Developer: Event Horizon
Publisher: Event Horizon
Platform: PC(Steam - Early Access)
Tested on PC
Tower Of Time – Preview
Have you ever heard about Event Horizon? If not, than it might be that they’ll end up on your radar, especially if you’re a fan of classic styled roleplaying games. Event Horizon is working on a new take on classic roleplaying games. Their project is called Tower of Time and is available in Early Access on Steam. In the latest years, we’ve seen a lot of RPGs who try to bring back that classic feel of the old days but not everyone has tried to reinvent them so far. So we’re eager to see what Tower of Time has in store for us.
The story of Tower of Time takes us to Artara, a land once filled with rich fields, bounty and a lifelong peace. But due to unknown and unforeseen circumstances, this bountiful land started crumbling. As time passed, the land started to die, crops were unable to grow, and water quickly became too grubby and poisonous to drink. Even mankind was dwindling. A thousand years had passed since this catastrophe and the land of Artara is on the brink of total destruction.
You’re the hero of this story and you come across a big, mysterious tower which was surfaced due to a strong earthquake. Unable to resist your urge to explore, you enter a mysterious portal taking you inside the tower. As you explore the tower, you’re drawn to a strange force that seems to emanate from a large throne embraced with crystals. As you approach, a spirit speaks to you, talking about the dangers that’ve been locked away and acknowledging your hidden potential. Scared of what you’ve might awakened, you run away and keep silent about your experience inside the tower. As years passed, you became an outcast and as you matured, you were plagued with visions about the tower. After many years, you set up an expedition in order to explore the depths of the tower. The tower might hold the secret of an ancient civilization and the means to save the lands of Artara.
So far, the story is a narrative experience that feels really engaging and offers a truly interesting setting. It conveys well and tries to appeal fantasy-steampunk fans, yet it borrowed a lot of elements from other fantasy works as it lacks a bit of originality. On the other hand, there’s no harm in that as it tries to tell the story through your own eyes and creates an impressive level of immersion.
Although Tower of Time is in the midst of development, the game looks really impressive, especially for Event Horizon’s first project. They put a lot of care in the presentation and design of their game. Yet it might still not be comparable to modern day standards, it has a unique feel with its hand painted cut scenes and a more old-school approach of monster or character designs. It creates a mysterious vibe that draws you deeper into the game. When we take a closer look at the audio, the verdict is clear. The background and generic music is truly astonishing. It matches the fantasy setting of Tower of Time perfectly. The music can be best compared with those of modern day fantasy movies like The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings and accompanies you like a trusty sidekick throughout the story. It’s only disappointing that the game doesn’t have any voice acting as it could help improve the overall quality and even accentuate the deep narrative approach of the game.
Tower of Time is a classic roleplaying game that tries to reinvent the old formula by implementing tactical and strategic elements without the well-known roleplaying mechanics. Where you’d need experience points to improve your characters or nurture extensive skill trees, Tower of Time tries to overthrow the old-school thinking and creates a genuine and unique experience. It lets you work for every ounce of progress you make throughout the game.
The majority of the game, you’ll be exploring the vast and mysterious tower that will challenge your strategic and tactical skills to their limits. Event Horizon invites you to participate in battles that let you combine old school roleplaying gameplay with the strategic and tactical depth of real-time combat. Either during gameplay or during exploration, you move your characters with a simple mouse click. Especially during combat, you need to decide your position, but as time doesn’t stand still, it keeps you light on your feet, especially as enemies might come from every direction. Combining this with the available character classes and class specific abilities, you decide your attack, defense or support positions. Do mind that difficulty rises throughout the game; it will force you to constantly rethink your tactics. And if that doesn’t satisfy your need for brutally challenging your limits, you can always adjust the difficulty levels.
We mentioned earlier that you won’t gather experience points or improve in levels in the old-fashioned way. In order to improve your character’s skills and abilities, you’ll need to explore every part of the game as it offers puzzles, riddles and obstacles that reward you with blueprints and other items. F.e. Blueprints grant you upgrades for all kinds of facilities in the town on the surface. This town is some sort of starting hub where you can travel in and between the tower through teleportation portals and also helps you rebuild Artara. The upgrades unlock new perks, abilities and levels for each class of characters.
Conclusion
Tower of Time shows an incredible amount of potential and Event Horizon truly delivers what they’ve promised. The gameplay is brilliant and appealing while it offers deep, thrilling combat. The game is evidently well built and the presentation really helps to reel in fans and new players alike. And as it’s still in development, this offers a lot of room for further improving and perfecting this diamond in the rough. We can definitely recommend Tower of Time to fans of classic roleplaying games combined with a deep narrative experience through a unique approach. It’s clear to say, that we’re looking forward to what Event Horizon still has in store for Tower of Time and how the final product will look like.
Tower Of Time - Preview,
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