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Rend appears to be another survival game at first glance, but coming from former World of Warcraft developers, there's also a lot of fantasy MMO inspiration. And Path of Exile inspiration. And "it may be a little bit like a MOBA," too, says Frostkeep Studios CEO Jeremy Wood, if matches in that MOBA last "a month or two."
In short, Rend is a "cutthroat" war between three 20-player factions who are vying to collect and store souls in Divinity Stones, while also protecting their faction's stone from opposing players and AI creatures. If a faction's stone is destroyed, that team is wiped from the server until another faction wins the game.
At the same time, now that Frostkeep has decided to take the sandbox survival elements further, players will be able to form clans within their factions and build personal bases. And of course there's crafting and skill trees—really too much to describe in one interview, but Wood runs Steven through the core ideas in the video above, and also talks about how to get involved with this serpentine mix of genres.
Rend is scheduled to enter Early Access in the first half of next year. You can follow our continuing coverage of PAX West 2017 here.