Alkahest Gets New Trailer With Barely Any New Footage in it
Alkahest is the debut title from Push On, a new game studio based in Cyprus. Already drawing comparisons with Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Alkahest is a first-person action RPG that’s also drawn attention for having two game trailers with almost identical content, and no clear gameplay footage.
Push On has already made a lot of promises as to what Alkahest will include when it’s released, although the company hasn’t given a possible date yet. A press release accompanying the initial reveal in June 2024 referenced the ability to use the environment against enemies, as well as the chance to mix stealth with full-on fisticuffs.
“Unlike games where stealth is the ‘right’ way to play, we encourage a balanced approach,” Push On said in the press release. “Players can opt for stealth, scouting the area for an effective strategy, or boldly confront enemies head-on. Enemies adapt dynamically; if overwhelmed, they may flee, regroup, and set up ambushes, keeping gameplay challenging and engaging.”
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No One Knows What’s Real
The most recent trailer, shown above, debuted on May 23, 2025, and it largely recycled footage from the initial teaser released on June 27, 2024. Gamers were quick to point out that, while it looked gorgeous and really nailed the dark fantasy look and feel of Dark Messiah, it was also very clearly either made from cutscenes or entirely CGI, not actual gameplay.
This in itself isn’t that uncommon these days, with teaser trailers often being used to give players a sense of a game rather than show it in actual action. For example, when Silent Hill f was announced in October 2022 with an official reveal video, it was just CGI and no one complained. The subsequent teaser video from March 2025 was also devoid of gameplay, although it did appear to involve in-game cutscenes, and gamers were just as psyched.
The big difference between something like Silent Hill and Alkahest is, of course, the studios. If Konami teases something, gamers know it’s real because it’s coming from a AAA company. Indie studios, however, have a harder time convincing people they have a real product simply because gamers are used to smaller companies dazzling them with impressive trailers, followed by a final product that utterly fails to live up to its own hype.
The Day Before
The Day Before is the most well-known, recent example of this. Announced in January 2021 with a slick trailer, developers Fntastic promised an extensive MMO survival horror extraction shooter. It entered Early Access in December 2023 and rapidly drew negative press for being nowhere near what Fntastic promised: instead of a vibrant open world, The Day Before was a small empty city with atrocious enemy AI, basic gameplay mechanics, and a ton of jank.
Even taking into account the common perils of backing an Early Access game, players and critics soon acknowledged that the released game bore next to no resemblance to the one shown in trailers. The Day Before was so terrible, Steam even ignored its own refund policy by allowing players to refund the game without even loading it up.
Fntastic didn’t help itself, either, by backpedaling on its previous claims to the extent that it even tried removing old posts about The Day Before to hide its initial hype. The company also shut down a few days after the game’s launch, even though it was still possible to buy the game for a little while longer.
Bizarrely, the company then returned to life with the same name in September 2024, with a lengthy document outlining its new mission statement, including a focus on “Transparency” and “Professionalism.” It also revealed a Kickstarter for its next game, Escape Factory. However, this was shut down in October 2024 after the page was flooded with comments warning others it was likely another cash grab.
At the time of writing, Fntastic had abandoned and pulled from sale an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game, Propnight, and there’s only radio silence with regards to its latest project, Items.
Tarred With The Same Brush
Where a lot of other indie game studios don’t help themselves is in their communication with the gaming community, so that an honest promotional trailer can soon look like a grift if the developers either don’t respond to player queries, or do but in a way that seeks to undermine their supposed professionalism.
Push On has a polished website, although it’s barebones and makes vague references to the team having AAA game experience. Questions across the company’s various channels, including YouTube and Discord, as to the veracity of the trailer have been ignored by Push On.
The only news it’s given in terms of actual gameplay comes in the form of two seemingly contradictory statements in a post accompanying the new teaser: “The new trailer gives you a glimpse at Alkahest’s visceral melee combat and interactive environments in motion. It’s not just what you fight with. It’s where you fight,” Push On said. “This teaser is just the beginning. Later this year, we plan to share with you a full gameplay reveal, including new environments, alchemy, and more.”
Two other recent game reveals have also been greeted with mixed responses: Dreadmoor by Russian studio Dream Dock has been lambasted by gamers for pretending to show gameplay when it doesn’t, and Displacement, by Cyprus-based Obelisk Studio, is a promising survival horror being undermined by the company’s reluctance to properly market it.
Dream Dock did take to Reddit to answer questions from players about Dreadmoor, although answers were often vague or confusing, including news that a gameplay trailer would appear soon, but with no possible timeframe.
Obelisk Studio, meanwhile, has been revealing Displacement videos that make a concerted effort to show the studio as being a fun place, but no actual gameplay ever gets shown, despite Obelisk also being very vocal about needing money for it.
Where Push On, and Alkahest, do at least give the impression that gamers can likely trust it to be a real game and not a scam, is in the recent news that the company has partnered with HypeTrain Digital to publish it.
HypeTrain is behind almost 40 games by this point, including Pathologic 3, There is no Light, and The Wild Eight. This latter title was developed by Fntastic and is still available to buy, with a fairly even mix of positive and negative reviews from players and critics, although Fntastic sold the rights to the game to HypeTrain in 2017.
