Twenty-odd years after it first got shelved, 1666: Amsterdam is playable. Panache Digital's dark occult adventure, from Assassin's Creed creator Patrice Desilets, launched in Early Access on PC today via Steam and the Epic Games Store for 29.99 dollars.
What you're getting
You play Noa, the Collector, hunting demonic "Originals" hiding behind human faces across a 17th-century Amsterdam soaked in witch-hunt paranoia. The Early Access build is the first chunk of the campaign, roughly 15 hours, and Desilets has been upfront that it'll sit in Early Access for at least a year while the studio builds the rest with players watching.
The nervous part
Previews landed somewhere between intrigued and worried. GamesRadar came away hungry for more and called it the Assassin's Creed game that never was. PC Gamer liked the bones but flagged a rough hands-on and a launch creeping up "too close for comfort." GameSpot's headline said the quiet bit out loud: no game has ever needed Early Access more than this one.
So read the price tag for what it is. You're buying a first act and a promise, from a team that clearly cares about the idea, on a game that's admitting it isn't finished. If that's your kind of bet, the facial animation and the level design alone might be worth the ride. If you'd rather it bake, there's no harm waiting. A year in Early Access is a long runway, and "at least" is doing some work in that sentence.
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