Arthurian action roguelike Sworn goes briefly free, and it's a winner for me

Supergiant's Hades 2 looms over the action roguelike space like the towering Titan of Time himself, but I've been playing quite a few similarly styled indie games of late, and one of my favorites is currently available to try for free. Sworn transports the familiar progression and combat fundamentals of Hades out of the Greek underworld and into a corrupted Camelot, where the fallen King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table stand in your way. Developer Windwalk Games has just dropped the Sworn 1.0 release date, and to celebrate it's giving everyone a taste with a free weekend.

I first played Sworn back at Gamescom 2024, and I had to tear myself away because I was enjoying it too much. I've been regularly dipping in since it hit early access, although I'm still tentatively waiting for 1.0 to fully commit. Of all the best roguelikes to take after Hades, Sworn feels the most directly inspired in everything from its room-by-room structure to the feel of attacks, dashes, and spells. The reason it still stands out is that Windwalk is striving to ensure it's also one of the best action games of its type with a staggering level of depth and customization.

With four distinct playable characters, each offering their own arsenal of four weapons and four spells, there are effectively 64 starting builds on the table. From there, however, your loadout can be further altered through skill trees that include a mix of passive bonuses and signature nodes, the latter of which typically offer you a choice between two more powerful effects. The result is that any two runs will often feel entirely different, ranging from dashing in with a scythe to standing your ground and obliterating foes with a massive, weighty cannon.

In the place of the gods of Olympus, you earn blessings from the fae lords. King Oberon's buffs grant damage-amplifying fury stacks that encourage you to find a flow state of ruthless aggression. Mab, Queen of Spiders lets you build up venom effects to melt enemies gradually over time, or detonate them for more immediate impact. Cliona, Mother of Banshees clutches at the very souls of your foes, weakening their attack and defense capabilities in tandem.

While Sworn works fantastically solo, and that's how I've spent most of my time with it so far, you can also team up with friends to challenge King Arthur and his cohorts in up to four-player co-op. While bringing along a group certainly makes some aspects easier, I've been pretty impressed with the way bosses handle fighting multiple people at once, ensuring it's never a walkover.

Sworn calls in some classic characters from Camelot lore to assist you - Nimue upgrades your weapons, Guinevere unlocks new room types and beneficial elements that will appear during your runs, and Merlin oversees the skill trees that provide persistent growth. Don't expect quite the level of storytelling that Hades has to offer, though; Sworn feels like a game much more intently focused on delivering a varied and satisfying gameplay experience, and in that regard it's kept me coming back for more.

Sworn 1.0 launches Thursday September 25. The free weekend is available now and runs until Monday September 1. Head here to give it a try and see whether you fancy picking up the full game on release.

We're expecting confirmation of the Hades 2 release date soon enough, so be sure to check in on the latest news. We've also done some careful testing to determine the best PC controller in 2025, if you're looking for a new pad to use.

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