If you’ve been looking for something a little Zelda-like in your life, Oppidum might be worth a look: It’s a “narrative adventure with survival elements” for 1-4 players inspired by Breath of the Wild being developed by EP Games, a team that includes former members of Temtem developer Crema, and it’s set to release later this year.
Oppidum is set in the land of Insule, “a world hanging by a thread” that’s looking to you to save it from “a powerful entity that looms from beyond.” How you go about that is entirely your business: Exploration, harvesting, crafting, and fighting are all on the menu, to be sampled as you see fit in either solo or co-op play. Developer EP Games promises “an immersive and inclusive gameplay experience to satisfy every player’s taste.”
The new game appears to be taking something of an Enshrouded approach to the survival genre. Instead of dropping players into a hostile world with a simple goal—survive—Oppidum’s focus is on the narrative side, which will feature “a main story, side quests, environmental storytelling, and a diverse cast of supporting characters.”
At the same time, the player freedom typical of most survival games is still on the table: Players can “explore an open world at their leisure, progress at their own pace, and discover all the secrets we have hidden throughout Insule.”
It’s a lot to promise, but the new gameplay trailer looks pretty good, and Oppidum has already held a handful of playtests and shared a demo during the Steam Next Fest in February. And it’s not the first rodeo for EP Games either: CEO, lead programmer, and narrative designer Daniel Barba served as chief technology officer on Temtem, while art director and technical artist Adrián Andrés was art lead on that game. The studio’s previous releases include Queendoom and A Gummy’s Life, which seem well-received despite not attracting large player numbers.
An oppidum, by the way, is a large fortified settlement or town commonly associated with the Celtic people of the 1st and 2nd centuries BC; they served as economic centers, political hubs, and seats of authority for the surrounding region. I’m not sure it’s a great title—anyone who knows what an oppidum is without having to consult Wikipedia will almost certainly assume this new game is some kind of Total War spinoff—but it does make some sense within the context of the game. As part of your effort to say Insule, you’ll build and expand a camp using resources and blueprints discovered over the course of the game—a little oppidum of your very own.
Oppidum doesn’t have a release date yet but it’s up for wishlisting now on Steam and expected to be out sometime in 2024.