At least a part of the video game scene advances through the fads that follow one another; those great mass successes that make the industry move in the direction they have set with their proposal. The Free to Play market has given many surprises in recent years, offering high-quality titles capable of providing hundreds of hours of quality gameplay. Even giants like Overwatch have switched to this model. The first major contender this year in the category of online multijugador Free to Play It is the game that concerns us, Warlander. Distributed by PLAION and developed by Toylogic Inc.we are facing a true melting pot of genres that aims to offer massive multiplayer combat that simulates a war set in a medieval fantasy setting.
We have tested for several days a closed beta, experiencing both its combat and its progression and reward system, and the truth is that I have had a lot of fun playing Warlander. I tell you how my experience with this promising title has been.
A fun and spectacular multiplayer mayhem
Warlander offers two types of third-person multiplayer battles: either pitting two teams of 20 people each against one another, or five-team battles of 20 people each. In any of these modes, the objective will always be the same: storm the enemy team’s castle and destroy their core. For this, we will have three possible characters to drive, each with its own equipment, characteristics and abilities: Warrior, Cleric or Mage.
drive to guerrero gives us the ability to use a sword and shield and engage in close combat with almost too easy gameplay; We will only have to press a button to make melee combos, we have an attack to stun our opponent, a shield to protect ourselves, a ranged weapon and a list of special abilities. From creating an energy shield capable of protecting us and the allies behind us for a few seconds to keys to destroy our enemies; We even unlocked an attack where you could put up a small barricade to attack with the crossbow.
If we choose to control dry, the gameplay becomes more like a third person shooter, using traps and a wide range of spells that we can shoot with our fingers. He is a weaker character than the warrior, but tremendously versatile and useful, as well as being by far the most fun and varied to use all three. The cleric use a mallet and shield to mix warrior-like melee attacks with healing magic to support our team.
As you can deduce, the balance and collaboration between all the components of the team will be essential to achieve victory. Warlander tries to facilitate and promote teamwork in a curious way: before the game, it offers us several votes. First we will have to choose if we opt for offensive, defensive or balanced tactics. Once we have chosen it, it will divide our team of 20 people into five squads of four people; Various roles will be offered (attack, defender or special operations), each with their own objectives to achieve. If we as a team hit those specific squad goals, we’ll be rewarded handsomely at the end of the game, regardless of whether we win or not. In this way, the game shows in a simple way what each player should be doing and rewards the fulfillment of that task, without restricting the freedom of the team members to act as they consider.
Even with all these aids, it is most likely that the first games of Warlander that you play will be a real chaos and nonsense, since Warlander brings together a large number of genres on its battlefield. Beyond how the gameplay changes depending on the character we choose, we will find touches of territory defense when it comes to protecting our castle, but also of MOBA, since we will have to go conquering points of appearance in the form of towers throughout its extensive maps and we will have limitations when using depending on which characters; The strategic conquest of these points will mean juicy points of appearance on which to fortify the offense of the entire team.
However, although you may find that frustration derived from the lack of teamwork (as in all these types of proposals, on the other hand), Warlander games are fast, direct and a lot of fun, partly thanks to the great simplicity of its handling and premise. As if that were not enough, because of the scenarios we will have cliffs to use to our advantage, idols capable of invoking impressive cataclysms, siege machines to build and improve, crossbows and giant robots… there is a wide variety of resources that suit the games very well.
To alleviate this simplicity in its gameplay, together with its progression system, Warlander presents a wide capacity for customization of our characters. We can have several boards of up to five characters to have them in the games. As our characters gain experience, they will be able to obtain increasingly powerful attacks, items, and titles that will expand the amount of resources that we can equip them with. These titles will turn our pawns into powerful resources that we will not be able to use always; until we reach certain milestones in games we won’t be able to use them, and then we’ll have to wait a while to play them again. Knowing how to organize our character board and how to customize them will not only change our style of play a lot, but will also be essential to win the games. In fact, I’ve been surprised by the amount of time I’ve spent in menus genuinely interested in trying out different combinations of characters and gear.
Warlander manages to be fun at the controls after many hours
While I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the hours I’ve put into this Warlander beta, it still has a lot to tweak ahead of launch, and a lot to prove afterwards. The matchmaking in most of the days has been tremendously capricious, having days of several hours in which I could barely play two games and afternoons in which I did not stop playing. The visual section, although impressive when it comes to showing events such as cataclysms, suffers from being very flat and with little personality, something that can greatly affect proposals of this type. The progression through battle passes, although in this beta it has given me the feeling that it was well balanced and you always unlock interesting things, we will have to see how it works after the launch of the title. Of course, they should also work on a greater variety of scenarios (we only got to see two, and they were pretty similar), weapons, and maybe even a fourth character, especially for the medium-long term.
Warlander seems to have achieved one of the main prerequisites for the success of this type of game, which is be fun at the controls after many hours, even when it starts from a remarkable simplicity to be more accessible. However, until we see how its developers feed content to its final version, it is too early to predict a victory or defeat. What I can do without any doubt is to encourage you to give it a try when it launches on January 24 on PC.
