1666: Amsterdam is a dark fantasy action-adventure where you hunt demons through 17th-century Amsterdam and collect the debts they owe. It’s directed by Patrice Désilets, the creator of the iconic Assassin’s series, and you can feel that DNA all over it. It’s also stuck in Early Access right now, which means it’s part promise, part work-in-progress. If you’ve been waiting for Désilets to get his IP back and make something new, this is that something—just don’t expect a fully baked game yet.
What’s 1666: Amsterdam All About?
The Story and the Setup
The premise is genuinely cool. Entities called The Originals have lived for centuries, shaping Amsterdam through a contract that gave them both power and time. But now that contract is up. Noa Brooklyn is The Collector, and it’s her job to take what’s owed—using witchcraft, in an era when sorcery could get you killed for it.
She’s not alone on this hunt, though. Her partner is Aaron, a history professor from 1999 whose consciousness gets stuck in a cat’s body after things go sideways in his time. He’s her Union Cat, and because he sees the world through feline eyes, he can slip into places Noa never could. Together they track down the Originals, who hide inside regular people during the day and only reveal themselves once night falls.
How the Game Actually Plays
The game mixes classic action-adventure stuff with puzzle-solving and investigation. Every contract has three things you need before you can cast the spell that forces an Original to face you: the location of the person they’re inhabiting, the demon’s real name, and their specific seal. Collect all three, and you get your climactic boss fight.
As Noa, you gather intel the old-fashioned way—talking to NPCs, doing sleuthing, and exploring the city. Switch to Aaron and you’re reaching rooftops, unlocking doors, and even possessing other NPCs to open up restricted areas. It’s a neat split between the two, and when the loop clicks, it feels like detective work with a supernatural twist.
Release Date and Platforms
1666: Amsterdam was released in Early Access on August 25, 2026, for PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. A demo for its prologue is currently available on all digital storefronts, so you can try it before you commit. As for when the full game will actually be done, your guess is as good as mine.
The Early Access Review: Nostalgia Masked With a Rough Facade
A Long Time Coming
If you’ve heard anything about 1666: Amsterdam, you know it’s been through a lot—especially with how long it’s sat in limbo. For the uninitiated, Désilets has had to fight for this IP for years, so it’s great that it finally gets its time to shine. But “finally out” and “fully finished” are two very different things.
This is unabashedly an Early Access game, and it wears that on its sleeve. The story updates land in chunks, the progression mechanics are a mess, and the combat doesn’t hold up its end. Much of what’s here is clearly inspired by Désilets’ past ventures, which makes it nostalgic in a way that’s both lovely and a little bittersweet. Underneath the wrinkles, though, there’s a game with striking art direction and strong worldbuilding that could absolutely become a memorable narrative-driven experience worth talking about.
Early Access usually means giving a game time. With 1666: Amsterdam, you might need to give it a bit more than most.
A Dark Fantasy That Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree
1666: Amsterdam follows Noa Brooklyn, a witch tasked with hunting down demonic entities called The Originals, who are hiding among the people of 17th-century Amsterdam. Those entities got their supernatural powers and longevity through contracts, and now they owe a debt Noa has to collect. It’s not all as simple as it sounds, though—the game slowly reveals that this mystery stretches beyond the titular year of 1666.
Along for the ride is Aaron, that history professor from 1999 whose consciousness gets trapped in a cat’s body after certain events unfold in his own time. Together, they work to reclaim what’s owed and unravel the mystery of a cycle that lies beyond their understanding.
It’s no secret that the premise and worldbuilding are the most alluring parts of the game—and it doesn’t waste time building itself up. The different terminologies can feel pretty in-your-face at the start, but that’s kind of the point: you’re as clueless as Aaron is until Noa starts slowly explaining things. That abruptness mirrors how suddenly he gets pulled into this mess.
What makes it even more compelling is that the whole thing goes beyond Noa’s responsibilities as The Collector. The problem extends past the 17th century, and, to make matters worse, Noa’s partnership with Aaron wasn’t exactly by choice. The game also shares a theme with Désilets’ previous creation, Assassin’s Creed: it centers its story on a specific lineage or bloodline.
