Resident Evil Meets Valheim In New Open-World RPG You Can Try For Free

Resident Evil and other post-apocalyptic games are as rampant as the zombies who are typically featured as groaning, stumbling enemies within them. That doesn’t make newly announced post-apocalyptic games less inherently enticing, however, and there are already at least a couple of great reasons to be excited for Techtive Games’ Ardem, a game that puts the “survival” in survival horror.

Ardem’s Steam store page describes it as “an immersive open-world survival RPG.” But while there is certainly a level of authenticity and ingenuity in its landscape, it may be most similar to and inviting for fans of both Resident Evil and Valheim—two games that, on their own, share nothing in common, yet lay foundations that Ardem can build on.

Ardem Is An Upcoming RPG With Ongoing Playtests

Ardem is technically free-to-play via playtests that have been going on for some time now. That said, Ardem is also ramping up to its paid early access period that “will start with a lower price,” though the developer states that “the price may increase once the game has its full release.”

Techtive doesn’t want to “create just another survival game,” and is “aiming for a development cycle of under two years.” As for what Ardem will include in its early access period, it seems fair to say it will be an exhaustive and elaborate experience:

“We’re proud to say that the game already contains all the core features that make it a fully functional survival game. From base-building to farming, hunger and thirst, dynamic weather, and much more, the game offers a robust and immersive gameplay experience that will keep you engaged for hours.”

There Are Definite Resident Evil Vibes

The first and most obvious spiritual connection that Ardem shares with Resident Evil is that its undead enemies are born from a virus. The RHAB-14 virus doesn’t appear to be an insidious pharmaceutical company’s attempt at producing bioweapons, to be fair, but it’s possible that the virus could have properties that mutate ordinary zombies far beyond a humanoid capacity in the future.

If nothing else, Ardem could be a theoretical glimpse ahead into what the Resident Evil universe might look like if it, too, becomes wholly ravaged by its own viruses and apocalypse-inducing nightmares. Resident Evil has somehow managed not to teeter too far into how much its bioweapons have affected the world they inhabit, but it wouldn’t be at all surprising to one day see a Resident Evil game depict the entire globe as a ruin invaded and ruled by Hunters, Lickers, or the Molded.