Most roguelites give you a weapon, a dodgy blessing and the firm impression that nobody expects you back. Tears of Metal sends a Scottish battalion along too. That immediately improves the fantasy. You are no longer the only person having a terrible afternoon, and your repeated attempts to liberate an island come with witnesses. Possibly too many witnesses, depending on how confidently you announced the previous attempt.
Paper Cult's medieval hack-and-slash game entered Early Access on July 22, 2026, for Windows PC, with solo play and online co-op for up to four. Its invaders are harvesting power from the Dragon Stone, which sounds like an excellent reason to interrupt them before somebody discovers a second, worse rock. The setting gives all that crowd-clearing violence a cause: these are your people, your island and some deeply unwelcome mining operations.
Reasons to look closer
The appealing combination is large-scale battlefield spectacle and a roguelite's appetite for strange combinations. Multiple heroes, Emblem synergies and more than a hundred artifacts provide the ingredients. The clever part is putting those ingredients into a war rather than a lonely corridor. A build is more interesting when it feels like your contribution to a broader disaster, especially one with enough armed participants to qualify for its own parking restrictions.
There is a strong thematic fit here. Reclaiming territory naturally supports another campaign, another push and another attempt with better preparation. Repetition does not need to pretend that everyone forgot the front door was full of enemies. The invasion remains a problem. You are adjusting your answer, ideally beyond the traditional military strategy of running forward while making a noise.
Your supporting cast also brought weapons
Soldiers develop permanent skills between campaigns, while the settlement opens shops and lasting upgrades. That gives the campaign a useful second scale: the immediate business of surviving the next battle and the longer business of improving the force that survives with you. It is a more convincing home-front loop than opening a menu labelled Bigger Numbers and asking everyone to imagine a village behind it.
The battalion is the identity of Tears of Metal. Without that collective element, the pitch would be another very busy person with an enchanted inventory. Bringing troops makes leadership part of the fantasy, even while the hero remains in the thick of the action. There is also something endearing about the practical side of a legendary rebellion. Yes, destiny is calling. First, someone needs to sort out recruitment and explain why the shops are so important to national liberation.
Friendship now comes out of your health bar
An August update replaced coin-based co-op revives with a health cost: reviving someone takes half your current HP, subject to a minimum-health requirement. The revived player's health reflects the sacrifice. That is a wonderfully direct expression of teamwork. You are helping a friend stand up by making your own situation noticeably worse, which is also how helping a friend move house works.
More importantly, this separates rescue from saving money for upgrades. Paper Cult explained that the old system encouraged people to hoard coins instead of buying Charms. The replacement creates a decision inside the fight rather than an argument with the shopping budget. It is a sound design direction: cooperation should demand attention and judgement, not turn the least coordinated person in your group into an unexpectedly expensive subscription.
The village is still being renovated
Early Access matters here. September's progression update changed shop costs, introduced shop upgrades and adjusted how certain army-related unlocks are obtained. Paper Cult explicitly connected that work to reducing grind. That focus is encouraging because repeated campaigns need to produce interesting choices, not merely prove that you are willing to attend the same battle often enough to earn a loyalty stamp.
The September 24 notes also carried a temporary crossplay restriction, directing players who needed it to an older Crossplay beta branch. Do not assume different PC storefronts can simply join the current build without checking compatibility. Meanwhile, the September development preview described solo mid-campaign saving and the Plague Doctor hero as work in progress. Those are plans, not features to quietly add to the present-day selling points. A promising reinforcement is still a reinforcement that has not arrived.
A rebellion worth watching
Tears of Metal has a persuasive centre: take the pleasure of building an increasingly unreasonable hero and make that hero part of an army worth improving. The settlement, troops and battlefield all point in the same direction. That cohesion gives the game more personality than a collection of upgrades wearing medieval trousers.
The strongest audience is players who want co-op spectacle and enjoy experimenting while an Early Access game evolves. Anyone wanting settled progression and a finished feature set has a good reason to wait. For everybody else, the invitation is clear: gather the battalion, compare your builds and liberate the island. Perhaps agree on the revive policy before Dave starts describing every avoidable death as a tactical sacrifice.