Doom Meets Hades in the Coolest New Action Game of Gamescom 2026

If you spend enough time with video games, certain subconscious patterns form instantly: an isometric viewpoint immediately triggers expectations of a roguelike adventure. However, Murals—the imaginative new action title from the developers behind Disney Illusion Island—deliberately defies that convention.

Debuting at the 2026 Gamescom Opening Night Live presentation, Murals represents the latest creative endeavor from Dlala Studios, the UK-based team celebrated for reviving the classic beat-em-up genre with 2020’s Battletoads. This upcoming release shifts away from their previous work to deliver an isometric, story-driven action experience. Yet, as CEO and game director Aj Grand-Scutton clarified during an exclusive, hands-off preview at Gamescom, it is distinctly not a roguelike. Players shouldn’t go in expecting a direct carbon copy of Hades.

Murals reimagines your favorite fairy tales

Serving as a largely original intellectual property for Dlala Studios, Murals casts you as The Hero—a stoic, action-first protagonist accompanied by a talkative, anthropomorphic slice of toast known simply as Loaf. A clever visual detail accentuates the game’s painterly aesthetic: all adversaries are rendered in full 3D, whereas supportive non-player characters like Loaf are portrayed in charming 2D. The core premise revolves around putting a dark, subversive twist on timeless folklore, drawing inspiration from tales like Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, and Little Red Riding Hood. For instance, according to an official prequel comic, Rumpelstiltskin is reimagined as a colossal, Shelob-inspired arachnid horror. Each adventure is housed within a magical mural, which serves as the game’s creative chapter-selection framework.

During their Gamescom presentation, the team showcased the fifth chapter, dropping The Hero into a sun-drenched, aquatic environment inspired by The Little Mermaid (prompting Loaf to quip, “This mural is shaping up to be a real beach, am I right?”). Entering a combat arena seals the exits, locking you inside until every single threat has been neutralized. Offensively, you can alternate between sweeping close-range sword strikes, heavy hammer blows, and versatile ranged attacks. It is an exceptionally nimble, momentum-driven experience centered around fluid dodging—meaning you’ll rely on rapid dashes rather than calculated parries to survive hostile encounters.

Granted, comparisons to Hades aren’t completely unwarranted.

Even so, the game’s more surprising design influence doesn’t stem from Supergiant’s catalog, nor does it borrow from traditional Diablo mechanics. Instead, the team drew inspiration from 2016’s Doom. The underlying philosophy mirrors iD Software’s iconic shooter: individual adversaries excel at executing a single, highly specialized action. Rather than requiring players to memorize exhaustive enemy move lists, the core difficulty arises from managing the chaotic combinations of diverse foes appearing simultaneously. For instance, you might be focused on battling a cluster of spider crabs, only to be ambushed by horseshoe crabs bursting from the sand and unleashing a barrage of ranged projectiles.

Slaying foes builds an active killstreak meter, rewarding players with bonus experience points. (Dlala maintains an internal office leaderboard tracking who holds the highest combat score—though Grand-Scutton humbly admitted he isn’t anywhere near the top.) Dispatching enemies also charges a powerful limit break meter, which, once maximized, lets you unleash a devastating area-of-effect ability titled Canvas Clear.

Specialized accessories known as Eeries further customize your arsenal. While some provide conventional stat adjustments to health or offensive output, others imbue your strikes with elemental properties like freezing or shocking effects. Certain items drastically alter weapon functionality altogether, such as one that reduces base damage output in exchange for striking every active enemy on screen simultaneously.

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Dlala views these modifiers as permanent progression mechanics rather than temporary abilities lost upon death. You can equip up to nine distinct modifiers at once; while the full extent of available options remains to be seen, it’s clear that players will be able to construct wildly powerful, game-breaking combinations. Grand-Scutton noted that the developers deliberately avoided obsessive fine-tuning for strict balance. If a player is thoroughly enjoying themselves by tearing through hordes of enemies in a single-player environment, who are the creators to discourage that fun? After all, that is what gaming is truly about.

Murals is scheduled to launch for Windows PC in 2027.

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Source: Polygon