Prepare for a brutal battle of the bands in Power Chord - and try the demo today

There are some distinctly uncool vibes being put out by the demons of Helmoth as they invade the city, so your role in Power Chord – as seen in the Future Games Show Powered by Mana – is to assemble a band of Earth's mightiest musicians and fight through the hordes of monsters to destroy the one guitar powerful enough to reopen the portal between worlds.

These very real battles of the bands take place through turn-based card combat, so you need to choose your line up wisely as each drummer, bassist, guitarist, and singer brings their own specific color-coded set of cards that can be played. They also have a selection of unique gear, such as a pizza slice for additional maximum health, or a reactive amulet that gives them another piece of armor every time they attack, but you only have limited slots to equip them to.

As each gig progresses against the backdrop of a rocking soundtrack, you have to strategize your approach as if any of the band members get eliminated you'll lose access to their cards until you can bring them them back. Not only does this limit your options, but it also opens up your remaining musicians to more focused attacks, meaning things can go south fast if your squad starts to fall.

Successfully defeat your opponents and you'll discover new cards on your journey, opening up fresh approaches to take down the demons. Add to this a roguelike progression system as you choose your path from gig to gig, plus random encounters along the way, and no two tours will ever be the same.

Power Chord will be taking to the stage on Steam later in 2022, but you can download the Power Chord demo now to play a warm-up set of card-based musical carnage and get the crowd ready for the main event.

For more awesome games featured during today's Future Games Show, check out our official Steam page.

Iain Wilson
Guides Editor

Iain originally joined Future in 2012 to write guides for CVG, PSM3, and Xbox World, before moving on to join GamesRadar in 2013 as Guides Editor. His words have also appeared in OPM, OXM, PC Gamer, GamesMaster, and SFX. He is better known to many as ‘Mr Trophy’, due to his slightly unhealthy obsession with amassing intangible PlayStation silverware, and he now has over 500 Platinum pots weighing down the shelves of his virtual award cabinet. He does not care for Xbox Achievements.