Every now and then a reveal drops that skips the glossy cinematic and just throws the game at you as it is. Canyons is exactly that kind of project: early alpha gameplay carefully sliced together and shared straight by RedRuins Softworks, the team behind Breathedge. From the first seconds it feels like a shooter that wants to win you over with systems and mood more than with fireworks.
Canyons is a third-person co-op and PvE shooter built in Unreal Engine 5, set in a procedural world that never really stops trying to kill you. It sends you on expeditions, asks you to prepare, gives you freedom, and then charges interest on every bad decision you make.
A brutal world of faith and Awakened
The premise sits somewhere between straight sci-fi and classic fantasy, without really fitting either. You play as a crusader of the Double Cross Order, thrown into a land torn apart by a force called the Awakened. These creatures are not your usual monsters, but disturbing fusions of life and death, technology and corruption, wrapped in a heavy, ritual-like tone.
Even the fragments of dialogue in the gameplay go all in on atmosphere: clipped orders, warnings, invocations, panic, then silence. It is the kind of soundscape that makes you glance over your shoulder even when nothing obvious is happening.
Expeditions instead of classic missions
Canyons does not seem interested in the usual “jump into a level, clear it, get out” loop. It leans more into the idea of an expedition: you stock up, tweak your loadout, climb into the unknown canyons and accept that things can go sideways very quickly.
Here the Crawlers come in: towering walking machines that act as transport, mobile base and, when used well, a tactical edge that can flip an encounter. The fantasy is less “hero cleaning up the map” and more survivor hauling their fragile home through hostile territory, hoping to limp back in one piece.
Procedural generation is there, but it is not left to do all the heavy lifting. Among the generated layouts, you can spot events and locations that feel hand-crafted, just enough to keep the world from dissolving into a soulless “random place”.
Weighty combat and true co-op
If you expect a twitchy shooter built on pure reflex and constant strafing, Canyons might catch you off guard. Fights look deliberate and heavy: positioning matters, environmental awareness matters, and enemies do not simply rush you in straight lines. The Awakened are dangerous less because they sponge bullets and more because they are unpredictable and force you to adapt.
Co-op for up to four players looks baked into the foundation rather than bolted on. One player can draw aggro, another holds the line, another chases objectives, with roles emerging naturally instead of being hard-locked. Solo play leans on resource pressure and pacing, while in a squad the chaos ramps up together with your tactical options.
Sacred blood packs and a living haven
One of the standout systems is the sacred blood packs. They are not framed as simple perks, but more like uneasy pacts: you gain powerful abilities, and only later discover the strings attached. The game refuses to spell out every consequence, pushing you to learn by doing and occasionally pay for your curiosity, which fits its dirty, religious, unforgiving world.
Between expeditions you return to Haven of the Covenant, a base that gives you a breather without ever feeling truly safe. You build and upgrade structures with clear functions: workshops, housing, defenses, Crawler facilities, armoury, medical services and more. Progression is rarely cosmetic; each building affects how the settlement grows and what kind of people it attracts, along with the dangers that follow your expansion.
Character growth ties into professions and personal skills rather than just bigger numbers. In co-op this opens up real strategic planning: everyone picks a direction and expeditions start to feel like coordinated operations instead of random outings. Attachment to your character comes less from scripted cutscenes and more from the stories you barely survive: losing gear, scraping by on the last drops of fuel, dragging damaged equipment back home.
Atmosphere, platforms and why it is worth tracking
Visually, Canyons goes for harsh and oppressive rather than pristine realism: blinding sun, sandstorms, jagged rock, warped creatures and the remnants of a world that once had technology and life. Sound design does heavy lifting too, from wind hissing through the canyons and metal groaning in the distance to echoing gunfire and stretches of silence that feel worse than the fighting.
Music seems used sparingly, which only makes the moments it does appear hit harder.
What we see is early alpha gameplay, so plenty can still change before release. The current plan is to launch on PC and PlayStation 5. Canyons clearly is not chasing everyone: it moves slower at times, stays harsh, and seems happy to be punishing, but it trusts players and lets systems generate stories instead of staging every moment as a scripted spectacle.
If the team can hold on to what shows up in this footage – the expedition tension, organic co-op, a base that helps and complicates things, plus power packs with sharp consequences – Canyons could become the sort of experience you remember less for loot and more for the choices that almost destroyed your squad.
