Ethereal Rift

Ethereal Rift

Jack Vanderkolk · June 9, 2023 · Action RPG, Action Roguelike, RPG, Hack and Slash, Fantasy

Ethereal Rift is free to play — no purchase needed. We track it so you know if that ever changes.

PC
Mostly Positive79% · 14
This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →

Screenshots

Ethereal Rift price

Ethereal Rift is free to play — there is no purchase price, on Steam or anywhere else we track. We keep watching it, so if it ever stops being free the price history on this page will show when that happened and what it changed to.

About Ethereal Rift

Ethereal Rift is a procedurally generated ARPG based around crafting builds, gathering items and hack and slash combat. Play with up to 4 players in this dark fantasy adventure, slaying huge creatures and dark spirits to bring peace to the middle worlds.

Ethereal Rift — game info

Platforms
Windows
Steam Deck
Playable
Player modes
Single-player, Co-op, Split screen
Controller
Full controller support
PC Game Pass
Not included

What Steam players say

Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.

Recommended Jan 28, 2024
The game is not optimized very well at all. There is no reason a game like this should be pushing my GPU over 70 degrees. I imagine this has to do with the procedural generation, but that's just a wild guess. Sometimes pressing E on my keyboard to progress cutscene dialogue just doesn't register, The combat is janky, which could be fun, but this is the kind where trying to cast a fire spell never seems to go where you want it to (And as stated before half of the time won't register with a button press) The game's options has an "FPS" mode that does... something? Nothing? Who knows! I have Steam's FPS visible in the top left corner and toggling it doesn't seem to affect FPS at all. Am I missing something or is it just broken? In my first 15 minutes I had already encountered a typo, which is isn't a dealbreaker... but I also found it odd that each dialogue cutscene interrupts gameplay by freezing everything until you press a button to continue playing. Providing players with required info is important, but it's the execution that just ruins any immersion I could have had. Simply put: The game feels very unfinished. I imagine it could be quite enjoyable with all these wrinkles iro…
2 found this helpful
Not recommended Jun 19, 2023
Shift for inventory? ok, strange. But I guess it's fair when you are in a hurry, and the inventory is really small Q.Q Top-down, is really top down, just as the pictures and the video. I would say this is a unfinished game put together. It really should be early access. I could not do one quest, cause, idk... and the big pumpkin did not disappear or anything, And I could "move" it around by just walking into it. I guess someone would like it, but eeeh.
2 found this helpful
Not recommended Dec 2, 2025
"Ethereal Rift" is a poorly made tech demo of some kind, a simple and bug infested amateur attempt at a top down ARPG (very lightweight on the RPG) Diablo ripoff, only laughably worse in all respects. The "game" here, such as it is, is of a pretty low technical standard. The implementation is basic, minmimum effort stuff, more like a 'weekend project' rather than a commercial/professional product... it's bad even compared to most amateur made games. An experimental piece... and the experiment is "can I spend $100 on Steam Direct and then call myself a game dev?" While that $100 spend on Steam Direct probably made the developers feel good about themselves, we have to ask why this kind of thing is good for gamers. Even though the game looks pretty bad (and decent visuals are a minimum requirement for any game), we can be fairly sure this is not an asset flip. This is because the game assets look so bad, no self respecting asset creator would publish them. That's a fail. There's also the old adage that those who lack the budget and talent to make their own game assets of any level of quality usually lack the budget and talent to do the rest of the job of game development prope…
1 found this helpful
Recommended Apr 2, 2024
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1 found this helpful
Recommended Aug 9, 2026
Ethereal Rift is an independently developed action RPG that mixes hack-and-slash combat with roguelike progression, procedural environments, exploration, and cooperative play. Developed and published by Jack Vanderkolk, the game takes place within strange middle worlds caught between two opposing supernatural forces known as the ether and the void. This unusual setting gives the adventure a distinctly dark fantasy identity while also providing a foundation for its central gameplay mechanic: taking control of mortal hosts, strengthening them during individual expeditions, and attempting to overcome the dangerous entities inhabiting each world. The progression structure is one of the more distinctive aspects of Ethereal Rift. Rather than beginning every adventure as an established warrior loaded with abilities and equipment, players enter a world through a comparatively weak host. From there, survival depends on exploration, gathering resources, discovering useful equipment, assisting friendly spirits, and defeating hostile creatures. The gradual transformation from vulnerable newcomer into a considerably stronger combatant creates much of the satisfaction behind each run. Levels ar…
Recommended Dec 15, 2024
didn't understand the objective of the game, once you finish a world, it returns you to the "lobby" but, doesn't count like you had finished it, it's maybe bugged or idk,

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