The overall quality of an RPG is often clear from the very first moments, and that quality was immediately apparent to me in The Secret of Weepstone, a first-person dungeon crawler currently in development by Talesworth Game Studio and published by DreadXP that presents its world through a striking black-and-white art style that’s anything but ordinary. I tried the demo on Steam and have a few details to share
A Decaying Village and a Cursed Keep
The Secret of Weepstone takes us to the village of Weepstone itself. Once a lively, prosperous town, it’s now a place of misery, avoided by anyone with a bit of common sense.
Our adventure begins in a decaying tavern, just after the baron’s spokesman announces that his lord has fallen ill and is plagued by recurring nightmares filled with visions of rituals and curses.
A desperate request goes out to recruit a team to venture into the castle and uncover the source of this curse. The only catch? We won’t be hiring seasoned adventurers, just ordinary, desperate townsfolk.
Improbable Heroes
Your starting party consists of six characters, chosen from the seven available in the demo, more in the full release.
Each is tied to a class, thief, warrior, elf, or dwarf, but all have a long XP grind ahead before they can truly prove their worth during exploration.
Once you’ve selected your six unlikely heroes, whether that’s the village idiot, a mischievous young pickpocket, an aging married couple (choose one and you’ll automatically get the other), or a few more mysterious faces, you’ll be ready to explore the castle. There, you can find and recruit two additional characters, up to a total of eight.
Gridless First-Person Exploration
The adventure, narrated by the GM, begins right at the castle gates. From the outset, the developers give us a taste of what’s to come: puzzles, interactions, and mechanics that follow the best traditions of first-person RPGs, only without a movement grid to limit exploration.
The demo suggests a keep filled with rooms packed with puzzles and events triggered by character skill checks. The map gradually fills in as you explore, helping you backtrack later once you’ve found the key to a certain room or the item needed to solve a particular puzzle.
All of this is brought to life through a stunning black-and-white art style, with torchlight and shadows painting a vivid atmosphere in the underground corridors.
A solid 3-line Dice-Based Combat System
As for the combat system, The Secret of Weepstone features a classic turn-based structure, but with a twist: three distinct positioning lines, front, middle, and rear. Characters in the front line are the only ones able to use melee weapons, while those in the middle can wield long weapons like spears or use thrown weapons. The back line is restricted to ranged or thrown attacks.
At the start of each battle, two dice rolls determine whether your team or the enemy acts first. On your turn, each character can choose to attack, pass, swap positions, use an item, or switch weapons.
Every attack is resolved with two dice rolls, one to see if the strike lands, the other to determine damage, both influenced by the character’s stats and weapon type.
During the demo, enemies don’t pose too much of a threat, though a lucky enemy roll can easily drop one of your zero-level townsfolk. After all, they’re just regular people at the start.
Stats, Savig Throws and Mortal Favors
As for the characters and their stats, as I mentioned earlier, each one belongs to a specific class and starts at level zero. The stats are the classic ones you’d expect from a solid D&D system: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma, each affecting the character’s weapons and skills in different ways.
Another section dedicated to each character is Saving Throws, which represent resistances to specific attacks or status effects a character might suffer, such as poisoning, paralysis, or spells.
Also worth mentioning are the Mortal Favors, bonuses that a character can earn each time the party is defeated. I’m not entirely sure how this mechanic works or what those bonuses actually are, since during my run, I reached the final battle without ever being defeated. In fact, I don’t even know if this feature was fully implemented in the demo I played.
Finally, the equipment slots include one for the main hand, one for the off-hand, one for armor, one for a helmet, one for a ring, and one for a necklace, along with a shared inventory accessible by all characters.
As for leveling up, I didn’t get to explore that aspect either, since I finished my run before reaching the level cap.
Art Direction and Sound Design
Anyway, what really impressed me about The Secret of Weepstone is its art and sound design. From the very first menu screen, you can tell the game has been crafted with great care, every interface element, every icon, every detail feels deliberate.
The monochrome aesthetic instantly evokes classic dungeon crawlers of the past, yet the team at Talesworth Game Studio manages to elevate that retro look into something visually powerful and modern.
The audio design matches that quality, featuring excellent voice-over work, sound effects, and a soundtrack that perfectly complements the game’s grim tone. The demo (available here) isn’t long, but it absolutely leaves you wanting more.
The full game is expected to launch sometime in 2026 on PC via Steam, and from what I’ve played, this looks like a very promising title, one that’s already made it onto my personal most-anticipated list. Below is the video version of this hands-on.
