Shane
The rise of Occultists is wreaking havoc.
As their evil plans begin to spread throughout the land you are called upon by Teclis, a higher Elf as the hero to save all.
But is Teclis just using your goodwill for his own plans…?
Warhammer: Chaosbane is a top down RPG dungeon crawler.
You begin with the selection of three character sets; Dwarf, Elf and Soldier.
Each bears their own strengths and weaknesses and as you get in to play will have their own unique skill-sets which as you level up, will be able to upgrade and hone new abilities.
Skillpoints are awarded at the end of each Mission, which is given out by Teclis. You will generally chat to him at the end of every successful quest for your next objective.
Those that have played hack and slash dungeon crawlers before will be familiar with the play, as you loot, collect items from those that you kill and destroy objects in your environment to reap their hidden goodies.
This brings me to a point – the amount of destructible items in your environments is slim. A few barrels here and there and if you explore an entire area you will come across Chests.
Larger foes give items aswell, but for the most part you will collect a lot of Gold.
This is used as in-game currency, however to begin with any form of trade with merchants is locked – until your reputation reaches a certain level, or until you have made your way through a good portion of play.
So, if you want to relieve yourself of your unused items you can donate it to a merchant – which you do gain benefit from, such as an item here or there and a reputation increase.
The better your reputation the better items you get and how other in-game NPCs may or may not react to you.
The onscreen HUD details your currently button assigned skills, your health which upon a timed recharge can be topped up endlessly.
From around level 10 for your chosen hero you will gain Bloodlust. This enables you perform a super-move in combat. To refill your Bloodlust gauge you will need to work through many waves of enemies throughout the Levels and collects Blood Orbs as you kill them.
Die and your Gold, or Fragments (that you also collect from time to time) become super valuable to you. To revive it’s going to cost you a set amount of Gold or Fragments – if you have none of that, it’s back to the beginning of that Level.
Equipping armour of heavier more powerful weapons is simple enough from the Inventory menu which is basically an item wheel with each icon being a container for your currently collected and available goodies.
Skills are upgraded by way of spending Skillpoints and are character level specific.
Change your play difficulty at anytime and you’ll find that your items degrade.
Warhammer: Chaosbane is pure excellence though I do see some that play this may tire of the repetitiveness of the Levels.
While each area is a different location as far the narrative goes – they do look strikingly the same and even, breakable objects can be found in similar places.
Combat is sourced from waves of enemies that tend to cluster in parts of each Level and while clearing through a horde of enemies of varying sizes, strengths and beasts the bestiary is not that vast, so expect a lot of the same combat and enemies to kill throughout.
On the face of it, Bigben Interactive and EKO Software have created a fantastic Warhammer RPG, and the first dungeon crawler in the Warhammer gaming space. Chaosbane naturally has a online component in ‘Find a Game’ aswell as differing modes for each Level which need to be unlocked.
I loved this game, a lot and fans of hack and slashers / dungeon crawlers are likely to agree that it is expansive enough with a engaging Warhammer based narrative that just keeps you playing. Many times I said, ‘okay – one more Level’ and before I knew it I had done three or four.
Asides from a couple of shortcuts with environmental assets, Warhammer: Chaosbane is an exceptional game and one that just keeps you going and replayability is endless with online.
[rns_reactions]
Released: July 2019
Rating: M15+
Platforms: PlayStation 4
Genre: RPG, MMO, Action
Developer: EKO Software
Publisher: Bigben Interactive