Witching Hour Studios soft-launches Ravenmark: Mercenaries ahead of a worldwide release next month

We enjoyed Witching Hour Studios's Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion when it debuted a couple of years ago.

It was a little muddled and a tad forgettable, but we gave it a Bronze Award all the same. We described it as an "engaging, polished, and deep strategy game".

As you can imagine, then, we're intrigued to see what the sequel Ravenmark: Mercenaries has up its virtual sleeve.

And we haven't got long to wait to find out.

That's because Witching Hour has just soft-launched the game in New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore. Ravenmark: Mercenaries should be available worldwide on July 11th.

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It looks like Witching Hour has paid attention to criticism of the first game, with battles in Ravenmark: Mercenaries presenting players with many more options than the slightly rigid scraps you fought in the original.

You'll build up your army of sell-swords as you fight through a variety of simultaneous turn-based battles, with both you and the AI-controlled opponent carrying out actions at the same time.

This time around, though, you can fight against real-life foes in asynchronous multiplayer battles, too. And with a dynamic ranking system in place, you should always be fighting players around your skill level.

We'll all be able to find out whether Ravenmark: Mercenaries represents a substantial improvement over its predecessor when this F2P game goes live globally on July 11th.