Many people believe that kings of old used to wage war not with swords and soldiers, but on the battlefield of the chess board. Bethesda’s BattleCry Studios has taken this idea and expanded upon it with their debut project, a 32-player team-based melee combat game also known as BattleCry.

BattleCry’s distinctive visual look was created by Viktor Antonov, the Art Director responsible for Half-Life 2‘s futuristic locales and Dishonored‘s medieval steampunk vibe. For BattleCry, Antonov has created a world where “gunpowder [was] banned following a cataclysmic world war at the dawn of the 20th century.” Like the chess-playing kings, “traditional warfare is now a relic of the past and all conflicts are settled head-on by elite teams of chosen warriors in sanctioned WarZones.” However, unlike the carved chessmen, these battles take place between trained warriors that live for battle.

Be sure to check out some of BattleCry’s characters in the trailer above (and especially be on the lookout for a pair of mustachioed circus strongmen) as well as a stylized look at the game’s melee combat system:

Choose your faction and progress your warrior through the ranks. Each rank unlocks new abilities and effects allowing deep strategic builds for your warrior on every level. Risk life and limb as the powerful Royal Marines or the fearless Cossacks in imaginative WarZones each designed to combine positioning, spacing and verticality to redefine your core combat experience. Fight with transformative melee and ranged weapons that harness iron and energy and eviscerate your opponents with swords that transform into shields, bows that can punch an arrow straight through an armored skull or electrocute your foes with high-powered blades crackling with electro-static energy.

Bethesda will release BattleCry as a free-to-play title for the PC sometime in 2015 and will reveal more details about the game’s world at this year’s E3 Expo.