It may not break too much new ground, but The First Berserker: Khazan has proven itself a must-play for ardent soulslike fans. Boasting some enrapturing visual design and intense, parry-led combat reminiscent of Sekiro and Lies of P, it's won a 90% Steam rating from players, and deserves even more attention. In case you needed another reason to take a look, developer Neople has just unleashed a giant, free update that introduces the game's toughest test yet – ultimate challenge mode.
Unlocked after your first completion of soulslike into practice. Great General's Crucible sets you against a series of boss rushes using limited gear and resources. There are five groups to take on, and completely overcoming one set of encounters will unlock the next in sequence. Berserker's Bloodshed, meanwhile, puts you on a longer gauntlet towards the final boss that you must complete without dying, but allows you to upgrade your stats or purchase additional gear and items between each battle.
In both variants, you'll get your health back and cleanse all status effects (positive and negative) between each fight. Buffs used have time limits, and are removed when you move between areas. In Berserker's Bloodshed, you'll have access to an exclusive set of weapons, armor, and accessories in the Lacrima shop, with random effects meaning that you might see different variants each time you visit. Initially, you'll begin with just three weapon types: dual wield, greatsword, and spear.
You can't gain mastery through battles in the ultimate challenge arena, but success in the trials will earn you Crucible Tokens and Bloodshed Tokens that can be taken to the Blade Phantom in the Crevice, where new weapon and armor sets are available for purchase. If you believe yourself to be a true master of The First Berserker's combat, these two modes will certainly give that theory an exhaustive test.
Alongside this comes a small list of additional quality-of-life improvements. You'll now unlock the ability to change appearance during your first playthrough after completing the 'Blacksmith's Heirloom' mission. The status screen has new tooltips to explain attribute information, the graphics menu displays visual aids to demonstrate the difference between quality settings, and you can choose to mute all sound when the game is inactive on your PC.
The First Berserker: Khazan's 'ultimate challenge' mode is available now as a free update. You can buy the game on Steam for $59.99 / £49.99. You can read through the full patch notes courtesy of Neople. There's also a demo available to if you want to try it out first.
Still thirsting for more combat? The best RPGs in 2025 instead.
You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We've also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with of the team and fellow readers.