Developer: Frozen District
Publisher: Fat Dog Games, Qubicgames
Platform: Switch, PC
Tested: Switch
Warlocks 2: God Slayers – Review
Warlocks 2: God Slayers is a sequel to the game Warlocks vs Shadows that was released back in 2015, and is brought to us by the people over at Fat Dog Games and Frozen District. The game is a 2D action-RPG that reminds us of games like Salt and Sanctuary and Hollow Knight. Be ready to dive into a game that will get you with side-splitting humour, all the while you will have to learn and slowly master the battle system. Go at it alone or battle demons and monsters along with up to four friends in local Co-op.
Story
The game starts off by giving you a chance to select your difficulty and selecting your character. There are five characters to choose from: Jake the Pyrodancer, Kheera the Shaman, Shax the Spirit Lord, Cormag the Drunk Goat and lastly Willow the @Ewitch. And yes, that is Willow’s class.
When the story kicks off, your character finds him/herself stuck in a cage with no exit in sight. You hear the soldiers, who were supposed to be guarding you, celebrating loudly. While the captain commands his goonies to fetch him some shot glasses and pizza, you are approached by a mysterious figure. He appears to be a Shaman who asks if you are the one who applied to join the Order, but he makes the astute remark that climbing the ranks will be quite the challenge, being in captivity and all. It is here that you are tasked with your first quest, which simply is to break out of the cage. After realizing this doesn’t work you ask, the Shaman for help. He explains that he would rather wait until the soldiers are drunk enough to make sure they don’t pose a big threat anymore. The Shaman then breaks the cage and grants you your first learning point, which in turn grants you the first attack skill.
You then set out to eliminate all the soldiers in the area, as well as the captain. While all this happens the Shaman conveniently vanishes. By the time you disposed of the goons the Shaman reappears and hands you a device that will let you teleport to the intergalactic canteen. Upon your arrival there, he says the Order of Warlocks is in dire need of help and tasks you with your first quest. During all of this the canteen will serve as your primary base of operations, allowing you to buy items and equipment, supplying you with everything you need to rid the world of the evil Faun God and his minions.
Graphics
This iteration, just like its predecessor, is handled entirely in pixel art, which compliments the hand drawn animations massively. This game has a very vibrant and distinct colour palette that will make you recognize it anywhere.
Every area has its own look from the extremely colourful canteen to the hidden maze, that looks more like a dark and vine-infested dungeon.
Sound
The sound of the game is vastly different depending where you are and what you do. During some encounters it feels like music fitting for a police chase in an old tv show, during others it feels majestic and epic, giving you the feeling that what you are doing is truly making a difference to the world. Whilst in the canteen there’s smooth jazz playing. Each area has their own ambient sounds, really bringing everything together.
Gameplay
Warlocks 2 is a 2D action-RPG that shouldn’t be underestimated. While the dialog can be all fun and games, the game will have you retry a lot of quests with the challenges it tosses your way, confronting you with countless enemies and bosses. If you would find the game to be too easy, you could always try out one of the other difficulty settings, since the game offers you normal, hard, very hard and the beautiful sounding permadeath, that will give even the most hardened gamers a challenge.
Each character has a vastly different skill tree with their own strengths and weaknesses, which you’ll have to learn how to use to their fullest potential to see some quests to a fruitful ending.
You will be adventuring across several different maps that are all very expansive, containing loads of enemies, all with their own unique moves and attacks. Don’t worry if you would be intimidated by the size of the zones because the developers have got you covered. Simply by pressing – on your joy-con you will open up a semi-transparent map that shows the area in great detail with your exact location.
Your primary form of attack will be attached to your left bumper, while the secondary skill is assigned to the right one. You will have to run with the left control stick while aiming with the right one as well, meaning you will have your hands full with some encounters. If a challenge feels like it’s too big to tackle, you can always hold x and be teleported back to the canteen, where you can simply go to another area and farm gear and/or experience to make your character stronger. Not only that but quests can appear in areas that have been previously explored, so it pays off to backtrack and see if something new popped up, or if you missed anything. Enemies also drop randomly generated loot so nothing you do is ever without reason either.
Each playthrough should take you anywhere from 4-8 hours depending how fast you go, how many side quests you decide to undertake and the speed at which you get familiar with combat.
Conclusion
Warlocks 2: God Slayers is an amazing game that you can just pick up and play. You don’t have to farm hours upon hours to get progress or upgrade your character. If you enjoy good, solid and fun 2D action-RPG games then we cannot recommend this one enough. It will have you smiling from start to finish, yet make you lean over into serious mode on the tougher encounters.
Warlocks 2: God Slayers - Review,
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