Vaunted's tactical combat looks fine, but I'm most interested in the consequences of rewriting history when one of its dodgy mercenaries bites the bullet

Those relics aren't going to nick themselves

We've all been there. You and two other morally dubious alien treasure hunters have an expedition go wrong, and find yourselves having to tactically blast through some baddies in order to secure some relics in timely fashion. Well, at least that's situation the three protagonists of Vaunted, a newly announced tactical RPG, find themselves in.

This trio of dodgy space mercenaries - Dyse, Gendril, and Kyvaath - happen to fit the usual heavy/thief/mage class setup, and share the trait of being dicks brought together by the need to satisfy an angry benefactor. They'll do this by shooting their way through hordes of aliens and robots via real-time action firing and dodging, but with turn-based planning and fight flow to ensure they have to use their brains.

Developers Lost Lake Games, headed up by long-time Blizzard and ArenaNet designer and producer James Phinney, cite Sega's Valkyria Chronicles and space westerns as inspirations. From the premise of the game if nothing else, it feels to me like a bit of a brainier person's Borderlands. Meanwhile, the RPG side of it plays out via some vaguely Mass Effecty cutscenes in which the three characters are given three choices of how to respond during chats.

According to Lost Lake, Dyse, Gendril, and Kyvaath all have their own versions of events they want to push in terms of how their expedition went wrong, with your choices dictating which of these ends up being accepted as fact. If you mess up the battles or don't dedicate enough time to setting up your squad properly pre-fight, each of the three main mercs can die midway through your game, offering "a chance to rewrite the current chapter from a different perspective, unlocking opportunities for unique conversations, new loot, skills, and secrets". That sounds like it'll have intriguing consequences and provide more of an impetus to keep whichever merc you've been letting take the lead so far safe in fights.

That's the side of the game I'm most interested in, but there also looks to be plenty of depth and mechanics to fiddle with if mastering the tactical fights is calling to you. Skills, upgrades, and gear all need to be kept up to date or swapped to match what you want your group's approach to be, while companions can be recruited to fight alongside the main trio.

As of right now, Vaunted's set to release at some point in 2026. You can wishlist it on Steam or the Epic Store if it's one you fancy keeping an eye on.