Elder Scrolls 6 new rival is '5x bigger than Skyrim', you can play free now

We’re all desperately awaiting an update on The Elder Scrolls VI.

That being said, Bethesda shouldn’t rush development - especially given the mixed response to Starfield and its recent Shattered Space expansion.

That franchise has turned out to be far more of a love-or-hate property than I think any of us expected.

I’m in the former ‘love’ camp, and recently awarded Shattered Space a score of eight but, of course, we all have varying tastes.

You can never truly please everyone, although I’m imagining that Bethesda will be hoping to achieve wider acclaim with The Elder Scrolls VI.

The game remains shrouded in mystery, likely many years away from launch.

In the meantime though, I have just the thing to keep you busy.

One ex-Bethesda developer, who worked on the likes of Skyrim, Starfield, and Fallout, is set to launch an incredible new game this month by the name of The Axis Unseen.

Take a look at The Axis Unseen in action below.

Developed by Just Purkey Games, The Axis Unseen pitches itself as a “heavy metal horror”.

“Hunt nightmarish monsters from ancient folklore in a mysterious open world, collecting their enhanced sense powers and discovering elemental arrows. Beware, the hunter is also the hunted,” teases the synopsis.

It’s essentially a first-person open world action-adventure with a good dashing of horror thrown in there for good measure too.

Rather uniquely, the UI exists within the game world so, for example, you’ll actually need to glance down at your quiver to see how many arrows you have left.

Tattoos on your hand reveal your health and active powers, while symbols on your bow reveal your noise levels which are important to keep an eye on if you don’t want to alert nearby predators as to your whereabouts.

If you’re still scratching your head at “heavy metal horror”, the soundtrack comes from Clifford Meyer - a member of several post-metal bands including Red Sparowes.

In a recent interview with PCGamesN, developer Nate Purkeypile opened up about the size of The Axis Unseen, revealing that it’s “five times bigger than Skyrim”.

That’s an exciting tidbit, but also a rather daunting one when you remember that the game doesn’t actually have a viewable map.

“I needed a lot of space for hunting creatures. Honestly, I was not super concerned about doing a giant open-world game because I’ve done six,” Purkeypile added.

If this has whetted your appetite, a free demo for The Axis Unseen is available to sample on Steam now until 22 October.

On that same day, the full game will release.