We Are the Caretakers Review

When you’ve been feeling responsible about making animal-skin wallets within the Far Cry collection, then you definately may need to redeem your self with We Are the Caretakers. As a substitute of carving up creatures you’re defending them, in what may be Xbox’s first anti-poaching sport. Purchase it, and also you’re even contributing 10% of the quantity to Save the Rhinos. 

We Are the Caretakers has extra to supply than a noble message. It’s a two-hander: on one hand it’s an exploration sim, not too far distant from Curious Expedition 2, or the opening moments in Civilisation, the place you’re scouting the realm for sources and villages. However, it’s a turn-based RPG. Whereas the Steam web page references X-Com, We Are the Caretakers takes its lead from the battle sequences of a JRPG. The positioning of your troops is much less vital than deciding whether or not to assault, heal or buff.

What first attracted us to We Are the Caretakers was the visible design, coupled with that weirdo title. The Xbox Retailer card and screenshots confirmed off its characters, who appear like Mass Impact’s Tali cosplaying because the solid of Stargate, and so they instantly grabbed the eye. However that was juxtaposed with a thuddingly uninteresting title. What did Caretakers should do with something?

Because it seems, all of it makes full sense. If you first begin enjoying We Are the Caretakers, you be a part of the Caretakers faction: a bunch devoted to defending the Raun – a sort of space-rhino. The Raun are problematic within the sense that they trample over crops and sometimes sit on individuals, however their significance to the ecosystem can’t be underestimated. They’re the lifeblood of the world. 

It’s a neat balancing act. The Raun are undoubtedly vital, which makes defending them of important significance too, however the locals are much less satisfied. Some perceive the plight of the Raun and even worship them, however others take into account them a pest. Others nonetheless see them as a useful resource to poach, and that’s the place the Caretakers step up. The rhino comparisons are intentionally unsubtle. 

It’s utterly refreshing to play a sport that shoos away blood and demise, and as an alternative opts for preservation and conservation. Whereas there’s nonetheless violence – the turn-based battles have their justifiable share of kicks, punches and magic wands – the top result’s detaining the enemies not directly, and finally letting the Raun wander free. 

Higher nonetheless is the visible design, which is totally marvellous. We’ve already invoked Stargate and Mass Impact, however there’s some Wakanda Eternally in there too, as Afrofuturist stylings are the order of the day. It’s a science-fiction imaginative and prescient that’s removed from the medical Star Treks or the dusty Star Wars, carving out an identification that could be very a lot its personal. We may have fortunately toiled in its sandbox for a lot of hours. 

We Are the Caretakers doesn’t cease there, because the world is given extra dimension by the story. Do you have to care to get misplaced in it, you’ll be able to: earlier than every mission, there’s a prolonged framing of why you might be right here, what has occurred, and the missions themselves have loads of villagers and cities by which you may get extra data. You start to know the position of the Caretakers, what makes them a shades-of-grey drive, and why the duty is just not so simple as shepherding some Raun round a rustic park. And that’s all earlier than some ‘foreigners’ arrive, and We Are the Caretakers performs its narrative trump playing cards. Earlier than you understand it, you may be hurtling by epochs.

However the meat of the gameplay comes from the exploring and the fight. Exploring is an easy affair, actually: you might be proven a zoomed out, hen’s eye view of the realm, which corresponds to a Danger-like map within the bottom-right-hand nook which exhibits the areas you have got explored, and the place the mild Raun are at. You progress your squad (or many squads, as the sport develops) into areas of the world that you simply seemingly haven’t explored; the troops cease for a second to scout the realm; and the fog of struggle is lifted, displaying what’s there. 

The area might need some sources that can assist you alongside the best way (forex for a mess of purchases, analysis for advancing by a ability tree, and objects that may assist in the situation) , however there’s a superb probability there may be mission essential stuff there too. A village may provide some data, or tech must be dismantled. After which there are the enemies in fact, who wait so that you can trespass into their area, or patrol the map on the lookout for Raun. 

