Developer: Eko Software
Publisher: Bigben Interactive
Platform: PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tested on: PC
Warhammer Chaosbane – Preview
In 2018 the Warhammer 40,000 universe was graced with the release of Inquisitor – Martyr, a Diablo-like game in the well-known 40,000 setting. The game proved to be original for a dungeon crawler, but ended up being a bit on the basic side, even though it has plenty of content and it is still getting new content. While this love letter to the Sci-Fi Warhammer universe was certainly appreciated, the fantasy realm of the traditional Warhammer fans could use some extra love as well. With Warhammer Chaosbane, the fantasy world is getting their own dungeon crawler, and we were lucky enough to participate in the private beta of the game.
Graphically Warhammer Chaosbane is very impressive. The game looks as if it has been designed with the utmost respect for the characters and sceneries of the series. While we had to go through many similar areas during the beta, the clutter was stunning to look at. We reckon this game will not be that easily supportable by older gaming rigs however. Nonetheless, the action looked finger-licking good and it was always fun to explore more of the game’s dungeons. We have to say that the only small downside was the fact that our characters looked like silly jesters with some of their armor pieces on. We hope higher level armors will offer a more impressive look than we currently received. The menus look a bit on the simple side, as well as the item icons and the inventory screen. We hope these will get a (massive) overhaul before the game is released and that they are currently working with placeholders and a few duplicate item icons.
Many of the quest’s dialogues are voiced in a typical Warhammer fashion, with a lot of overacting and heavier and more serious voices. It suits the game perfectly, and it has been a given for the series when looking at older titles where the voice acting has been handled in similar fashions.
The controls of the game work pretty much like every other Diablo clone on the block, with you having your mouse buttons and a few of the numeric keys available for your skills. You’ll also have a potion that recharges over time, which was pretty much introduced in Diablo 3, instead of having to carry a consumable stock, which you have to resupply every few visits to the town. The flow of the game is extremely fluid, and combat is very enjoyable. The two available characters work very differently, which is certainly a plus if you want to explore the game to the fullest. We were dropped in the same environments for the beta, so we aren’t sure if the characters will get different content, safe for a few story portions. We reckon it will mostly be identical content for all the different characters.
Leveling up grants you extra life and base stats of course, but you’ll also get skill points, of which the distribution didn’t properly work during the beta, or at least we weren’t able to equip higher tiered skills for the time being. Nonetheless, the skill tree is rather big in size, allowing you to experiment a lot with the available characters. Other than that there’s a massive extra ‘god’ skill tree you can explore to unlock new skills and a lot of passive upgrades. This additional skill tree doesn’t work with experience or leveling up, but with collecting fragments of gems, which you then can turn in to unlock more powers. These fragments are also used to revive when you are slain in a dungeon, and don’t want to restart. You can also opt to use your crowns (cash) to be revived.
If you want to do other stuff than just following the storyline quests, you can do expeditions, which are pretty much randomly generated dungeons. These dungeons can serve as grinding grounds for experience and gear. The Boss Rush mode also ‘unlocked’ during the beta, but we were unable to select it.
Conclusion
Warhammer Chaosbane has all the boxes ticked to become a rather impressive dungeon crawler. While the basic offset may be a bit on the basic side, it’s fun to tinker with a lot of different skills and abilities, allowing somewhat original gameplay and different builds per character. The game also looks spiffy, even though the low level armors look a bit silly on the characters. The sound design is qualitative, and truth be told, we’re looking forward to seeing more story content, more enemies and many more pieces of gear to play with.
Warhammer Chaosbane - Preview,
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