Regardless of many people rising up on the style by means of flash video games and titles like Dungeon Defenders, you don’t see many tower defence video games today. So, when Moonton, the developer of Cellular Legends: Bang Bang, requested if we needed to preview Watcher of Realms, an thrilling RPG-infused tower defence sport, we couldn’t say no. Who doesn’t love defending some towers?
For context, Watcher of Realms is an upcoming title set in a fantasy world with a wealth of characters to attract on in your quest. I imply a wealth, with over 100 characters pre-launch, there may be loads of alternative to get artistic together with your playstyle, using completely different lessons for various duties as your progress by means of the linear construction. It’s extra tower defence than RPG, however the depth of lore and storytelling creates a way of immersion all the identical.
Let’s begin with a very powerful component, the gameplay. Watcher of Realms appears like what you may think a Diablo tower defence sport to really feel like. It’s gothic and action-packed, and there’s loads of lore to dive into, however if you happen to’d favor, you possibly can simply preserve tackling ranges and dealing out injury to bugs, skeletons, and different basic fantasy fare enemies that assault in droves.
Every degree includes a location (or areas) you will need to defend, generally known as the Soul Core, with enemy spawn factors on the opposite aspect of the map. It’s essential to use your staff of heroes to maintain the enemy at bay, defeating all of the spawns and ensuring the Soul Core goes undamaged. Whereas it’s a fairly commonplace idea, Watcher of Realms does add to the expertise with various maps that spotlight the powers of sure lessons, pushing you to know the lay of the land earlier than you decide your heroes for every particular person degree.
I’m a few chapters deep into the core marketing campaign, and, I’ll be sincere, I’m having a fairly nice time. Watcher of Realms’ gameplay doesn’t reinvent the wheel, however it does sculpt it with the precision to maintain you rolling by means of ranges of engrossing gameplay for longer than you would possibly count on. The ‘one-more-level-then-bed’ issue right here is robust, pulling you in for prolonged classes of tower defending.
Alternatively, I personally don’t discover the lore as enthralling as others would possibly, and it’s actually the gameplay holding me going right here. As is usually the case with fantasy video games, there’s a bigger story beneath the hood, all relating again to you, the participant character, washing up ashore at the start of the sport with no reminiscence of who you’re or the place you’re from. The primary marketing campaign is the important thing to answering the query surrounding your id, together with your position for the remainder of the story because the commander of the models prepared to help in your quest. It’s not a revolutionary narrative idea, however it actually does the job.
As I discussed earlier than, the search arc in Watcher of Realms is pretty linear, with an outlined path from degree to degree as you comply with the principle marketing campaign, although just a few choices for side-quests and seasonal missions do arrive as you plough by means of the primary couple of chapters. Issues is perhaps a bit straightforward for tower defence veterans within the early phases, however the problem curve kicks in ultimately, providing some difficult ranges that take a look at your tower defence orientation abilities.
Whether or not you’re new to the style or not, Watcher of Realms goes a protracted solution to introduce all of the mechanics and ideas inside, although this tutorial component does really feel prefer it goes on for just a few too many ranges. I used to be fairly assured in what I used to be doing by way of core gameplay, summoning, and extra challenges after just a few ranges, however at factors, this sport forces you to do what it needs as a means of instructing you one thing, and it is perhaps good to have the choice to skip this function for many who are completely satisfied to learn the way all of it works on their very own phrases.
In fact, you possibly can’t tackle ranges with out characters, and as we’ve already talked about, there are greater than sufficient right here. A few of these playable choices match completely into the world of Watcher of Realms, like Borut the dwarf along with his fists of metal and Voltus the electrified mage, however they’re not all winners. Morene the pirate stands out like a sore thumb amongst fantasy heroes, in my view. I perceive that what’s important in a gacha title like that is that you just want as many characters as attainable, however Morene and a few others barely detract from the in any other case clever fantasy worldbuilding.
So, now we’ve talked about it, we higher discuss it. Watcher of Realms is certainly a gacha title. You’re going to spend the majority of your time accumulating sources to summon and improve your characters, with the issue curve pushing you to degree up your models and unlock extra highly effective choices as your progress by means of the principle quests. Luckily, the sport is fairly forthcoming with sources early on, however I do have my doubts about how far these can carry you and simply how a lot it may cost a little to maintain on enjoying as soon as the properly dries up.
I perceive the need for gacha mechanics in a free-to-play title, I actually do, however it does border on pervasive in Watcher of Realms. Pop-ups for in-game transactions are pretty frequent, and the costs are pretty excessive. I suppose it’s particularly disappointing as so many different parts on this sport are inviting, partaking, and immersive, it simply takes away from the expertise if you’re going nice weapons together with your staff of heroes just for the sport to remind you that extra highly effective choices are there, they’re simply locked behind a paywall.
Whereas I’m not fully bought on the gacha mechanics, I can no less than say that the characters you unlock are visually spectacular, even people who don’t fairly match the darkish fantasy transient. The extent maps is perhaps a bit unimaginative in contrast, although there’s not numerous scope in a tower defence title, in any other case, Watcher of Realms is graphically spectacular, with its summoning scenes and character animations as prime quality as loads of 2023’s console choices.
All-in-all, Watcher of Realms is gearing as much as be an actual deal with for followers of the tower defence style, with a world of vivid characters able to roll out by means of a well-designed RPG marketing campaign. Whereas the gacha mechanics is perhaps too pervasive for my liking, and never all of the characters match seamlessly into the fantasy world, there’s loads of scope for Watcher of Realms to be one of many shock cellular hits of 2023.
To pre-register for Watcher of Realms, hit this hyperlink. Or, if you happen to’re on the lookout for extra of our ideas on titles from 2023, try our Bayonetta Origins overview, Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp overview, and The Mageseeker Change overview.