The exploration is quite pleasing, if a little bit challenge-free. Little or no throttles the quantity you’ll be able to discover – some ranges have a turn-limit, however they’re the exception – and the primary aims and sub-objectives encourage you to discover all the things anyway. There aren’t any actual traps to journey you up, so all you’re doing is sweeping the setting systematically to be sure you catch all the things. There’s a pleasure of discovery that comes from blowing again the fog of struggle, but it surely’s in any other case a tad benign. 

The fight, although, is the place issues get extra intricate. When you’ve performed a JRPG, you may be at dwelling right here: your troops line up on the left, the enemies’ on the correct. A normal turn-order is displayed, and you’re taking it in turns to carry out one motion per troop per flip. The actions are comparatively commonplace too: you’ll be able to assault, defend, heal, buff and debuff to your coronary heart’s content material. 

However whereas the primary physique of fight is acquainted, it’s received some alien organs. There are two well being bars, within the type of Stamina and Will. Consider them because the bodily and psychological wellbeing of the character. Get both of them to zero, and the opponent will kneel to the ground, however gained’t be faraway from the board. Ought to an enemy get to this place, then your subsequent Caretaker has the choice to tug off a character-specific ending transfer. You may get the choice to Detain, Bribe, Shakedown or carry out another deliverance of justice, which has delicate variations to how the enemy is handled within the hub space. 

It’s a neat sidestep away from ‘killing’ characters, and fits We Are the Caretakers to a tee. But it surely’s additionally smoke and mirrors, as a result of these nuances – each the dual well being bars and the detaining – are actually solely reskins of conventional mechanics. Finally, you might be nonetheless selecting the transfer that will get you to a win quickest, choosing it, after which watching it execute. There’s nothing that significantly spices up the gameplay, and we discovered ourselves desirous to automate battles greater than take part in them. They principally simply devolve into attacking the bottom well being bar with the corresponding transfer. 

On the constructive aspect, the sheer variety of characters, strikes and ending strikes are colossal. You may recruit each single baddie you battle (there’s a thick vein of forgiveness working by We Are the Caretakers), and so they every have their very own ruleset. Higher nonetheless, you’ll be able to stage them up independently, and pursue profession tracks for them. The depth of optimisation is a trademark of all the sport. There’s a lot to tinker with, together with a dense ability tree, and there are 5 worlds of ranges to finish. 

Give or take the fight depth, We Are the Caretakers has all of the components for a lot of misplaced afternoons. However we hate to be harbingers of doom, as there’s a vital drawback on the coronary heart of We Are the Caretakers. 

Bugs. We Are the Caretakers crashes. Rather a lot. End a stage and there’s roughly a one-in-three probability that it’s going to crash earlier than you attain your hub. Because the sport saves on the hub, that is simply concerning the worst time for a crash to occur. You may end a stage, crash, and restart, solely to seek out that you need to discover the extent once more. Whereas that is the dominant bug, there are others: ‘lifeless’ characters will stay in battles; squads will get caught on the setting; and places will merely not set off as you strategy them. 

You may be replaying the identical ranges due to numerous bugs, and that eats away at We Are the Caretakers second monolithic subject. Since fight falls right into a sample, the degrees battle to seek out methods to distinguish themselves. If you’re replaying ranges due to crashes, then that repetition gnaws additional into the bone. We discovered ourselves enjoying We Are Caretakers at a take away – not likely listening to what’s happening. Which is a deep disgrace, as there may be a lot love and care on the planet and dialogue, simply ready to be uncovered. 

We Are the Caretakers deserves heaps of reward. You may level to the world design, story, depth of gameplay and themes of conservation and discover one thing to fall in love with. But it surely wanted longer in Early Entry. The bugs and crashes maintain stampeding by the sport, trampling on what was painstakingly constructed. Ought to the bugs be eliminated, we’d add at the very least a half-mark to the rating.

The builders have gone on document to say that We Are the Caretakers was deliberate for Recreation Move, however Microsoft withdrew the deal on the final second. You may see why Microsoft had been within the first place, however, equally, the bugs make you realise why they may have stepped away on the finish. 

You should buy We Are the Caretakers from the Xbox Retailer