From merchant to monk. This survival game promised everything, but the ambitious goal proved too much for its creators

A group of games touching on the subject of the medieval plague epidemic was to be joined by an action game with RPG and survival elements titled The Black Death. Ultimately, the developers failed to deliver on their promises, which led to the project being scrapped.

To say that the Black Death, the plague epidemic of the 14th century, shook nearly the entire medieval world is an understatement. Back then, Europe, Asia, and North Africa were dealing with one of the biggest epidemics ever, which is thought to have started in China and made its way to the West via the Silk Road. Although this topic isn’t very often addressed by video game creators, from time to time, there are developers who try to tackle it.

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The Black Death in video games

No doubt, the A Plague Tale series nailed it, though it’s worth noting that the developers at Asobo Studio spiced up their pretty realistic take on 14th-century France with some fantasy elements. The creators from the small studios Syrin and Small Impact Games intended to adhere more to realism as they attempted to create their game set in a grim world ravaged by a medieval epidemic.

They tried, although the task ultimately overwhelmed them, so The Black Death, as the project was named, never saw the release of its full version. Nonetheless, players got the chance to try out a playable version and see for themselves if the devs lived up to their bold promises. Let’s take a moment to remember what that game promised us and what the developers actually delivered in the end.

Medieval struggle for survival

The Black Death was supposed to be a multiplayer open-world title with RPG elements, survival, a crafting system, the ability to acquire and expand properties, and a day-night cycle.

Watching the action from a third-person perspective, during the gameplay, we were to take on the role of a character representing one of the diverse professions, which would include a guard, merchant, farmer, a blacksmith, monk, or even a hunter. The class we chose was supposed to determine the skills we would have during the fun.

Our profession wasn’t supposed to determine the character of our persona. On one hand, peaceful folks could totally embrace the “pray and work” vibe, diligently doing their thing—whether it’s farming, healing the injured, or studying the disease as monks. On the other hand, the devs didn’t intend to limit us in terms of the possibility of taking a criminal path and enriching ourselves at the expense of other players.

The game’s combat system was supposed to be designed to let you have fast-paced battles where being quick on your feet and watching your enemy’s moves to find openings for a solid attack were the keys to winning. The complement to all of this was supposed to be the ability to play together with up to 50 other people, who would populate the game world along with non-player characters.

Risk of infection

I mentioned the survival aspect for a reason, as the black death in the game’s title wasn’t just for building atmosphere. The plague epidemic was indeed going to leave its mark on the gameplay mechanics. Our character could contract this deadly disease in various ways, including interacting with beggars, coming into contact with dead bodies, or finally “catching” it from other players.

If the plague hit our virtual body, you’d notice it pretty quickly with stuff like throwing up, getting tired way faster (like when running or attacking), and some visual effects too. After the appearance of these symptoms, we would have to quickly go to the monks and try to get treated, as otherwise, death would await us. The consequences of this last one were supposed to be really harsh because it would be permanent, forcing us to start the game all over again.

Players say “I’m checking”

That’s the theory, now it’s time to remember how The Black Death played out in practice. As it happens, one of our editors got a chance to check out this title, and he really tore apart its early version. As he wrote in his article, it was a version that was “buggy and – to put it mildly – as ugly as a November night.”

So, even though the project by Syrin and Small Impact Games was supposed to use Unreal Engine 4, it seems like the developers had a tough time getting the hang of it. The early version of the game ended up with some interesting quirks, like:

Limited visibility, ugly plants, roughly carved stone buildings, and water that looks so bad it would’ve been considered ugly even before the days of Voodoo graphics accelerators. Let’s add to this the poor models of cloned characters, animations straight out of the “stiff park,” and an all-encompassing, repetitive emptiness.

The gameplay wasn’t any better either. Despite all the hype from the developers, the playable version only let you chat with NPCs and steal from them without anyone batting an eye. The combat system, on the other hand, offered us attractions such as collision detection issues and awkward animations.

Saving the situation and the next try

The Black Death was released in Early Access on PC in April 2016. Knowing their game wasn’t up to players’ standards, the developers jumped in to fix it. This somewhat improved the situation, as today their title enjoys “mixed” reviews on Steam. However, this didn’t save the entire project from a crushing defeat, as after about five years, the developers decided to abandon it. Interestingly, even though you can’t buy The Black Death anymore, SteamDB shows that a few people still play it every now and then.

After the failure of The Black Death, the team at Syrin Studios didn’t release any more games. Unlike Small Impact Studios, which picked itself up, dusted off, and created Marauders, an online shooter that allows us to play as space pirates, which entered Early Access on Steam in 2022. Unfortunately, at the time of writing these words (September 2025), it seems that despite its initial success, this project has also been forgotten by its creators.