TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 8,924
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
I want to play 1666: Amsterdam's final iteration, I just hope it gets that far.
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I can think of little else cooler than flying above the streets of 17th Century Amsterdam, in the dead of night, on a broom stick, with a black cat. Looking down on the amber glow of the oil-lit streetlamps is my lasting positive memory of 1666: Amsterdam's preview, but I can't say I had the same fondness for it once I got up and personal with what was on the ground.
1666: Amsterdam is over a decade old now, the brainchild of Patrice Désilets, director and creative lead of Assassin's Creed and co-founder of Panache. He had to fight for the game, suing his former employer Ubisoft for the rights to it. Now, he's working on it at Montreal indie-based studio Panache Digital Games.
"We do between 15 to 20 builds a day," Désilets explains. "So it always has to be playable, it's an iterative process at Panache. Progression is more important than perfection." A lot of progression has clearly been made in 1666: Amsterdam, what with its impressive map, interesting story, and smart exploration ideas. Even just during the preview its world felt impossibly big, but the real question is whether all these grand ideas will be polished enough for an early access release on August 25.
The preview picked up from where the demo left off with the protagonist Noa. I'd just picked my cat—who has the soul of a man named Aaron from the 1990s trapped inside it—and was promptly given the unenviable task of uncovering the demonic Originals and taking their unholy power back for my witchy self. But before I could even say goodbye to my fellow spellcasters before setting out on this journey, my coven was rudely interrupted by a group of witch hunters. From here on out there was a lot of running, fighting, and flying over the streets of Amsterdam to evade capture.
Noa was limited to dodging and brawling like a street sweeper.
I couldn't wait to get stuck into a fight, against mere humans no less, I could turn them into frogs, replace their skeletons with jello, anything felt possible. I decided to start out simple with a good old wack around the noggin with my broomstick, and then another hit, and another, and that's when I realised that Noa was limited to dodging and brawling like a street sweeper.
This was what the combat was like for the rest of the preview, although the dodging did get slightly harder as a new kind of enemy was introduced (a soldier with a pike) I didn't find any of it particularly challenging, which is not what I wanted, especially since 1666: Amsterdam has no different difficulty settings as of writing this although the team is apparently "thinking about it".
It also didn't help that my boss battle ended in disappointment as a tech mishap meant that the fight was bugged out for the entire session. After locating the Original alongside the seal they used to sign the contract which granted them great power, you force it to transform into its demonic self and fight it to the death. Unfortunately, the Original I encountered got half way through shifting and then got distracted by something and walked off. My experience of this seemed like the exception and not the rule, so while it shouldn't be held against 1666: Amsterdam, this was unfortunately my only firsthand experience of the boss fight.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Aside from getting stood up by a demon I did manage to see a bit more of what the combat has to offer later on in the game via a hands-off walkthough. One surprise was that 1666: Amsterdam will have roguelite features in that you'll come across chances to pick an ability out of three random ones after defeating Originals, or just by getting lucky when searching through houses. If you die then the abilities you gained during a section will reset and you'll...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
I can think of little else cooler than flying above the streets of 17th Century Amsterdam, in the dead of night, on a broom stick, with a black cat. Looking down on the amber glow of the oil-lit streetlamps is my lasting positive memory of 1666: Amsterdam's preview, but I can't say I had the same fondness for it once I got up and personal with what was on the ground.
1666: Amsterdam is over a decade old now, the brainchild of Patrice Désilets, director and creative lead of Assassin's Creed and co-founder of Panache. He had to fight for the game, suing his former employer Ubisoft for the rights to it. Now, he's working on it at Montreal indie-based studio Panache Digital Games.
"We do between 15 to 20 builds a day," Désilets explains. "So it always has to be playable, it's an iterative process at Panache. Progression is more important than perfection." A lot of progression has clearly been made in 1666: Amsterdam, what with its impressive map, interesting story, and smart exploration ideas. Even just during the preview its world felt impossibly big, but the real question is whether all these grand ideas will be polished enough for an early access release on August 25.
The preview picked up from where the demo left off with the protagonist Noa. I'd just picked my cat—who has the soul of a man named Aaron from the 1990s trapped inside it—and was promptly given the unenviable task of uncovering the demonic Originals and taking their unholy power back for my witchy self. But before I could even say goodbye to my fellow spellcasters before setting out on this journey, my coven was rudely interrupted by a group of witch hunters. From here on out there was a lot of running, fighting, and flying over the streets of Amsterdam to evade capture.
Noa was limited to dodging and brawling like a street sweeper.
I couldn't wait to get stuck into a fight, against mere humans no less, I could turn them into frogs, replace their skeletons with jello, anything felt possible. I decided to start out simple with a good old wack around the noggin with my broomstick, and then another hit, and another, and that's when I realised that Noa was limited to dodging and brawling like a street sweeper.
This was what the combat was like for the rest of the preview, although the dodging did get slightly harder as a new kind of enemy was introduced (a soldier with a pike) I didn't find any of it particularly challenging, which is not what I wanted, especially since 1666: Amsterdam has no different difficulty settings as of writing this although the team is apparently "thinking about it".
It also didn't help that my boss battle ended in disappointment as a tech mishap meant that the fight was bugged out for the entire session. After locating the Original alongside the seal they used to sign the contract which granted them great power, you force it to transform into its demonic self and fight it to the death. Unfortunately, the Original I encountered got half way through shifting and then got distracted by something and walked off. My experience of this seemed like the exception and not the rule, so while it shouldn't be held against 1666: Amsterdam, this was unfortunately my only firsthand experience of the boss fight.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Aside from getting stood up by a demon I did manage to see a bit more of what the combat has to offer later on in the game via a hands-off walkthough. One surprise was that 1666: Amsterdam will have roguelite features in that you'll come across chances to pick an ability out of three random ones after defeating Originals, or just by getting lucky when searching through houses. If you die then the abilities you gained during a section will reset and you'll...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?