Review for Spellsworn. PC game, Expected to be released in 2015
Back in 2002, the roarer appeared on our monitors Warcraft 3 who, thanks to a timeless charisma and a seductive charm to say the least, centralized the attention of fans of the genre and beyond, generating a large group of illegitimate children. These can be considered the Mods generated by Warcraft 3, just think of DOTA: Defense of the ancients, considered the first true Moba in history, from which League of Legends by Riot Games and DOTA 2 itself derived.
A jump into the past
There are however some lesser known Warcraft 3 Mods, such as Warlocks. Spellsworn is the revival of that good old Mod disappeared for more than a decade, in a modernized version but not too much. Spellsworn fully maintains the game formula we were used to, making it stand alone. In Spellsworn we are called to interpret gods funny wizards confined to an islet surrounded by a progressively expanding sea of lava, which must give incantations in order to prevail over the opponents.
Fireball!
The game modes available are team clash or free-for-all. Once in the game, before the dance begins, we will be given a budget to spend to buy one spell build to take into battle; at the beginning of each round we will have the possibility to add a spell to our loadout, upgrade a part of our kit, or revise our strategy by completely modifying our build.
Purchasable spells fall into five categories: offensive, defensive, area, utility, and mobility spells. However, it is not possible to select for your arsenal only spells of one type, as there are category limitations to force us to vary our Kit: of the eight offensive spells we can only carry three and of the seven defensive only one. Despite these seemingly binding limitations, variety is the central focus of this magical battle arena.
Aesthetics Anesthetics
Spellsworn's glance obviously winks at old-time players, however the nostalgia effect remains angular polygonal models and grossly animated. By winning the games we will be able to obtain crates containing cosmetic elements, such as skins for weapons or new models for our wizard, however they too are not particularly convincing or inspired, relegating Spellsworn in the circle of titles with low appeal. Fortunately, the heart of the game is centered on the gameplay mechanics.
More brilliant and convincing the audio sector, which boasts one functional and engaging soundtrack, while the sound effects that accompany the casting of spells lend credibility to our actions.
Matchmaking
To throw ourselves into the fray we can rely on the system of automated matchmaking or take advantage of the Server function, where we can create a game or join a custom one already created by another user. This is the real sore point of Spellsworn: the functionality of the servers seems to trudge uncertain, often failing to create sensible lobbies, for example by separating the players into different lobbies populated by bots.
Although Spellsworn dropped out of paid Early Access a few days ago to adopt the much more popular Free to Play formula, the average audience cannot exceed 20 players online, of which less than half are actually active, relegating the gaming experience to a pvp between humans and bots.
Although Spellsworn offered itself to the public on Steam in a Free to Play key, it failed to be invested with the attention it was waiting for. This lack spills disastrously on gameplay, which features half-empty lobbies with shaky Netcode. Despite this, the Battle Arena of Frogsongs Studios AB is fun and hectic, especially if enjoyed in the company of a few friends, and is perfect for evoking the nostalgia of the Lan of the last decade.
► Spellsworn is a MOBA-type game developed and published by Frogsong Studios for PC, Expected release: 2015
