The multiplayer survival genre is one of the biggest new sub-genres to emerge over the past decade. With games like Rust proving to be almost full-time jobs for some people, or the world of DayZ giving life to a community of individuals who genuinely want to live in a zombie apocalypse, it is clear that this genre has captured the imagination of many. Renown aims to combine the best elements of those games, with a strong focus on teamwork and raiding bases, alongside the building and crafting that the genre is known for, within a medieval setting. If anything, the game had me thinking it was a combination of Rust and Chivalry.

I played about an hour of Renown in a developer-led hands-on session over a Discord call with other media. Then, after the more hands-on walkthrough was over, I spent some time exploring the game on my own. Overall, I was very impressed with the score from the small team at RDBK Studios in Melbourne. Ultimately, I could hear and see their passion for the game.

Leading us through a session, Game Director Jesse Jacobson toured through some medieval structures and the types of bases that players will be able to build. In the real game, we would have needed to gather many resources to make these structures, but eventually we were split into two groups and sent off to two different structures. Kitted up in high-level gear for the sake of playing and experiencing Renown, the team I was on then defended their castle while the other team charged in for the attack.

In this raid, what stood out most was that once I engaged in combat, even if a little janky, there was enough ability to go for more thoughtful sword-play that this wasn’t just about slamming the attack button over and over. You can attack from both directions, and changing up your attack pattern to get around your foe’s potential shields and movements to dodge your attacks kept each engagement feeling exciting. Unlike other sword-play-based multiplayer games over the years, where it often feels like you’re slamming buttons as the computer in the background plays rock-paper-scissors against your opponent.

There was an option to pick up a crossbow too, and they were slightly harder to aim than your usual weapon, but it made the weapon feel slightly more weighty because of this, and meant that the ranged option wasn’t an auto-win pick.

The part that initially confused me was how Renown worked, as there’s an obvious concern that players who spend time could quickly build up and dominate a server with a well-built castle and superior gear. However, Renown will reset its servers on a weekly or bi-weekly basis (I’m not 100% sure, as my notes became messy and I couldn’t find the correct answer at the time of publication). Meaning that although yes, you could devote a bunch of time and come out the winner in one week, you could be among the time and gold-poor people in another week.

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After the developer-led session, I spent some time later completing the tutorial from the start to learn how to build, which felt intrinsically necessary as I was struggling to figure out how to make anything before that. It was nice to know that the game would be accessible even to someone like me, who only ever dabbles in this genre, and that there would be some onboarding for elements like building and crafting. I would need help with these before heading off to find something to throw my sword at.

You can wishlist Renown on Steam and receive notifications when the game enters Early Access in Q3 2025.