‘I was a big fan of Braveheart’: the story behind Scotland-set hack and slash game Tears of Metal

This cooperative game made in Montreal sees players leading a band of Scottish soldiers against an English army in thrall to the corrupting influence of a crashed meteor

There's this giant rock that fell from the sky on a Scottish island: they call it the Dragon Stone," explains Raphael Toulouse, director of Tears of Metal. And the English army sent a general to take [a look], but that general turns a bit rogue when he finds that stone, a bit like Apocalypse Now. He cuts himself off from the English, takes control of the island, and they start mining this giant rock for weapons and armour, but also it affects their minds. So the Scottish people get organised to take back the island - and this is where you come in."

Playing as the leader of a Scottish battalion, your job in Tears of Metal is to hack and slash your way through the breakaway English troops, making your way closer and closer to the Dragon Stone. But as you near the supernatural meteor, the beautiful green backdrop of the Scottish Highlands gradually gives way to something more hellish. It gets weirder and weirder, and by the end, it's almost post-apocalyptic," says Toulouse.

Tears of Metal is in development for PC; release date TBC