When rumors of Towerborne started circulating years in the past, I used to be excited. As a fan of Stoic Studio’s The Banner Saga, the considered side-scrolling beat ’em up the place gamers launched into excursions to battle monsters with a stunning 2D artwork type was an thrilling prospect. Vanillaware titles like Dragon’s Crown have been introduced up as factors of comparability, making issues much more attractive.
With the reveal and eventual announcement of early entry and free-to-play, that pleasure reworked into cautious optimism. The attractive 2D backgrounds, fluid animations, and a very good soundtrack by Austin Wintory (who additionally scored The Banner Saga) helped ease me in. The phrases “seasons,” “evolving expertise” and “supported for years to come back” nonetheless hung heavy, although.
“Some characters might seem in some missions, however they gained’t combat alongside you or play any function past some exposition. Interactions on the Belfry depend on static dialogue timber, culminating in little greater than assigning your subsequent job.”
After spending over 21 hours on a pre-early entry construct, finishing all of the Enterprise missions and clearing a lot of the map, it looks like Towerborne has all of the components in hand. They mix into this important, discernible entire however range in high quality and polish. The present product is about enhancing and taking suggestions from gamers when it enters early entry, and whereas navigating all the standard pitfalls is vital, is it price leaping into proper out of the gate?
Should you loved The Banner Saga and felt excited by Towerborne’s story-telling potential, mood these expectations. Set in a fantasy realm following the destruction of the Metropolis of Numbers, you management an Ace. Not too long ago introduced again from the useless, you’re an amnesiac warrior who calls the Belfry, a distinctly tower-based construction, their house. The Future 1 similarities hit a little bit too shut for my liking, however in comparison with Stoic’s earlier outings, the general disposition is extra hopeful and fewer doom-mongering.
As you study the ropes and concentrate on one of many 4 courses – Rockbreaker, Pyroclast, Sentinel, and Shadowstriker – the varied denizens of the Belfry supply duties, Features, and different interactions. The tried and true set-up is this manner for a motive – gamers study in regards to the world alongside their character, concurrently constructing connections and pushing the narrative ahead. You tackle duties from folks like Krafft and Braveness, study extra in regards to the Umbra from the Spirit Realm and the way they assist gamers, the varied species on this planet and the threats they possess.
Nevertheless, you’re very a lot the designated downside solver. Some characters might seem in some missions, however they gained’t combat alongside you or play any function past some exposition. Interactions on the Belfry depend on static dialogue timber, culminating in little greater than assigning your subsequent job. There may be some intrigue, particularly when studying about potential Merk sympathizers at house, however the present antagonists – just like the mysterious Seamstress – are as enigmatically cliché as they arrive.
Towerborne’s core gameplay consists of three parts – exploration, fight, and loot. It follows the age-old adage of “kill stuff, get higher gear, kill extra stuff, repeat.” Whenever you embark from the Belfry for the primary time, you’ll discover the map is shrouded in a fog of battle. Go to the closest hex tile, clear it out, and a little bit little bit of the map is revealed.
“It’s your common dwell service blueprint, however the Enterprise missions supply some twists. As an illustration, Damaged Mystech Pylon includes an NPC calling out pillars to activate in a particular order whereas enemies repeatedly swarm in.”
Some tiles maintain Enterprise missions, the important dungeons vital for progressing by way of the story (and opening up increased Hazard Ranges and harder missions). Others can have chests, loot, Discovery missions to recruit new Umbra, and extra various goals, like escorting a wagon and defending it from waves of enemies.
Nevertheless, clean tiles are randomly generated, containing distinctive enemies and hazards relying on the biome. As an illustration, the Grasslands play host to Gobos, who strike with spiked tails, shields and spears, and explosives, however you might also need to cope with thorny bushes that inflict Bleed. Fungi Forest biomes include lethal sentient mushrooms, which inflict Poison however also can puff up and explode, knocking you again. Different distinctive threats emerge, every with distinctive assaults and techniques that hold issues attention-grabbing.
Decrease Hazard Stage tiles are fairly simple – left to proper, beat up all the things, and declare the loot chest – to the purpose the place it might really feel uninteresting. Fortunately, as extra of the map opens up and the issue will increase, you encounter challenges like defending a wagon from waves of enemies, destroying an enemy camp inside the time restrict, taking out enemies inside the time restrict, and many others.
It’s your common dwell service blueprint, however the Enterprise missions supply some twists. As an illustration, Damaged Mystech Pylon includes an NPC calling out pillars to activate in a particular order whereas enemies repeatedly swarm in. One random problem tasked me with defending barrels – just one enemy would spawn at a time, however the barrels may solely take one hit, mixing issues up barely.
