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Overview
Gamescom 2025 in Cologne, Germany marked the first public hands-on opportunity for Honor of Kings: World. A new cinematic trailer premiered during Geoff Keighley's Opening Night Live (ONL) on August 19, 2025, and a playable demo was available on the show floor from August 20–24 at Hall 9, Booth B040. The demo featured 4-player cooperative gameplay against challenging bosses.
Opening Night Live trailer
The ONL trailer showcased "the impressive landscapes of Primaera, the variety of challenges players will face, and the fast-paced, style-switching combat." It showed sweeping shots of the 64 sq km map, including locations not previously revealed, before transitioning into combat footage featuring multiple Flow styles in action against massive bosses. The trailer concluded with the announcement of the global release window.
Public demo
The show floor demo was a PC build offering cooperative boss battle gameplay. Players could choose from pre-configured loadouts, each featuring different Flow style pairings. The demo supported full keyboard/mouse and controller input. Available loadouts included:
Item | Description |
|---|---|
Loadout A | Primal Flow + Ethereal Mistveil, balanced melee/ranged |
Loadout B | Chrono Anomaly + Reverse Flow, tactical, time-based |
Loadout C | Mulan's dual-form + Li Bai's aerial style, high-action assassin pair |
Reception
The demo drew consistently long queues throughout the five-day event. Player reception focused on the fluidity of the Combat System and the visual quality of the open world. The boss encounter was described as challenging but fair, with most players requiring multiple attempts.
Item | Description |
|---|---|
Ungeek | noted that swapping between Flow styles mid-combo felt "smooth and natural" |
WCCFTech | described the combat as "an engaging mix between a lite character action game and the Monster Hunter series" and "slightly more involving than in other similar games," noting "advanced mechanics like perfect dodges, multiple skills with very different effects and synergy potential, weapon switching, and more" |
Eurogamer | highlighted the open world's verticality and the density of discoverable content within the demo area |
IGN | called the combat system "the most ambitious attempt to merge MOBA hero design with action RPG mechanics" |