As a seasoned gamer with decades of experience under my belt, I must say that Towerborne piqued my interest from the get-go. The blend of ARPG mechanics and side-scrolling combat reminded me of the good ol’ days, when I spent countless hours honing my skills in beat-em-ups like Streets of Rage or Final Fight.
Towerborne represents a significant shift from the Banner Saga series, crafted by developer Stoic Studio – an acclaimed creator of narrative-focused strategy games. Upon initial glance, some remnants of Stoic’s distinctive design can be spotted in Towerborne. It boasts a captivating visual style that echoes a hand-drawn appearance, much like the Banner Saga, lending it a striking vividness.
At Xbox’s recent Gamescom event in Los Angeles, I had a brief taste of Towerborne gameplay. This quick peek provided a glimpse into the fast-paced combat mechanics of the game. Towerborne is an action-RPG with cooperative gameplay that scrolls from side to side and draws inspiration from classic beat-em-up games. While it seems to borrow heavily from old arcade titles in this genre, Towerborne distinguishes itself by introducing a complex combat system featuring multiple combos and unique special moves. Instead of simply mashing buttons, players will have the opportunity for something more strategic.
Initially, Towerborne allows you to customize your combat approach according to the weapons your character carries, and it seems like you can switch these weapons often to expand your tactical possibilities. Partnering with another reporter, we embarked on a trial run, initially controlling a character who brandished two daggers simultaneously. This character’s fighting style was swift and intense, involving quick slashes at close quarters and incorporating kicks for powerful attacks.
Every figure possesses both light and powerful standard moves, which can be chained together to generate combinations that result in unique attack sequences. For example, I might swiftly slice opponents with my daggers using quick attacks, or deliver a series of heavy kicks for a combo, but linking them produces a new sequence where I can lift some adversaries into the air with kicks.
For the second character in the build, the club they wielded with both hands stood out, as it held an unusual feature – a miniature furnace at its blunt end. This allowed them to unleash fiery blasts and ignite opponents with certain attacks. Quick jabs were delivered using the staff end of the club, while slower, powerful swings engulfed enemies in flames for significant damage. The unique aspect was that by combining light and heavy attacks, the character would kneel and use the club like a makeshift shotgun, blasting fire and setting opponents ablaze. Furthermore, the burned enemies continued to burn for a brief while, showcasing the versatility of your weapons and their abilities in combat against various foes.
Beyond regular attacks, your character builds up unique skills tailored to your weapons, each requiring a recharge time. For instance, my dagger-wielding character possessed a special skill that enabled her to throw a knife at an adversary and instantly move to its position, initiating combat swiftly and traversing the battlefield effortlessly. Additionally, I could hurl multiple daggers in succession towards a single target for substantial damage, or jump up and rain daggers downwards, with the knives remaining on the ground to injure foes who stepped over them. My most potent attack was a powerful area-effect spell that would detonate after a brief delay, creating a massive explosion. Placing this trap ahead of us was beneficial for ensnaring smaller enemies as they approached.
The character from the club-wielding group exhibited certain comparable actions. One move made him spin rapidly, striking foes with his club for prolonged harm, while another saw him jumping high into the air and setting fire to the ground beneath, causing damage. Instead of an explosion of magic, his area-of-effect attack caused the ground in front of him to burst open along a straight line.
In this demo, the level was relatively brief, as we traversed expanses of grassy terrain, battling foes such as moles and bandits who attacked us from right to left. At times, we faced multiple waves of adversaries, necessitating the destruction of an enemy spawn point, like a tent. This is typical beat-em-up gameplay, but Towerborne adds depth with its diverse combat moves. Additionally, it features a dodge quickstep and a roll, giving it a more immersive action role-playing game (ARPG) feel from a side-scrolling perspective. Similar to an ARPG, the combat in Towerborne emphasizes identifying optimal moments to boost the impact of your abilities and managing their cooldown periods.
The climax of the demonstration reached its peak with a massive showdown against Pangojira, an enormous pangolin-like beast accompanied by numerous smaller burrowing creatures. In this battle, we instinctively coordinated our efforts, concentrating on the boss when feasible and dispersing to eliminate the smaller adversaries as they emerged. If we acted swiftly, we could prevent them from attacking at all by striking them while they were emerging from the ground, rendering them unconscious with a single blow. This tactic proved crucial in controlling their numbers since the game would seemingly unleash 30 pangolins on us simultaneously. Apart from the boss, this strategy was challenging, particularly because each pangolin could endure quite a bit of damage before succumbing to death.
In this game, the boss itself launched assaults similar to those found in typical beat-em-ups. It leaped around the arena, creating seismic waves that we had to leap over or dodging falling rocks scattered across the battlefield. The boss also attacked frequently, making it crucial for us to deliver our strikes swiftly and then move out of its extended reach. Towerborne penalizes carelessness–strong blows can knock you off your feet, leaving you dazed for a while on the ground.
Moving smoothly and swiftly isn’t always possible; therefore, relying solely on running and dodging to avoid enemy attacks won’t cut it. Instead, pay attention to your adversaries, discern their patterns, and predict their most powerful and rapid strikes to ensure you have enough space to evade them successfully.
If we strike the pangolin boss forcefully, it might momentarily stun, granting us an opportunity to inflict significant damage with our skills. The pyroclast could also employ its abilities to ignite the boss for some additional minor damage. Typically, I handled cleaning up the smaller foes using my daggers, while my partner unleashed powerful attacks on the boss. Occasionally, the battle became intense – sustaining too much damage would cause us to fall and need either a teammate’s revival or the expenditure of an extra life for self-revival. Generally speaking, though, our strategic deployment of special moves kept the arena clear of adversaries as we gradually depleted the boss’s health, eventually defeating it.
In our quick overview of Towerborne, we mainly concentrated on the immediate combat aspects. However, it’s worth noting that Towerborne boasts numerous live-game mechanics, is heavily centered around acquiring loot, and shares a similar vibe with Destiny in many of its systems. Notably, some members of the development team are alumni from Bungie, and certain features seem reminiscent of the decade-old MMO.
The experience we had with it has potential. Initially, adapting to the game was a challenge, particularly when it came to its movement and evasion mechanics that move more slowly than typical, making them less suitable for quick, reactive play. Instead, they seem designed to encourage a more thoughtful approach towards enemy encounters. However, this aligns with the arcade beat-em-ups of the ’90s that Stoic is emulating, and the action RPG elements such as multiple special moves and strategizing combos to capitalize on enemy vulnerabilities, appear to be intelligent enhancements to classic gameplay, at least from our initial perspective.
Towerborne is set to release on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox Game Pass on September 10.
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2024-08-26 23:09