Double Fine literally sing the praises of Hack 'n' Slash in new video

To celebrate/promote the fact its new game Hack 'n' Slash is headed for Steam Early Access and playable at PAX East this weekend, Double Fine has released this trailer. It's a little heavy on the Lonely Island-style skit/song stuff and light on actual gameplay, but still as charming and whimsical as you've probably come to expect from the house that Schafer built.

Hack 'n' Slash was birthed during Double Fine's 'Amnesia Fortnight' protoyping session in 2012, and looks like a cyber riff on the classic Zelda games, with the game's main character, Alice, wielding a USB-compatible Master Sword-alike. Gameplay will involve hacking enemies (she'll be able to alter their movement speed, for example) and bringing up a debugger to discover info about how objects in the work behave.

"Developing the full version of the game has been very rewarding because we've been able to take the hacking mechanics and make them real," says project lead Brandon Dillon. "You'll mess with the game's actual variables and dismantle the game's actual code."

We've got men patrolling the floor at PAX East, so hopefully one of them will fire back a hands-on report. I also hope someone notices I squeezed two slashes into this story. The medium is the message, people.

Tim Clark

With over two decades covering videogames, Tim has been there from the beginning. In his case, that meant playing Elite in 'co-op' on a BBC Micro (one player uses the movement keys, the other shoots) until his parents finally caved and bought an Amstrad CPC 6128. These days, when not steering the good ship PC Gamer, Tim spends his time complaining that all Priest mains in Hearthstone are degenerates and raiding in Destiny 2. He's almost certainly doing one of these right now. 

Latest in Adventure
A motley crew riding out in point-and-click adventure Rosewater
Promising '90s style point-and-clicker Rosewater rides out today, featuring trail-worn cowpoke authors and weird alt-universe science
It's ENA! From the free adventure Dream BBQ!
Mindbending free multimedia adventure ENA: Dream BBQ is out now, has activated all my neurons and opened my third eye
Image of illuminated manuscript-style drawings from the game Pentiment.
Random characters kept swearing in Obsidian's font-obsessed murder-mystery when its procedural error system ran amok: 'Naughtiness abounded'
An image of a corpse with the text "You've been re-educated."
I played the lost videogame sequel to 1984, and came away more nostalgic than ever for gaming's awkward adolescence in 1999
Rosella encounters a satyr in a forest in King's Quest 4
Eagle-eyed streamer spots that Roberta Williams' portrait in King's Quest 4 is based on her author photo on the back of the game box: 'I never noticed it before.'
Myst puzzle game
'You’ve been asking, and we’ve been listening': Myst remake adds a whole new world to the classic adventure, one originally introduced in another overhaul from 25 years ago
Latest in News
Story of Seasons - A cahacter in a purple tuxedo stands outside in a town square talking to the player
Story of Seasons is doing another Harvest Moon remake and it might be the best the series has ever looked
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
Assassin's Creed Shadows puts up the 'second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history'
A witch riding a broom sails past a Fish and Chips shop.
Cozy gamers rejoice: Witchbrook finally has a release window, and yes, you can fly around on a broom with your friends
starcraft 2 face
StarCraft fans taunted by the announcement of a new StarCraft... board game
kingdom come: deliverance 2 henry looks confused
'Medieval Batman' completes Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 pacifist playthrough with zero kills and 535 knockouts
SUQIAN, CHINA - OCTOBER 6, 2024 - Illustration Tencent's plan to buy Ubisoft, Suqian, Jiangsu province, China, October 6, 2024. (Photo credit should read CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Ubisoft and Tencent are forming a new company that will take control of its most successful franchises: Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six