The Discovery missions current extra various challenges, like petting animals in a sequence or opening a bunch of empty loot chests to search out that one locked chest (after which looking for a key). Not each goal is a winner, just like the mission that throws waves of enemies after which – look ahead to it – repeats the method. No less than the payoff is parodying the dwell service style’s annoying penchant for threes.
“Whereas Stoic has nailed the “yet another tile” hook of exploration, issues can get monotonous when making an attempt to get nearer to a chosen Enterprise mission. Lots of them aren’t marked on the map, which implies you’ll be scrounging by way of the fog of battle…”
Sadly, the random tile technology will be very uneven. You may leap right into a tile and face two of an intensely annoying mini-boss sort, who throws projectiles, teleports, summons and enchants minions for extra harm and dishes out an insta-kill assault with a variety. Redo the tile and marvel at receiving a neater boss, that too just one. Since dying means redoing a panel from the very begin, failing to RNG feels disheartening, particularly when the following go-around is considerably much less punishing with little variance in rewards.
Additionally, whereas Stoic has nailed the “yet another tile” hook of exploration, issues can get monotonous when making an attempt to get nearer to a chosen Enterprise mission. Lots of them aren’t marked on the map, which implies you’ll be scrounging by way of the fog of battle, clearing tiles left and proper, solely to fulfill a blocker specifying a Hazard Stage License that isn’t even within the sport.
You might even discover a fully totally different Enterprise that may’t be accessed since you didn’t full the one you’re really on the lookout for. I wouldn’t thoughts if the Enterprise missions had waypoints, however the precise route remained shrouded – let me bumble round, on the lookout for the perfect route. It will nonetheless be miles higher than making an attempt to clear each hex tile, counting on the method of elimination.
The subsequent core pillar, and arguably probably the most intriguing, is fight. Every class has distinctive weapons and actions. You may have the usual Gentle and Heavy Strikes – alternating between them creates totally different combos whereas holding them down executes a launcher or a floor bounce.
I opted for the Shadowstriker, which makes use of Twin Blades and a teleport strike to shut the gap. Alongside a weapon meter for pulling off the latter, there’s additionally the Focus gauge for executing highly effective strategies tied to a weapon. Deathrattle, for instance, dashes by way of enemies in a straight line, inflicting them with Poison and granting haste for a quick interval.
“Getting knocked out of combos by probably the most minuscule hits whereas your enemies typically shrug off your Gentle Strikes (particularly when glowing yellow or purple) will be annoying.”
As simple because it appears, fight will be fairly addictive. The varied enemy varieties introduce some preventing game-lite nuance into your combos. As an alternative of holding down Gentle Strike for a launcher, you could possibly launch enemies with a Gentle-Heavy-Heavy-Gentle combo. It could possibly be useful when going through enemies with fast preliminary strikes.
Nevertheless, it gained’t be efficient in opposition to shielded foes, who develop into weak with a daily Heavy combo or a teleport strike. It solely takes a single hit to knock you out of a combo, and you may’t animation cancel long-press Strike combos. You additionally want to contemplate Break harm, which stuns bosses and enemies briefly when their Break meter depletes.
Umbras additionally combine issues up in thrilling methods, from a stationary orb that frequently damages and suspends enemies to shelling out a poisoning space of impact blast throughout you, even in case you’re shocked. One Umbra grants Haste and Aegis to allies, offering some much-needed safety at opportune moments. Combining all this leads to some fairly satisfying clears as you juggle a number of enemies into the air, land with a Heavy Strike bounce, teleport throughout the display screen to strike a ranged foe, and so forth.
Sadly, fight has its share of points. Getting knocked out of combos by probably the most minuscule hits whereas your enemies typically shrug off your Gentle Strikes (particularly when glowing yellow or purple) will be annoying. Nevertheless, it’s even worse getting juggled, as enemies can ping-pong you backwards and forwards. Sometimes, some rubber-banding and latency points occurred, inflicting dodge rolling to really feel unreliable.
It even launched some undesirable RNG into the Shadowstriker’s teleport strike, inserting me in entrance of an enemy, despite the fact that it appeared I went behind them. Maybe probably the most irritating consequence of that is utilizing a Focus Ability or Umbra, solely to have it cancelled and the useful resource consumed or cooldown initiated.
“Loot drops are based mostly on the Hazard Stage of a tile or Enterprise mission. You have to go license exams to qualify for increased Hazard Stage missions, much like Monster Hunter.”
Couple this with Elite enemies who can energy out of your assaults for shock follow-ups or develop into enraged, inflicting Vulnerability whereas dealing extra harm, and it’s a recipe for frustration as your character’s well being whittles down in seconds with nearly no method to combat again.
Then you could have the boss battles. A good variety of them are enjoyable, with attention-grabbing mechanics, just like the boss digging underground and emitting shockwaves to leap over. Nevertheless, a few of them, just like the Monkey King and the Merk Marauder, supply only a few home windows of alternative to assault, exacerbating the present points. It’s price noting that balancing remains to be a piece in progress, particularly on the increased Hazard Ranges, so there could possibly be adjustments to a few of the extra annoying bosses.