That shows up through Aaron’s daughter, Clio, who deciphers the record he and Noa compiled during their journey—from the present day. Sound familiar? It’s a lot like Desmond Miles retracing his ancestors’ memories and locating the Apple of Eden. It doesn’t end there, either. The game alludes that Aaron and Noa’s relationship is deeper than it seems, especially since Clio clearly has the same powers she does.
All in all, it’s a world that knows how to keep things interesting while moving forward. It’s unfortunate that the narrative isn’t complete, but that’s how it goes for most Early Access releases. I do wish Panache Digital Games could update the game more frequently, though, so the story doesn’t lose momentum because of how long it takes for the next chapter to arrive.
A Familiar Gameplay Loop in a Different Cloak
As a big fan of the first four Assassin’s Creed games, that whole gameplay loop is pretty much ingrained in my brain. Outside of its overarching story, the gameplay revolved around searching for your targets and taking them down in a variety of stealthy ways—from above, from cover, from behind, or even in straight-up combat.
So it was interesting to see a semblance of that in 1666: Amsterdam, especially in how it handles its contracts. Noa needs specific information before she can cast the spell to face an Original: the location of the person being inhabited, the demon’s real name, and their specific seal.
That splits the gameplay loop into clear phases. You start with full-on exploration and investigation, then move into a climactic boss fight against the target once you’ve collected everything. Beyond basic info-gathering through NPC interactions and exploration, your feline companion helps you reach hard-to-get places like rooftops, unlock certain doors, and even possess NPCs to open up restricted areas.
All of that sounds novel, sure, but a lot of it still needs polish. In this day and age, the investigative busywork slows the game down—mainly because you don’t get great leads when it starts out. You’re mostly working blind to find the building you’re supposed to be investigating, and that can feel more like an inconvenience than a novelty.
Sure, the whole point is to explore the city under the cover of a civilian. It doesn’t help when you get stuck for hours just looking around for a building that’s pretty inconspicuous.
Clunky Combat, Janky Controls, and Questionable Progression
Despite the allure of its narrative and unique gameplay loop, the game suffers from problems that may have stemmed from how long it’s been in limbo all these years.
First up: the combat. It feels a lot like an action-adventure game from the PS2 era, where combat is simply dodging, weaving, and hitting enemies when they’re open. There’s not much depth to it. Most of the time, you’ll just be learning attack patterns and responding with attacks on clear openings.
Noa does have certain abilities and spells that use the different resources you have available, but those are locked behind progression—either something you find or something that unlocks through the story. Which brings us to our next baffling problem: the ability upgrades and progression.
Each chapter opens with a random choice of an ability—either an active combat tool or a passive one like more health—and you can actually find more upgrades as you explore buildings around Amsterdam. The issue comes when you’re defeated in combat: you lose all of these abilities and have to pick from a randomized pool again.
That was a big surprise, because nothing in the game hinted at a roguelite progression system that, quite frankly, doesn’t make much sense. There’s some novelty in the idea of Clio deciphering Noa and Aaron’s journey, but the frustration of losing a vital upgrade is way higher than the joy of discovering another one.
Still, all of that pales in comparison to the biggest issue of them all: the janky controls. General movement feels sluggish and unwieldy. Water gliding, for example, lets you add a bit of elevation to avoid getting stuck on debris—but both ascending and descending are tied to the right stick, which is also bound to the camera.
Navigating places as the cat has its own quirks, too. Jumping onto platforms isn’t as accurate as you’d expect, since there are times when the game doesn’t even show the prompt that you can jump on certain things. There are more examples to list, but the point is this: much of the game suffers from these collective issues and will need a lot of polish to play much better—or at least more smoothly.
More to Come, and It’ll Need to Prove a Lot More
1666: Amsterdam is an interesting game with real things working for it underneath a pile of rust and grime that needs a lot more polish. Yes, the art direction and narrative have genuine potential to make this a memorable story-driven experience.
Also, a narrative-focused game that doesn’t immediately release more story content is on a ticking clock—especially one that doesn’t necessarily have the most engaging or entertaining gameplay loop to tide you over between chapters.
As of writing, I’d be hard-pressed to recommend the game, since it’s not in a state where I feel very invested just yet. Instead, I’d suggest waiting for a couple of story updates—maybe until the game has at least half of its narrative in place, so it doesn’t feel as hollow as it does now.
