Half-Life 2 art director's final game revealed: a Soulslike FPS set in a dying American West

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Half-Life 2 and Dishonored art director Viktor Antonov died at age 53 on February 7, 2025. Just over a year later, his studio Eschatology Entertainment has revealed his "final vision," the world of Guns of Eschaton, a shooter styled as "the world's first Soulslike FPS."

"A new world by Viktor Antonov," begins the trailer. "His final world. His final vision. His final game."

Antonov's fingerprints are all over the 19th century "Old South" fantasy Western setting, which the game's Steam page calls a "dying world full of monsters," a "world-scale catastrophe" at "the end of America." You play as a lone man "who has lost almost everything," but you've still got a bunch of guns, and that's a start.

"The road ahead runs across the Old South of America – now transformed into a haunted frontier of ruined settlements, mythic roads, impossible machines, monstrous factions, and historical figures caught between legend and damnation," says Eschatology Entertainment. The studios' MO is "the end of all things," and those biblical, apocalyptic themes are on full display here.

Valor Mortis, from the Ghostrunner devs, may put up a fight for the title of first Soulslike FPS, but the approach to gunplay here is fascinating. The trailer reveals rhythmic, Remnant-like bosses and encounters that contrast the run-and-gun feel of today's Doom and Wolfenstein games. Bullet types, parries and dodges, active and passive abilities, a range of equipable gear, and "mystic abilities" help fill out the Soulslike side of things, along with "more than 20 weapons built around the feel, limitations, and brutality of 19th-century firearms."

"This is not a fast-paced shooter where victory comes from reflexes alone," the devs say. "Every bullet matters. Every gun has its own character. Every monster has a weakness. You cannot rely on old shooter instincts – you will have to learn how to shoot all over again."

Those enemy weaknesses are cataloged in a codex kept by your character, and I gather this is also where you'll jot down notes on the various factions in the game, which are "rooted in real mythologies."

Also like Remnant, arguably the gold standard for Soulslike shooters, Guns of Eschaton supports "full solo and co-op progression." Additionally, there's (what sounds like) Souls-standard PvP where you "become a threat to others."

Guns of Eschaton is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC (Steam) at an unannounced date.

The team at Eschatology Entertainment, formed in 2022 by a Cyprus-based core, has been talking up the game for years. Its website reads: "This new apocalyptic world will be rich with history, horror, complex characters and astonishing stories. It is waiting to be discovered and explored. We believe our IP can stretch far beyond a single game and become a cultural phenomenon."

The most popular Soulslike in Steam Next Fest makes a very powerful argument for adding a shotgun to Dark Souls .