| Duet Night Abyss | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Duet Night Abyss, Pan Studio's upcoming third person shooter RPG, is holding its Final Closed Beta! Read on to learn everything we know, our review of the beta, and more.
Everything We Know About Duet Night Abyss
Duet Night Abyss Plot
Duet Night Abyss is set in a mystical world where the sacred Heaventrees produce Phoxene—crystal fruits worshipped by the Elysian Church and studied for their powerful Phoxichor Technology. These crystals are harvested alongside the Charon, a humanoid race with innate magical abilities, who face deep-rooted discrimination if they develop so-called "demonic" powers.
Amidst centuries of conflict between the dominant Elysian Church and the war-born Hyperborean Empire, you live a quiet life on a remote island with your best friend, Berenica—until the Empire takes her from you. With nothing left but your resolve, you set out to defy the world and bring her back.
Duet Night Abyss Gameplay
Duet Night Abyss is a semi-open world title that merges third-person shooter mechanics with action RPG elements, combining dynamic gunplay with immersive close-quarters combat. The game lets players fluidly switch between ranged and melee styles, adapting their approach based on the flow of battle. This hybrid gameplay is further supported by a movement system that fuses genre staples—like the shooter's slide and the RPG’s combat roll—for a smooth, responsive experience.
Characters and weapons, meanwhile, are obtained through the game's gacha system and boasts a guaranteed rate-up character roll on every player's first SSR pull per banner.
Duet Night Abyss Release Date
Duet Night Abyss does not have a set release date yet.
Duet Night Abyss Review (Final Closed Beta)
The Abyss is Looking Good
Among all the upcoming gacha games, Duet Night Abyss has been THE one my fellow Warframe-playing gacha-loving friends have been watching closely. The reveal trailer they released back in 2023 deftly thrusted it into their view, with its third-person shooter mechanics being a standout feature in a mobile gaming landscape crowded with action and turn-based RPGs.
Now, following an active year of promotion and playtests, we’ve arrived at what’s likely the game’s final closed test before launch... unless they choose to go for an open beta next. This time, it’s come with a wide variety of improvements ranging from better models, the ability to choose protagonists, bug fixes and optimizations, and more.
Admittedly, Duet Night Abyss’ first beta was received by the community with rather mixed feelings. So the question is, did the game improve enough to turn its detractors into fans? Is the game at a state where players could expect its release soon? Or are we gonna have to wait for another few months for the next testing?
Movement Feels Much Better
One of the most memorable deficiencies of the game during the last time I played the closed beta was how terrible getting around felt. Back then, it felt like everything was actively trying to prove inertia wasn’t real, and that my forward momentum was so fragile even a pebble nowhere near my feet could threaten my dreams of moving from point A to point B.
Well, not anymore! Somewhat, at least. Navigating Duet Night Abyss’ frozen wastelands is no longer fraught with invisible walls and rocks with collision boxes that reach the skies, sure. But there are still some issues, though, particularly if you’re not exploring maps the way the developers intended you to (by irresponsibly spamming boosted jumps called Helix Leaps). For example, twigs can still very much act as near-impregnable walls when you’re too lazy to reach for the spacebar. But for the most part, it does feel better now.
A Glow-Up for Already Visually-Great Maps
I never thought Duet Night Abyss’ maps needed much improvement—they were already solid. Not exactly breathtaking, especially for a semi-open world, but they did a great job portraying the world as it should be: bleak, hostile, and forcing what little civilization remains into tight pockets of safety.
But to my surprise, the developers went ahead and added a noticeable layer of aesthetic flair, from enhanced presentations of each new area to a breathtakingly beautiful landmark visible all the way from a distant mountain vantage point on the prologue. It doesn’t really add much beyond a few moments of visual awe—but as they say, first impressions last, and this one lands pretty well.
Quite a Few Other Improvements Made
Beyond the more obvious visual upgrades—sharper models, improved physics, and other surface-level tweaks—Duet Night Abyss has also seen a fair bit of gameplay polish between its 2024 and 2025 closed betas.
Weapon switching, for example, feels much smoother now, unlike before when the game practically screamed "I’m switching weapons, okay?" through stiff animations. The ability to choose which protagonist to start with is also a welcome change, as you're no longer forced to trudge through Psyche’s emotionally heavy arc through the lens of the highly empathetic female lead at the beginning.
Most importantly, though, the game runs noticeably lighter on my aging daily driver, delivering much more stable framerates, albeit at the cost of, well—
It Still Can’t Get Out of Its Own Way
Unfortunately, I can’t in good faith say that Duet Night Abyss is as good as it could be. There’s still a fair bit of work needed to polish the experience to a shine. Loading times, for instance, need major improvement—simply stepping past the protective borders of the main hub is enough to make my computer wheeze like it’s on life support.
Combat also still feels far too floaty, especially when using ranged weapons mid-air. It’s like watching a Looney Tunes character suspend themselves in the sky until you remember that gravity exists and ta-dah!—you’ve finally landed. Really, because of how floaty it feels, it’s actually difficult to know when you’ve landed because your mid-air mobility ain’t much different from when you’re on the ground.
Melee isn’t exempt either, though its problem lies more in the lack of impact; it feels like you’re swiping at low-poly mannequins rather than enemies reacting to actual force.
Ally AI, predictably, isn’t living up to the "I" on its acronym—but to be fair, that’s a problem shared by most games in the genre, so it’s a bit easier to overlook. These are just AI, and we shouldn’t expect them to be as good as players in the first place.
Finally, the camera controls during melee need some serious refinement. Maybe it’s a skill issue, but not having precise control over your aim mid-combo just feels bad. Letting the mouse dictate melee direction over your character’s facing angle would be a small change with a big impact on how fluid the combat feels.
Wait, Was That a Proofreading Note?
Of course, it’s not really a beta without some bugs or leftover developer notes sneaking their way in, right? Duet Night Abyss sticks to tradition here, with issues ranging from quest-breaking bugs that force a full reset to more harmless—and occasionally hilarious—slip-ups.
I won’t dwell too much on the bugs; plenty of players have already reported everything from getting stuck behind twigs to quest objectives becoming impossible to interact with (happened to me during the first underground quest). Those are expected, to an extent.
What genuinely caught me off guard, though, were the script notes left in some of the new chapter's dialogue. They read like internal proofreading reminders clearly meant for the localization team—which, yes, did break immersion, but also gave me a solid laugh in the middle of all the serious talk.
Needs One Last Push
With the surge of mobile game releases lately, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to decide which one deserves your time—especially since they all operate as live service titles. Duet Night Abyss, while promising in that regard, still has some ground to cover if it hopes to make a strong impression at launch.
The biggest area in need of improvement is clearly the combat, which serves as the game’s core appeal. Melee attacks should carry real weight and impact, while ranged combat could benefit from tighter, more grounded movement—just to name a few concerns. Other issues like bugs, narrative rough spots, and occasional performance hiccups are far more forgivable by comparison.
That said, given the developers’ responsiveness so far, I’m genuinely optimistic that Duet Night Abyss will be polished into its best form by release. It’s definitely a title worth keeping an eye on.
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Duet Night Abyss Product Information
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|
| Title | DUET NIGHT ABYSS |
|---|---|
| Release Date | TBA |
| Developer | PAN STUDIO |
| Publisher | HERO GAMES |
| Supported Platforms | PC, Mobile |
| Genre | Shooter, Adventure, RPG |
| Number of Players | 1-3 |
| ESRB Rating | TBA |
| Official Website | Duet Night Abyss Official Website |
