It’s been some time since we had heard much about Final Stand: Ragnarok, the second game coming from Camelot Unchained developer City State Entertainment; the last we had heard, they were taking on fresh staff. It would appear that silence has been due to the devs putting in work on the title, as a new gameplay video and newsletter have announced the start of “first access” along with gameplay details.
The details come by way of Ragnarok’s first newsletter. In this initial version of the game, players are tasked to defend the town of Odi, protecting towers from waves of Hel’s undead monsters, collecting runes and items to grow in strength, and surviving long enough to hold back Ragnarok. The newsletter also offers a brief peek at the five playable characters and, perhaps more importantly to backers of CU, a word to them directly from Mark Jacobs:
“For those that have kept faith, you will be rewarded both with the things I talked about earlier this year and also with the continued focus on CU. If FS:R is the success we hope it to be, even more people will be hired to work on CU only and your turn to see your game go LIVE will be shorter than you fear it to be.”
So just what is first access? It’s an early access period before early access, effectively. Players should expect variable match sizes that take roughly 40 minutes to complete currently, a number of smaller bugs, and “a lot of frustration at times” as the newsletter puts it. The goal of first access is tie down the core gameplay mechanics, with plans to add questing, combat updates, and additional battlefields as development rolls on. And yes, it’s something that can be bought in to, albeit in limited quantities.
The beginning of first access was also announced in a new gameplay trailer, though it was initially posted online, taken down, and then brought up again with the comments section disabled. A member of the CU Reddit captured some of those comments before they were lost to the digital ether while the thread has since been a hotbed for additional rancor among backers of the original MMO. You can view that video below and judge for yourself.
