Following a "soft launch" for their many Kickstarter backers last week, Stoic Studio's free-to-play multiplayer game The Banner Saga: Factions is now publicly available via Steam.

The Banner: Saga Factions, is distinct from the still forthcoming single-player game that was the basis of Stoic's hugely successful crowdfunding effort, and allows players to get a first-hand look at the turn-based strategy combat and gorgeous hand-drawn artwork as they level up through arena battles with other players (via Stoicstudio.com):

Some people have had questions about what "Factions" is, and why we released it separate from the single player Saga. To summarize, we built combat for the single player game and decided to release it as multiplayer competitive game free and early as we continue to develop the single player game. Unlike many "free to play" games, there's no energy system, no pay to win, and matches are made between teams with even power, regardless of whether they spent money or not. In fact, we've pretty much designed a game that you never need to pay a cent for, truly and honestly. We've probably screwed ourselves. In the meantime, work continues heavily on the single player campaign.

Check out the launch trailer below, and head over to Steam to get in on the action.