The game from the creators of The Banner Saga has been released in early access.
Towerborne is a weird game. It’s one of those games that’s hard to put into a box because it borrows an element or mechanic from every box that most games fit into, creating a unique blend of genres and experiences. This mishmash sometimes works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Towerborne still leaves me a little lost, but it’s doing well in Early Access.
Still, Towerborne stands on a solid and clearly defined foundation. The core of the gameplay is relatively classic, one might even say old-fashioned, beat ’em up action. Especially if you choose the fist-focused Stonebreaker from the four playable classes, it’s almost like time travel. However, I must admit that I chose the fastest fighter with a double jump and a pair of daggers. There’s also the relatively typical, but not boring, Guardian with a sword and shield and the Pyroclast, who acts as a heavy hitter.
Action is the building block of the game, and it works great.
The event is really fun, and I haven’t gotten tired of it after a week of playing. In addition to weapon attacks, you can use various abilities tied to either the weapon itself, the hero class, or one of the flying creatures that accompany you along the way. However, even the light and heavy attack buttons hide a significant portion of the options. The four attacks, along with the dodge and jump, can be combined into a variety of combos that are both effective and attractive, and the action is not overly chaotic.
Map, hub, co-op, loot
The text could have easily been written above and we would have come to the conclusion, mentioned the music and happily waited for the game to be released. Of course, Towerborne should have been a simple action game in the genre of “beat them all”, and not the mixture that was mentioned at the very beginning. Above all, Towerborne is always an online game that embodies the idea of a carefree MMO.
I’m not a big fan of these genres, but I don’t want to judge the developers’ intentions right away. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen much use for the customization system yet. You meet other players in the central hub and on the world map, but the goal of the game is not revealed. Of course, this can be found in co-op, but you don’t need all the sauce around it. If the game wasn’t necessarily online, I don’t think it would hurt anything. But perhaps the developers have deeper goals that remain hidden from me.
The world consists of many hexagons.
Cooperation is good for the event. Cooperation, especially between heroes of different classes, is obviously the key to raising the level of enjoyment. Unfortunately, I must say that the possibility of trying co-op only occurred to me a few times. Maybe technical errors are to blame, but more likely a lack of players. This is probably also due to the fact that the game is only available in Early Access on Steam (even though it is published by Xbox Game Studios), and for money that you simply cannot spend on the final free-to-play version.
In addition to the already mentioned hexagonal map, where you will find missions of many levels, difficulties and contents, containing treasures, special challenges, bosses and random and simple puzzles, it speaks about the gameplay with loot. You will collect a lot of it, and it is easy to upgrade. But it is not enough to stand the test of time. As soon as you find a better item, you will be glad to equip it immediately.
There’s a lot of loot there. The hero’s equipment is constantly changing.
Fantasy anime fairy tale-something
It’s also worth mentioning the game’s presentation, which suffers from the same syndrome as the content described so far. It’s as if it can’t decide what it wants to be. I don’t mean that in a bad way, everyone has different tastes, and I believe that many players will find the world here fascinating. But the plot, at least at the beginning of the game, is not very complex, and the audiovisual part is very difficult to place.
The fairly standard “Western” cartoon graphics are supplemented with anime elements. This can be seen from the characters’ faces. The local fauna has fallen out of sight, for example, for Pokemon. The inspiration from Japanese creativity is also evident in ailments, for example, in the absence of spoken dialogues, which are accompanied only by indistinct muttering and strange sighs. That is, something that even Japanese developers are moving away from.
The dialogues are not very interesting. The characters only make vague sounds.
On the contrary, I really liked the music, it was pleasantly dreamlike and reminded me of the series Trine. It is one of the factors that distracts the mood of Towerborne from the usual fantasy and thanks to which it clings to a lighter, if sometimes urgent, atmosphere. Perhaps there could have been more in the finale of this narrative. I like stories, and so far the story is more like a number.
Where to next?
Early access has given the developers at Stoic time to polish the game and take feedback into account. But what they’ve done so far is very good. I’m not sure where they’re going with the MMO elements, or whether they’ll expand on them, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying what is already a very good action game. Just because I didn’t like the stylization doesn’t mean I wasn’t happy with every level I reached and every piece of gear I acquired.
Towerborne is on its way.
The condition for the game’s success in the future and in its full version is, of course, a sufficient amount of original content, but I would not worry about this. The authors show enough ideas even at the preliminary stage. And with other little things like keyboard and mouse control – at least for me almost a non-game option – they will definitely work. With a gamepad in hand, the action is currently the biggest attraction of Towerborne.
Source :Indian TV
