Lost Lake Games recently announced their debut title, Vaunted and it made a serious splash at the recent Xbox Partner Preview, looking like a glorious, neon-soaked blend of high-stakes strategy and unreliable storytelling. Set in a galaxy that’s been falling apart for a thousand years, the game puts you in charge of a trio of “dysfunctional frenemies” who are essentially the galaxy’s worst coworkers, all trying to secure a legendary score while simultaneously lying through their teeth about how the mission actually went.
The studio behind this chaos isn’t exactly a group of rookies. Lost Lake Games is packed with industry veterans, including James Phinney, the co-creator of StarCraft and a lead designer on Guild Wars. That pedigree shines through in the way Vaunted mashes genres together. It’s a tactical RPG at heart, but it ditches the rigid, slow-paced feel of traditional turn-based games for something much more kinetic. You’ll be swapping between a top-down tactical view to plan your moves and a third-person shooter perspective to actually execute them. Whether you’re manually lining up a headshot or diving behind cover in real-time to dodge incoming fire, the game keeps you on your toes in a way most strategy titles don’t.
What really sets Vaunted apart, though, is its narrative hook. You aren’t just playing through a story; you’re navigating the conflicting memories of three unreliable narrators: Dyse the con artist, Gendril the mercenary, and Kyvaath the warlock. Since the whole game is framed as these characters explaining a disastrous expedition to a very angry benefactor, the “truth” is whatever version of events you decide to play through. If a character dies in battle, you don’t just hit a “Game Over” screen; instead, you get the chance to rewrite the chapter from a different perspective, potentially uncovering new loot, secret paths, or specialized skills that were hidden in the previous “version” of the story.
Visually, the game leans into a vibrant sci-fi aesthetic that feels like a love letter to space westerns, complete with giant robots, ancient ruins, and plenty of attitude. With Hooded Horse—the folks who brought us Manor Lords—on publishing duties, there’s a lot of confidence behind this one. While we’re still waiting on a firm release date beyond 2026, we do know it’s heading to PC via Steam and Epic, and it will be a Day One arrival on Xbox Game Pass. If you’re looking for a strategy game where the biggest threat might actually be the person standing next to you, Vaunted is definitely one to keep on your radar.
