Seraph: In The Darkness

SERAPH: In the Darkness is an Action RPG loot game heavily inspired by Diablo 2 that integrates blockchain. It’s developed by a subsidiary of Actoz Soft (the publisher of Legend of Mir 2 & 3, LaTale, and 1000 Years).

Actoz Soft website

Recently, a group of players was given the chance to take part in a weeklong closed pre-alpha playtest in April 2023. Here's what I learned from the playtest and what you can expect from this upcoming game.

First Look

The main story of Seraph: In The Darkness follows a hero who must defeat an uprising of demons. While the story may sound typical, the gameplay is anything but.

Fighting against undead mobs

Deciding on which weapon and items to keep

Using the in-game map to guide you out of the dungeon

Boss fight against Fallen Bishop Zaire

I was able to choose from three different hero classes:

barbarian,
Sorceress, and
Amazon

The Barbarian

The Sorceress

The Amazon

Each class has three skill trees to progress through. These skill trees allow you to tailor your hero's abilities to suit your preferred playstyle. Each time the hero level’s up, you are provided with a skill point to choose what to upgrade in either of the three skill trees.

Sorceress' Skill Tree

As this is an action RPG loot game, equipment plays a significant role. The game features various types of equipment, which are categorized by their quality, level, and durability.

The quality of equipment can be divided into Ordinary, Magic, Rare, and Unique.

Ordinary equipment only has its basic name, basic attack/defense stats, and without any magic affixes.
Magic equipment has some magic affixes attached that add an attribute providing special stats.
Rare equipment has more magic affixes attached compared to Magic equipment.
Unique equipment is unique in-game with one-of-a-kind names and special attributes.

Equipment has two types of levels: item level and wearing level. The item level is the inherent level of equipment that affects its stats. The wearing level indicates the level at which the character can wear the equipment. Your hero needs to reach level 18 before you can equip weapons, armor, or accessories with wearing level 18.

Equipment’s durability decreases when used during combat. When the Durability is exhausted, the equipment becomes unusable and requires repair.

While you can play solo, Seraph: In the Darkness is a great game for co-op play. The server can hold up to four players at once, which should make for a fun and exciting co-op gaming experience.

State of the Game

During my playtest session, I spent 5 hours on Act 1 alone. And it was only the first of five Acts in the game! I’m betting there are at least 20 hours of content in the game just for the story mode alone.

Despite being in pre-alpha, Seraph's gameplay is already impressive. Yet, there's still a lot of polish needed before the game is ready for its full release. One of the areas that need improvement is the game's AI voice, which is currently generic. , the developers will include voice actors or better AI voices in the full release.

The game also currently uses Diablo 2’s skill tree as a placeholder for the current playtest build. The Sorceress’ skill tree is exactly as per Diablo 2’s Sorceress skill tree. They will need to change this in the future. Hopefully, we’ll see improvements in that.

Seraph: In the Darkness vs Diablo 2 Sorceress Skill Tree

Final Thoughts

Seraph: In the Darkness looks like a promising game that Action RPG fans should keep an eye on. It has the potential to become the next big game in the action RPG genre. Who knows it might be able to compare against the upcoming Diablo VI perhaps?