What do you get when you want For Honour with Chivalry style battles magic from Spellforce and all the microtransactions of Fortnite with a tiny element of Civilisation, as you can even get robots in a medieval era, you end up with Warlander.
Landing in Style
Warlander has gone for a more cartoonish style with its looks in character and level design, including the weapons. The fun here was definitely in the fact you didn’t simply get siege weapons; you would have to set them up and build them. Instead, you are set up with different classes to influence the battleground with warriors, clerics, and mages, as well as siege weapons and catastrophic sorcery.
The wizard can summon lethal lightning bolts and shoot magic beams, which seems somewhat overpowered and unfair to play. When shooting magic, it feels more like a fast action gun from Call of Duty, and the wizard’s special powers are intense, like a final cast ability in League of Legends. Unfortunately, they are also incredibly weak health-wise and thus are often the primary target for other players, so try to keep a safe distance, and you’ll be the M.V.P. for your team.
The Cleric is your support class. The Cleric will aid from the defensive line and cure teammates who are low in health. Having the lowest damage output of the three, they focus on giving help rather than attacking. The Cleric is precisely in the middle when it comes to survivability. Having a Cleric on your squad is an obvious choice.
The Warrior is the “Tank” build, your central frontline defence; wielding a sword and shield, they are to block enemies from reaching your wizards and clerics with their high level of protection and medium attack. If you are targeted by a knight and wizard, it’s almost certainly game over. In addition to your standard attacks, you may pick up an opponent and crash them into the ground and conduct nasty finishers on weak adversaries.
War has Landed
Here is where the MOBA part of Warlander sets in; you take towers to redeploy closer to your opponents’ lines and create siege weaponry like artillery cannons, miniguns disguised as crossbows, and ponderous mechs that you can direct towards the opposing Core. These siege weapons are built with collected materials as opposed to using coins. The Core is each castle’s bright heart, and the main purpose of the game is to destroy your opponent’s while defending your own. Breach their defences by smashing through castle doors or scaling huge walls, then participate in furious combat within the keep for a hard-fought victory.
Before deploying, you create a ‘deck’ of five characters with varying specialisations or equipment from which you can pick each time you redeploy. At the outset of each match, you must decide whether you will be an attacker or defender and what tactics your 20-player roster must use, but the squad must be evenly distributed. You will level up as you play through wins and kills, and you, too, shall gain new equipment that serves both cosmetics and power. New stuff doesn’t just look nicer but will also allow you to deal more damage. These may be obtained by levelling up or in-game store purchases; unfortunately, they can be obtained by purchasing as this is when Pay to win mechanics are exploited.
Inventory is very much used in Warlander; similar to other MOBA-style games, you must make sure you are purchasing the right equipment, and with your team of 5, you will have a certain amount of “C.P.” all determined by your equipment and skills, so choose wisely. The selections are limited at first, but as you earn experience and acquire additional equipment, the available combinations grow more intricate and adaptable.
Warnite
As of now, it seems like Warlander has taken significant inspiration from Fortnite and Planetside 2 but trimmed things down from no mounts, not a lot of building and very minimal silly aspects. The overall look is quite bland; cartoony in style, but that’s it when it comes to the weapons. It feels as though the code has been lifted from a game with guns and not tried to implement them into a medieval style. There is no real oomph when using magic, and crossbows fire like a gun with no recoil whatsoever. Healing to feels lacklustre, with no respite from the team mates or any natural feeling that you are using magic. There doesn’t feel like much of a heavy hit when something hit’s your shield, and the same is said for using your sword. It doesn’t need to feel as realistic as Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but it should feel more akin to the setting you are in rather than a knock-off of Fortnite with a medieval mod.
War What is it good for
If you can overlook the practically characterless visuals, Warlander is a game you can play for hours. The character development and deployment mechanism may appear daunting initially, but a few drills can help. Because of the various ways you may strengthen your characters, this game has a lot of potentials to find its niche. Another thing Warlander does well is foster camaraderie and cooperation. Some talents function well in groups, and the 25v25 clashes will make you feel like you’re in Helm’s Deep owing to the game’s good-repeating chaos and disarray. Warlander isn’t lovely to look at, but it’s a lot of fun to play. Will it reach its potential in having large 100-player battles is unsure as with Beta, it was not possible to find that, but with a few tweaks, it could garner long-term success.
Steam store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1675900/Warlander/
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