Heathen lets you decapitate enemies and kick their heads at other enemies — wishlist unlocked

Heathen, an indie first-person ARPG dungeon crawler from solo developer Christopher Yabsley, just dropped a trailer showing off a new enemy dismemberment system — and it includes the ability to decapitate a monster, kick the head into the air, and use it to kill a second enemy. That's the kind of combat reactivity that turns mild curiosity into an instant wishlist add.

Yabsley says the dismemberment system has "done a lot for making swords and axes feel really good." Beyond the spectacle, it's also mechanically meaningful — deeper dungeon levels will feature multi-limbed creatures where chopping off appendages is a survival requirement, not just a flourish. The game is set in the fantasy town of Saltgrave, where players descend into a subterranean labyrinth, accumulate loot, and eventually run into what the Steam page calls an "ancient horror" and a "descent into madness." The ARPG fundamentals look sharp too: loot exploding out of chests, conjured town portals, and a UI that wears its Diablo influence openly. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is cited as a direct combat influence alongside Diablo.

First-person melee is a notoriously hard thing to get right — Dark Messiah of Might and Magic nailed it back in 2006 and the genre hasn't had many successors that matched its tactility. Heathen looks like a genuine attempt to scratch that itch, and the fact that it's a solo dev project makes the fluidity of the combat footage even more impressive. Yabsley has also spoken about the personal side of the project: he grew up playing Diablo with his mother, who played it purely to connect with him, and that memory directly shaped the game.

Online co-op is confirmed for the early access launch, which fits the Diablo-style couch-and-dungeon fantasy. No release date has been announced yet, but Heathen already has a Steam page and a wishlist button that, based on this trailer, is getting a workout.