After playing The Duskbloods network test, I was stunned by — and couldn’t get enough of — its breakneck pacing

The Duskbloods has been one of my most anticipated games of 2026 ever since it was announced back at that first Switch 2 -centric Nintendo Direct.

Now, having finally had the chance to play it briefly in the game’s recent network test, I’m pretty confident it will be one of the best Nintendo Switch 2 games ...

For the most part.

It all began with a tutorial segment that lulled me into a false sense of security.

Being a solo instance, it taught all the basics of The Duskbloods like melee and ranged attacks, character skills, general game flow, and what you should be planning to do during an online match.

I was able to go about these tutorials at a leisurely pace, which absolutely isn’t the case when you hop online against real players.

My biggest takeaway from The Duskbloods network test is that, during an online match, you should always be on the move.

Much like Elden Ring Nightreign , it’s massively beneficial to be thinking several steps ahead.

And that turns out to be quite difficult; avoiding bloodthirsty players is hard enough, but it’s even harder when you’re so tempted to stop and whiff the blood-tinged roses of The Duskbloods’ delectably macabre world.

It’s Zork’s world now, we’re all just living in it (Image credit: FromSoftware) To quickly go over the rules of engagement, matches in The Duskbloods take place over several phases, each around five minutes in length.

After selecting a Bloodsworn (the game’s playable characters), you’ll choose a point to spawn in the small-but-dense map.

During the first phase, you’re encouraged to start building up Virtue by killing enemies, looting items, and lighting the skulls of corpses sat on thrones (it’s a FromSoftware game, did you expect anything less?).

Virtue comes in many forms, and can also be accrued by fulfilling your character’s Sigil requirements in each phase.

Sigils are optional, but can drastically alter how you play.