1666: Amsterdam

Patrice Désilets has a habit of starting things that end up defining genres — he was a creative force behind the original Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time before founding Panache Digital Games and releasing Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey. 1666: Amsterdam is his studio’s most ambitious swing yet: a dark, story-led action-adventure where Noa, a witch known as the Collector, hunts demonic entities called the Originals who’ve spent centuries hiding behind human faces in Amsterdam, jumping between the city in 1666 and a present-day thread centered on Noa’s descendants. It’s a genuinely unusual pitch, and it launched into Early Access on August 25 to a Mixed reception that’s proven remarkably consistent across both critics and players.

The idea is the best thing here

The premise alone sets 1666: Amsterdam apart from most open-world action games on the market. Investigating by day and confronting unmasked Originals during moonlit Esbat rituals gives the loop real identity, and the handcrafted recreation of 17th-century Amsterdam — canals, narrow houses, gablestones hiding secrets on their facades — is consistently the thing reviewers single out as already working. Noa herself comes across as a strong, well-written lead, and the decision to let you switch into Aaron, a man’s consciousness trapped in a black cat’s body, for stealth and infiltration sections is a genuinely clever way to vary the moment-to-moment gameplay. Multiple previews single out the cat sections specifically as the smoothest, most confident part of the current build.

Everything built around that idea needs more time

Nearly every other system in the current build draws the same complaint: it isn’t ready yet. Combat has been repeatedly described as simplistic and shallow, and the game currently ships with no difficulty settings at all, despite the developers reportedly considering adding them. Investigation sequences — meant to be a core pillar alongside combat — are hampered by an overly sensitive interaction system and camera controls multiple outlets have called cumbersome, particularly during on-foot tailing and searching segments.

Performance is the most consistently raised issue. Frame drops and stutter have been reported on capable desktop hardware, and handheld PC testing has come back describing the experience as close to unplayable at points. Bugs go beyond visual polish, too — testers have reported boss encounters breaking entirely mid-fight, along with assorted progression and audio issues that patches are still working through.

An Early Access framing that’s at least honest about it

To Panache’s credit, none of this is being hidden behind marketing spin. The studio has publicly framed the current release as act one of a campaign expected to take roughly fifteen hours, with Early Access planned to run around a year while additional districts, story chapters, and refinements to combat and performance get layered in. Several outlets reviewing the launch build made a point of declining to score it for exactly that reason — this reads less like a finished game with rough edges and more like a solid foundation that’s several major updates away from being the game it’s clearly trying to become.

Verdict

1666: Amsterdam has one of the more interesting setups released this year, and Noa, Aaron, and the city itself are proof Panache Digital Games knows how to build atmosphere and character. But combat, camera work, and performance are all in a rough enough state at launch that recommending the current $29.99 asking price is hard to do with a straight face, and the studio’s own roadmap suggests the wait for those problems to resolve is measured in months, not patches. Worth wishlisting and watching closely; worth playing now only if you specifically enjoy following an Early Access title through its growing pains.