Lastly, we arrive on the loot, which breaks down into headgear, shoulder pads (or scarves and fur), chest armor, leggings, boots, and your weapon. You may have stats like assault, protection, well being regeneration, and many others., however there’s additionally elevated Bleed harm and period, vital hit probability, Essential Harm, Affliction Length, and so forth. Features additionally introduce passive results, elevated harm to status-afflicted enemies, a share probability to inflict Vulnerability on Bleeding enemies, or Safety for harm discount whereas an Umbra is energetic.
Each Features and gear have rarities whereas contributing to your Gear Rating. The previous even has Tiers, presenting robust selections between an distinctive perk or one thing with higher stats. There are additionally gear units, the place gathering three of a set unlocks a novel impact. Their drop charges go away one thing to be desired, particularly at increased Hazard Ranges, and it might be good to have further avenues for acquiring them (like, say, a further foreign money to spend for random gear set gadgets from a vendor).
Loot drops are based mostly on the Hazard Stage of a tile or Enterprise mission. You have to go license exams to qualify for increased Hazard Stage missions, much like Monster Hunter. Taking up Hazard Stage 4 missions is sensible if you need 204 Gear Rating loot, however when you get and improve it, it’s all in regards to the Epics and BiS rolls.
“Amid all my issues whereas taking part in solo, even nitpicks like not with the ability to cancel matchmaking when choosing a tile, I have to admit: Group play feels a lot better.”
Having Frequent and Unusual gadgets within the pool thus feels underwhelming, not simply as a reward but in addition by way of cluttering your stock and necessitating journeys again to the Belfry (and there’s no Postmaster both). The chase for that best construct is ever-important, however much less junk and extra Epics, even when they gained’t be top-tier rolls, is preferable.
Talking of upgrades, the crafting system at present feels very restricted. All of the forge presents is a way to improve weapons and armor a few occasions to lift their Gear Rating and Assault/Protection. How this can increase stays to be seen, however even the choice to reroll choose stats on Features and Gear can be one thing. I additionally wouldn’t thoughts an possibility to decide on talents for my weapon based mostly on the state of affairs.
Amid all my issues whereas taking part in solo, even nitpicks like not with the ability to cancel matchmaking when choosing a tile, I have to admit: Group play feels a lot better. The variety of enemies scales up with gamers, growing the chaos however maintaining issues manageable. It even helps mitigate a few of the fight system’s points since there are fewer dangers of enemies ganging up on you. Issues can nonetheless get dicey in case your teammates go down and don’t have any lives remaining, however Towerborne’s general imaginative and prescient for an motion RPG/brawler is clearer when matching with different gamers.
The tile technology additionally leads to extra attention-grabbing eventualities, like extra bee hives in Damaged Mystech Pylon. Even issues like construct synergy start to make extra sense – eight p.c harm on Bleeding enemies might not appear to be a lot, however having a complete squad outfitted with it when you’re stacking Bleed makes it best. I’d nonetheless prefer to see some adjustments to Features like diminished harm taken when inflicted with Bleed and Poison, or at the very least some buffs for a similar.
Whereas this can be a pre-early entry construct, I ought to observe the server efficiency when beginning. It was initially nice, however post-Hazard Stage 3, much more disconnects occurred, sending me again to the primary menu. Even the world map didn’t load on a number of events. Issues improved nearer to the launch of early entry, with little to no hiccups in multiplayer, however I’m nonetheless interested by launch day servers. With no offline mode, server efficiency shall be essential within the coming days.
“In its present state, the finer elements of Towerborne’s methods – from fight and problem to tile technology and loot – nonetheless require a whole lot of work.”
As for monetization, Towerborne follows the Helldivers 2 mannequin very intently. There are Silver and Gold Founder’s Packs – one or the opposite is critical for early entry – and so they include keys for Curios, that are like Premium Warbonds. They include Tiers of things, which you want foreign money to unlock (doled out by way of easy-to-complete each day missions), however there’s additionally a free Provoke’s Cache Curio. General, I approve – now if solely the cosmetics menu have been extra intuitive, presenting a separate interface to have choose items on always, no matter adjustments to your gear, slightly than holding down a button and equipping them for every.
In its present state, the finer elements of Towerborne’s methods – from fight and problem to tile technology and loot – nonetheless require a whole lot of work. Nevertheless, its addictive gameplay loop, wonderful aesthetic and soundtrack, and group play make for a principally enjoyable expertise price trying out regardless of missing a compelling narrative. It’s at all times difficult to foretell how a live-service title will pan out and I’m curious to see how early entry will form the title. There’s potential – right here’s hoping it manifests into one thing really particular.
This sport was reviewed on PC.
