Artifacts of Eyru

I have a soft spot for the one-person studio that quietly ships something earnest and strange, and Artifacts of Eyru is exactly that. It started as a DnD one-shot rooted in Irish mythology, got rebuilt by a solo developer during quarantine, and landed on Steam as a compact but surprisingly layered roguelite FPS. The inspirational DNA of The Binding of Isaac sits close to the surface, particularly in how the artifacts work: each floor drops at least one relic that can reshape your entire run, from basic damage bumps to double jumps to, yes, turning your weapon into a bubble blaster. That willingness to let the power curve get genuinely silly is the game's most endearing quality. The four classes, Warlock, Tinker, Wizard, and Pirate, are where the real depth lives. Each one carries three talent trees that push playstyle in very different directions. The Warlock can summon demons, raise the souls of fallen enemies, or lean into eldritch tentacle spam. The Wizard goes from plasma explosions to gravitational tricks to transforming enemies into quantum rats, which is as chaotic as it sounds. The Tinker leans gadget-crafting or assassination, while the Pirate can play bruiser, redirector, or opportunistic looter. None of these trees feel like reskins of each other, and because all unlocks and permanent upgrades are shared across classes, there is a genuine incentive to cycle through all four rather than just mastering one. The Mistwalker progression system, where you bank power between runs, smooths out the difficulty curve for players who find the early dungeons punishing. The six procedurally generated dungeons and the lurking mystery of the Cult of Nuada give the whole thing a narrative thread to follow, which is more than most games in this genre bother with. The world-building is thin by RPG standards, but the sci-fi-meets-mythology atmosphere lands well enough to give runs a sense of place rather than just abstract arena loops. Post-launch patches added a FOV slider, improved projectile responsiveness, and tidied up some terrain collision jank, signs that the developer cares about the feel of the game and not just the feature list. Over 100 customizable challenge modes extend the ceiling considerably for players who exhaust the base content. Honestly, the biggest caveat here is scale. This is a small game made by one person, and it reads that way in the audio, the visual fidelity, and the depth of its storytelling. Community activity is sparse, so do not expect a modding scene or active forums. But for the asking price and the density of build experimentation it allows, dismissing it on scope alone would be unfair. If you like the idea of Binding of Isaac-style artifact chaos viewed from behind a gun in a procedurally generated dungeon, with actual class identity baked in, Artifacts of Eyru rewards patience and curiosity in equal measure.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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