Fellowship Preview: Unlocking Endgame MMO Fun From The Start (2024)

Many of the world's most popular online multiplayer dungeon-exploring RPGs often require hundreds of hours of grinding to access the most fun parts of the game, but developer Chief Rebel is getting ready to deliver their first big game, Fellowship, which looks to streamline the MMO RPG endgame experience. After some hands-on time playing the game with the developers, Fellowship has the potential to make games like World of Warcraft feel slow and outdated.

Chief Rebel may be a newer game development studio, but its talented and experienced team is comprised of industry veterans who've helped craft games like Diablo, Helldivers, Tom Clancy's The Division, and more. It's using that knowledge to create what they are calling the first multiplayer online dungeon adventure (MODA) game. The team and publisher Arc Games invited Screen Rant to join three other players from the development team to help raid a couple of small dungeons in an early build of Fellowship.

Fellowship Delivers The Peak MMO Experience In A Fraction Of The Time

An Entire Game Built To Streamline Endgame Dungeons

Many RPGs that involve earning loot by destroying monsters in dungeons often require a considerable investment of time and effort to access endgame content. Epic bosses that require effective teammates to heal and buff allies and others to help damage and debuff foes can take dozens, sometimes hundreds, of hours to reach. While the developers of Fellowship do have a profound love for those types of experiences, the team is setting out to create the same kind of thrill forplayers who do not want to play hours of a game before it gets good.

Players must first choose from one of the pre-made characters, belonging to a tank, healer, or damage dealer class. Each has unique abilities that can help allies or hinder foes as they are unlocked by progressing in the game. The levels that players will tackle in a team of four can be selected from a central hub, but dungeons will be broken up into two types: Quick Play for casual 10-to-15 minute missions or Ranked Dungeons for more challenging and modified adventures that shouldn't take more than 45 to 60 minutes to complete.

Each player joins the game with several abilities already unlocked, allowing them to feel useful in almost any encounter. Thankfully, players won't need to defeat repetitive waves of uninspired enemies to reach one of a dungeon's multiple bosses. While there are more than boss enemies lurking in each dungeon, they seem strategically placed, and with added modifiers, each encounter has the potential to provide an exciting conflict. However, Fellowship's bosses are where the MODA's bread and butter reside.

Bosses Will Require More Than Standing Around While Pointing And Clicking

Fellowship's Dungeons Are Crafted To Be Played With Four Players

During my limited time with the early build of Fellowship, our trusty team of adventurers was able to confront three separate bosses who each provided a different challenge. Attacks that brought about intimidating damage to the entire battlefield ravaged teammates' health bars, except in specific and constantly shifting safe spaces. This required the team's skilled healer to show off, while another boss would require a player to run to a temporary glowing circle in time to prevent a portal from opening and spewing out fodder enemies.

If effective teamwork is achieved and bosses are slain, loot is dropped and can be shared amongst the team. Modifiers can be added to dungeons to make them more challenging, which ultimately unlocks more powerful loot that can strengthen players and even boost up teammates. Difficulty consistently scales to the player's skill level, so replayability seems poised to deliver a fresh experience with every run. Ranked Dungeons sound like the best way to level up, and developers even teased that longer Raid-like Dungeons (with checkpoints) are being worked on and will eventually be added to the game.

Multiplayer Online Dungeon Adventure Is A Tasty Bite-Sized MMO Experience

Fellowship Is Currently Slated To Release On PC In 2025

Fellowship is planned to be a premium release in 2025 instead of a free-to-play title that requires consistent payments to stay engaged. Diving into Fellowship was met with a short learning curve before tackling the first dungeon and battling against a formidable boss, which required more than standing around and casting spells. Players will be able to experience it themselves when Fellowship begins its first Closed Alpha playtest on Steam from August fifteenth to twentieth, and instructions to sign up can be found on PlayFellowship.com.

Chief Rebel's debut game seems perfect for people who've always wanted to jump into the MMO genre to play with friends but have been intimidated by the commitment those games require for fun. By removing the considerable barrier of entry with high-level players and making its RPG mechanics more digestible for all types of players, Fellowship feels like a much-needed update to the MMO formula by streamlining the most fun parts of those games for a wider audience.