Many centuries have passed since The Bloods went through the gateway for last time and hardly anybody can remember how it happened. However, their world is currently fading and they are back.

The battle between Light and Darkness is unleashing a series of planetary energies which are driving the world towards destruction. This crumbling universe has just one way for being saved, which is to recapture the ancestral relic and feed it with the blood shed on Earth to make it flourish again.

The time has come for the The Bloods to traverse the gateway again and claim for their relic. They won’t be on their own, their Blood Ancestors are protecting it.

The struggle between Light and Darkness is about to begin!

Snowpeak Studio is shaking things up in its first-person objective based multiplayer, by cleverly adding in a two-phase gameplay system that will keep teams thinking on their toes, allowing for dynamic gameplay and challenging objectives with the ultimate goal being to claim the Blood Relic.

Three warring factions are duking it out to claim the all-powerful Blood Relic for their own survival in a dying and ruin-filled medieval fantasy world. Claiming the Blood Relic will require your team of five to strategize and work together in fast-paced melee driven combat to take the Relic. Players can expect quick rounds in Blood Ancestors, and full games lasting around 25 minutes.

Snowpeak Studio announced that its upcoming team-based melee combat multiplayer game Blood Ancestors, is heading into open alpha today on Steam beginning at 2:30 pm EST, 11:30 am PST, 7:30 pm GMT.

“We have always enjoyed first person team focused multiplayer, games like Team Fortress, Overwatch, Chivalry, among others have been inspirations to our small studio and we wanted to create something that was different but feels familiar at the same time,” Said David Broto, co-founder of Snowpeak studio.

Blood Ancestors will be coming to Steam early access in mid-August.

In case it wasn't clear, there's an overarching theme of Blood Ancestors, spoilers it's blood. In order for a team to claim the Blood Relic for their own, you’ll need to be victorious in two phases. Defend your Bearer while laying some hurt on the enemy team in order to keep control of the Relic in phase one. Crystals in the arena will provide some extra flair for strategy, choose health or speed for your Bearer, but choose wisely as these buffs carry on into phase two.

Claim the Relic in phase one and your team is on its way to medieval victory if you can manage to stave off the enemy team in the second phase. Your team’s ultimate goal is to reach the enemy spawn portal before your time runs out or your Bearer is a little worse for wear, by little worse we mean dead.

While bringing some hurt on to the enemy team sounds fun enough, Blood Ancestors lets you flex those brain muscles by giving each player three customizable skills using skill trees and class configuration. Primary and secondary attacks also fill out the player's toolkit and an ultimate ability that players can charge up to three times to use when it’s most needed and potentially change the tide of battle. Choose to build your skills around your team or shift your focus to thwarting the enemy team.

Contrary to our references, Overwatch and Paladin, Blood Ancestors focuses in the hand-to-hand fighting experience combined with conventional team-based FPS gameplay mechanics.

Key Features:

• Fast-paced 5v5 multiplayer action
• High fantasy medieval world
• Brutal fights in melee combat
• Objective based gameplay
• Choose between 18 classes with different gameplay styles (6 in the Early Access release)
• Create your own build by choosing 3 styles (offensive, defensive, utility) from a pool of more than 150 varied skills
• Extreme character customization
• More than 6 multiplayer maps (3 in the Early Access release) 
• Fight to secure the Relic and unleash a powerful ultimate attack

Blood Ancestors will firstly be released on Steam while console versions are planned sometime after.