SWORN is a 1-4 player co-op action rogue-like. Explore and reclaim a fallen Camelot from the reign of a corrupted Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.
Sworn is a multiplayer-focused Hades-like that openly mimics Hades in music, animation style, gods and boss structure. He finds it a well-made near-spin-off, with heavy roguelite progression and lots of pre-run customization. He was a bit disappointed that the full release added little over early access, and he notes lingering bugs. Despite being not very unique, he respects the effort required to make a Hades-like and places it in a solid A tier.
Liked
Huge pre-run customization: four characters, four weapons each, four spells each, with flippable variations
Distinct meta-progression with multiple skill trees (support, god, defense, offense), some flippable into two versions
Weapons, spells and boons feel good and support many different build paths
Final boss and true final boss are really well designed
Art style is fairly different from Hades and the music is good
Executes the Hades formula very well, feeling like a spin-off; added voice acting at full release
Disliked
Full release added little over early access, leaving him a bit disappointed
Bosses are always the same; he hoped for variations
Heavy meta-progression: weapons can be terrible without upgrade-branch investment, which he wished was toned down
Still has bugs, including boons whose numbers do not change and a stuck on-screen text visual bug
Story and characters engage him less than Hades; not very unique overall
Top 10 of 2025 (#10)
Sworn is an action roguelike that borrows very heavily from Hades. He says a good Hades-like needs a lot of content, build variety, meta progression, customizable starts, distinct biomes, varied monsters and strong bosses, and that Sworn delivers on all of it. It lands at number 10 on his 2025 list mainly because it does little to stand apart from Hades. Even so, he counts it among his favorite action roguelike experiences of the year.
Liked
Gameplay feels great
Boons have cool designs that make runs differ from one another
Lots of pre-run customization
16 weapons and 16 spells give top-notch replayability
Plenty of content, meta progression, distinct biomes, varied monsters and cool bosses
Emphasis on co-op, which Hades lacks
Disliked
Very little makes it stand out compared to Hades
Lack of uniqueness is what keeps it from ranking higher
What players say
A 1-4 player co-op, Hades-style isometric action roguelite by Windwalk Games (published by Team17) in which you play a Soulforged champion retaking a corrupted Camelot from Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
SWORN is received as a competent, fun but heavily derivative 'Hades with co-op': Steam sits at Very Positive (about 80% of roughly 5,200 reviews) while Metacritic's three critic reviews land between 73 and 85 and its user score is a Mixed 7.2. Players most often say it is worth buying on sale, mainly with friends, and that solo it feels like a slower, less polished, less charming clone. The biggest recurring sore spot is multiplayer stability: disconnects are common and there is no way to rejoin or save a run, which drives most of the negative Steam reviews. It left Early Access (started Feb 2025) with a 1.0 launch on Sep 23, 2025; recent Steam reviews were noticeably worse than all-time at one point (Mixed, about 64%), with some players fearing slowed support and missing content, though later reviews mention new content updates.
Players love
Four-player co-op is the main selling point; many reviewers say it is the best part and the reason to pick this over Hades itself
Build variety from four characters, each with four weapons and four spells, plus 200+ blessings from eight fae lords, yielding very different builds
Solid, responsive moment-to-moment combat with both controller and keyboard and mouse
Boss fights are frequently singled out as a highlight (King Arthur especially), with alternative bosses per act and a boss rush mode
Strong Mignola-inspired hand-drawn art style and Arthurian setting
Good progression feel: every run earns resources and there are many things to unlock, giving a lot of hours of play (many reviewers at 40-100+ hours)
Challenge events and optional modifiers break up the room-clearing loop, and higher difficulties offer more variety
Common complaints
Multiplayer disconnects are frequent and a dropped player (or host) cannot rejoin, so the whole run is lost; this is the single most common complaint in negative Steam reviews
No mid-run save and quit, so runs of 15-45+ minutes cannot be paused, and a crash loses everything
Seen as a near 1:1 Hades copy (room layouts, boon structure, duo boons, pets, hub) that lacks Hades' writing, voice acting, music and personality
Regular enemies and levels feel repetitive and copy-pasted, with few biomes and limited enemy variety
Slower, slightly clunky combat pacing (dodge cooldown, attack recovery, floaty movement) that stops players reaching a flow state; hits can feel cheap
Balance problems: some blessings and weapons are far stronger than others (Gogmagog repeatedly cited), while melee versus ranged balance and some weapons feel underwhelming
Story is thin and social/narrative content is sparse
Rough UX details: awkward controller menu navigation, small interaction ranges at the blacksmith, player collision in the hub, barebones options menu, hard-to-see cursor
Crashes and forced restarts during co-op sessions (some players report the game taking down their PC), adding to the lost-run frustration
Can feel tedious
Higher difficulties: enemies become damage sponges and you must grind meta-progression before you can realistically progress
Early-game upgrades feel negligible until stacked, and weapon upgrade materials such as Holy Grail Water are scarce
Meta upgrades are described as boring flat bonuses and some players run out of meaningful currency sinks around the 15 hour mark
Boss rush is buried behind much of the game (roughly 15-30 minutes of a run to reach) and boss intro cutscenes cannot be skipped
The secret final area and the penultimate chapter were called unfun or pointless by some players because of the curse mechanic and wave-style combat
Losing long co-op runs to disconnects makes hour-long hard-difficulty runs feel risky
What's unique
Four-player online co-op in a Hades-like structure, which the original Hades lacks
Arthurian legend setting with a corrupted Camelot, Merlin's Soulforged champions, and fae lords as the blessing-givers
Class system: four distinct characters each with their own weapons and spells, rather than one protagonist with a weapon roster
Hand-drawn isometric art inspired by Mike Mignola
Boss rush mode and alternative bosses per act, plus a secret late area built around a curse mechanic
Players want
Add rejoin-after-disconnect and more stable netcode/servers for co-op, and possibly host migration
Add save-and-quit mid-run for solo play
Unlock boss rush from the start and add a skip option for boss intro sequences
More content: additional biomes, bosses, routes, weapons, abilities and regular enemy types, plus clearer roadmap communication
Rebalance blessings, weapons and higher-difficulty enemy health so builds beyond the top few are viable and fights are not damage-sponge slogs
More impactful upgrades and meta-progression (many are flat percentage bonuses) and better late-game rewards once currencies are capped
Crossplay, better in-game communication in co-op (only emotes and a few phrases), and more UI and controller polish
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Early AccessRogue-liteIndieCo-opAction RoguelikeHack and SlashActionRPGRogue-likeMythology
Tier list Part 4 (2025)
Sworn is a multiplayer-focused Hades-like that openly mimics Hades in music, animation style, gods and boss structure. He finds it a well-made near-spin-off, with heavy roguelite progression and lots of pre-run customization. He was a bit disappointed that the full release added little over early access, and he notes lingering bugs. Despite being not very unique, he respects the effort required to make a Hades-like and places it in a solid A tier.
Liked
Disliked