Blood Rune Announced

Independent developer Third Impression let us know that they're actively developing Blood Rune, a party-based RPG slated for release this year on PC. The game will utilize both a first-person and isometric perspective and feature an assortment of character classes (including five different magic users), over four hundred items, and "large scale" battles with dozens of combatants. The first four screenshots can be found in our image gallery, while the game's full description is quoted below:
Blood Rune is a party-based role-playing game where the player initially creates one hero, then soon after three more and is joined later by up two companions during the adventure. The role-playing system itself is name-based, where a character's name part determines his or her fate, and the system utilises multiple character classes and skills. There are five spell casting classes and all of which are available from the start, including the Necromancer.

Blood Rune is part played in a first person, step by step exploration environment - which supports indoor and outdoor adventuring - and part played in an isometric 'blow by blow' tactical battle engine that supports large scale fights with dozens of combatants with ease. There are 400 items in the game so far and 25 item types. Loot is distributed randomly through the game.

The player must worry about hunger and thirst while in the wilderness and light underground. The party must have a quill, sufficient ink and enough parchment for automatic mapping of areas to occur. Wounds inflicted in battle can bleed, so injuries need not kill immediately to be effective. Spells range from creature summons, like Giant Scorpions, to spells of the mind like the Deathbolt, to spells which knock down walls like Shatter, to massive terrain spells like Hostile Waters which flood whole areas and make them very dangerous to any creature that cannot fly.

The story to the game involves forging allegiances amongst vastly different peoples against a rising tide of doom and even time travel as the heroes take on an enemy that will sweep all people aside and end the age.