Of Ash and Steel is set in the Kingdom of the Seven, an island in uncharted waters, where your character shipwrecks at the beginning of the game. As a cartographer, the prospect of unmapped wilderness is naturally enticing. Yet you are not an adventurer nor warrior. Instead, you are the bottom of the food chain, and everything in this new world is out to get you.

This is where we begin, and it's the start of many grand adventures like it. As with the Gothic series, first-time developer studio Fire & Frost seeks to refine the tried and tested tradition of open world roleplaying for modern audiences. Their promise is simple, yet exciting: Of Ash and Steel will deliver old-school mechanics in a palatable way for new audiences without holding hands or resorting to tired, lazy design choices that have become the norm.

"We want the player to take in this world on a slower pace," my guide at the Gamescom demonstration explains. "That's why the default movement is walking, and running of course drains stamina."

I can instantly see why. From the moment I set foot into the world of the Kingdom of the Seven, I'm entranced by the visual style and evocative mood. Fire & Frost are an Eastern European studio, and you can tell they've brought the love of their homeland with them. As a Northern European, I recognize the deep connection with dense forests, little rivers, and half-beaten paths leading to parts unknown. It is a world that invites you to explore, but always reminds you of your place in it.

My first taste of this came early on, when I wandered into an abandoned town at the behest of another shifty-looking traveller. He gave me a quest to help find some abandoned loot, which we would then split 50/50.

Right away, I noticed something different. There were no map markers. No indicators where to go, nothing on a small mini-map that I would stare at more than the actual game itself.

Instead, I had to listen and pay attention. Go across the river, I was instructed, the town will be across the hill following the path on the left. It was a small morsel of what's to come, but also a massive indicator that Fire & Frost are taking their mission statement seriously.

"You're a cartographer, so as you progress through the game, you draw more into the world map," my guide explained. "But the idea is that you have to play the game and develop this relationship with the world first."

It didn't take long for my imagination to run wild. After all, immersion is a key selling point in this genre. Yet it's something that most big-budget titles struggle with every year. There is so little you can get out of just activating beacon towers. Wandering into a town or an unexpected encounter feels so much more personal when it isn't telegraphed hours earlier.

Later, as my dastardly companion inevitably betrayed me, I was happy to discover that finding him wasn't as easy as I first thought. Again, there was no indication where to go. We were, after all, in the middle of the forest. It's not like he'd left a big sign behind.

"You'll meet him again down the road," my guide explained. "When you do, you'll be an entirely different person. The idea is that when it happens, it's up to you entirely what that person is and how you'll react."

After some messing about in the village, I gained enough experience to level up. As expected, Of Ash and Steel doesn't take the most common route here, either.

There are three different skill branches: Survival, Craftsmanship, and War. Each attribute point unlocks skills, while passive bonuses come from exploring the world around you – giving more reasons for questing rather than just busywork. But skills aren't unlocked just on a whim; each one requires a tutor to first train you in the basics. The idea here, I'm told, is once again to embrace immersion. It just wouldn't be the same if you suddenly learned blacksmithing out of the blue.

At first, this worried me. After all, it feels like an annoyance to have to hike back into town just to return with a skill for a particular bit of adventuring. But as I played further, and as I spoke with the developers, I realized that all this was part of the grander scheme of understanding how I approach games today.

Most modern titles are about grind and instant, but often useless, upgrades. It doesn't genuinely change the game if I make 5% more damage with axes I won't use. But it will make a difference to form a bond with not just my character, but the NPCs and the world around me, as I find a village when I master my skills.

"As you get better – or worse – with stuff, the world reacts to you differently. Even something as simple as being dirty will have people respond in different ways," my guide tells me.

The developers estimate that Of Ash and Steel will take around 30 hours to complete, but even longer if you really want to discover everything there is in the game. The world map has multiple different biomes, but isn't massive on the scale of Bethesda titles. Instead, the focus is on handcrafted experiences with deep and rewarding quests at every turn.

I ask about accessibility, which is close to my heart. Even with the best of intentions, an aggressively old-school experience will still drive off players if you can't play the game.

"We have a modern UI and we're focusing on tutorials and quality of life improvements," my guide tells me. "It's just that other things, like automatic enemy level-scaling, is gone. We want to make the game feel like an old-school title with modern benefits."

I spend another ten or so minutes just wandering the countryside. I bump into an old man living alone in a hut in the forest. As I approach, he begins to yell at me to leave him alone. I try again, and he berates me that he left the city to avoid these encounters, and why won't I take no for an answer.

Later, I bump into some giant bugs – there's that old familiarity from prior generations – and fumble my way through the combat. I ask if it gets any faster with skills. At this point, my guide points out that each weapon has three different poses which affect how you fight. Not all weapons can use each pose. For example, a dagger isn't a two-handed weapon, and a greatsword isn't meant for riposting.

But once again, the idea isn't that this proves to be a magical fix. Instead, the next battle I go into, I realize that I now try to adjust my style to suit the environment and the movement of my enemy. I'm learning to read the world. It feels more rewarding than any arbitrary experience point counter.

As my time with Of Ash and Steel comes to an end, I find myself walking around the halls of Gamescom in a daze. All I do is think about what I could find next in this world, and how my character will respond to the challenges ahead.

In just a short introduction, Fire & Frost has crafted a promise of a deep, immersive roleplaying experience that I didn't even realize I had missed this badly. My years of playing titles like Daggerfall and Gothic came rushing back into memory, and it felt like I got to live them all over again.

With that promise in mind, I think Of Ash and Steel is going to be something truly special.