should have no trouble getting in.

The Fractured Worlds playtest is live now, and runs until Thursday October 9. You can join for free via Steam or the Epic Games Store. The full game is set to launch in early 2026. Simply head here and click the 'request access' button to get started.

If you prefer to forge alliances, here are the best co-op games on PC today. More of a competitive sort? Try the best multiplayer games in 2025 instead.

Found any other awesome ARPGs that have slid under the radar? Come by the PCGamesN community Discord server and tell us all about them.