Heathen gameplay
Heathen is a first-person dark-fantasy ARPG: fight monsters, develop a character, collect magical equipment and return to Saltgrave between deeper trips into the keep.
On this page
What the overview shows
The overview follows a Templar through first-person fights, attribute allocation, new equipment and a planned return to town. It is a compact introduction to how combat and character development sit inside the larger dungeon loop.
The visual style uses a restricted colour palette and dithering, with low-resolution textures and strong pools of light. Watch the scene in motion to assess the camera and the visibility of enemies in corridors. The first-person viewpoint is the announced perspective; a third-person option has not been announced as a playable feature.
- Town and dungeon premise 00:00
- Equipment and strength requirements 00:44
- Melee and dismemberment 00:52
- Holy Diver 01:12
- Templar 01:27
- Smite 02:12
- Inventory and town services 02:45
- Demo plan 02:55
For a closer look at these systems, read Saltgrave and dungeon exploration.
Character creation and appearance
A character creator is part of Heathen’s design, allowing changes to the character’s appearance. You will be able to play a woman. The full appearance-option list, voice choices and creator presets have not been announced.
Equipped gear is visible on the character in the inventory view. Equipment changes how the character looks as well as how the character fights. The announced appearance options do not yet provide a complete creator feature list. Attributes, weapons, armour and spells are the announced progression systems.
For a closer look at these systems, read classes and character progression.
Camera comfort: the useful distinctions
Camera Comfort is an announced feature, alongside adjustable text size, subtitle options, custom volume controls and full controller support. These are useful accessibility categories, but the exact settings available in each category have not been detailed.
Head-bob, weapon-bob and screen-shake controls have not been announced individually. The same applies to a field-of-view slider and toggles for motion blur or chromatic aberration. If one specific setting is essential for you, there is no confirmed toggle to point you to yet.
Whether Heathen's pixelated visual filter can be turned off has not been confirmed. The overview shows the presentation, but does not demonstrate a filter toggle. If this effect is uncomfortable for you, a switch to disable it cannot yet be promised.
For now, the overview lets you inspect the camera’s movement, weapon motion and melee feedback before choosing to try the demo. A video cannot establish how a setting will feel during your own play session.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Camera comfort | Announced feature; individual controls to be detailed |
| Text and subtitles | Adjustable text size and subtitle options |
| Audio | Custom volume controls and stereo sound |
| Controller | Full controller support |
| Head bob / FOV / motion blur | Individual settings not announced |
| Visual filter toggle | A toggle has not been announced |
For a closer look at these systems, read demo and release status and platforms and controller details.
Explore the systems that caught your eye
Use the combat page for Holy Diver, Smite, kicks and dismemberment. For PC preparation, the requirements checker compares the published numeric fields and highlights details that need a manual comparison.
For a closer look at these systems, read combat mechanics and PC requirements checker.