New Steam game turns chess into Dark Souls with brutal bosses

GamingbyNathan WarbyPublished: Oct 26, 2026, 12:43MikaAdd as a preferred source on GoogleFollow on Google News

Chess is already a game that requires plenty of patience and strategy, but an upcoming Steam release is making things even harder by turning it into a Dark Souls-style action game.

FromSoftware’s notoriously challenging series has inspired countless games over the years, with developers borrowing its punishing combat and intimidating enemies. Now, an upcoming Steam game called Pawned Souls is combining Dark Souls-style combat with the rules of chess.

Created by indie developer Mika, the game transforms a traditional chessboard into a battlefield, where players take control of a single pawn and fight their way through enemy pieces.

But rather than sitting back and deciding your next move, you’ll have to face opponents in combat, with each enemy following the movement rules of its real-life chess counterpart.

Pawned Souls turns chess into a Soulslike

According to its official Steam page, Pawned Souls combines Soulslike combat with traditional chess mechanics, forcing players to approach each encounter differently depending on the piece they’re facing.

As a pawn, your movement is limited to advancing forward and attacking diagonally, just like in a regular chess match. However, enemy pieces have their own abilities that make them particularly dangerous.

Knights can leap across the board and attack in L-shaped patterns, while bishops can strike from long distances diagonally and unleash projectiles. Rooks are capable of attacking in straight lines and using area-of-effect moves, making them another serious threat.

Then there’s the queen, which combines speed and aggression with attacks that can hit from almost any direction. The developer is keeping the king’s abilities a mystery, with its description simply reading “??” on Steam.