We need to talk about Camelot Unchained

Folks, we need to talk about Camelot Unchained.  Many moons ago I was a Dark Ages of Camelot (DAoC) fanboy. Mythic Entertainment (later gobbled up by EA) could do no wrong.  Mark Jacobs leading Mythic Entertainment at the time was the voice of reason in MMO developers at the time.  Micro transitions? No.  Free to play? No. Real money trading? He hunted it down.  Mark could do no wrong in a younger heartlessgamer's eyes 

Then Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) happened.  I donned the fanboy suit again.  I battled in the online trenches for WAR.  For Mark.  But it went sideways when EA gobbled up Mythic and WAR struggled to find an audience.  Mark Jacobs exited and in 2011 showed up on Kickstarter with the spiritual successor to DAoC called Camelot Unchained.  He collected my money and I waited. And waited.  I am still waiting.

In that time waiting a lot of things happened.  I am not here to dredge them all up but needless to say Mark Jacobs lost a lot of trust with the community.  He lost me.  I stopped caring about the game I had funded.  Then there are refund controversies, misleading updates, and the debacle with the studio launching an entirely different game while we are all still waiting on the game we funded over ten years ago!   But through all of the turbulence Unchained Entertainment pressed on with Camelot Unchained.

And finally we have a video with some of the results. The closest we've gotten to a real look at the game that has been in development for over a decade!  Watch it below. 

What do you think?  Looks dated for a game in 2025 right? Not only do visuals look dated but animations seem stiff.  Combat seems pretty static.  Nothing in the video screams "new video game in the year 2025".

Yet I can't help but admit a tiny thread of optimism in seeing an actual game.  I never expected Camelot Unchained to be a World of Warcraft killer.  I knew it was never destined to be a AAA game.  It was going to be a boutique experience; just as Stars Reach is Raph Koster's spiritual successor to Star Wars Galaxies so was Camelot Unchained going to be Mark Jacobs successor to DAoC.  Give me decent combat, an open world, and Realm vs Realm and I'll have some fun.

I'm glad we're at the stage where its realistic to think there is a release coming for Camelot Unchained.  It may be too little too late and Mark may have buried the hatchet too deep in the communities backs, but hey at least I may get a chance to say I gave the game a try. 

Note: I've given up paying close attention to the game so if there is other info about release or testing; feel free to drop the info in the comments.