Scanning the many websites I looked at while exploring the web, (Kotaku) had a very interesting artical about a game I never heard of. The headlines read, "More people should put there mutiplayer first then the single player", or on the lines of something similar.
Reading the artical, I found out 3 things, 1) never heard of this game, 2) EX-bioware dev made this(Awwwwwessssome...), and 3) A online F2P/tactic/rpg?? oh crap, diffidently count me in!
Starting up the game, you're presented with a little cut-scene about some vikings coming back from some hunt, and find that their town is being overrun by other vikings. This is where the tutorial pops up and lets newbies understand how the game really works.(also a advance tutorial). After the tutorial is done, you come across the map, this lets you go to online battle, mess with your army, buy things( micro-transactions :( ), and leaderboards.
You start with the default army that the game gives you(believe everyone gets the same) and it explains how everything works. In Banner sage, your warriors don't level up, they get promoted. To promote your warriors, they must meet a requirement( like kill these many people)they also must KILL EVERYONE.......jk, well, not really, for every kill you gain, you get 1 renown, from what i have played, all the promotions cost about 50, so good luck on grinding for points.
Going to the part of town that shows your army, you get to see all these stats and can also choose what goes into what category, you can also promote, or buy new recruits, but you gotta be busting your butt to get as much renown as you possible can. As for the characters and starting classes, there is not alot going on, mostly just a archer and some warriors with different stats.
Going to the part of town where the battles are, as of now, they select a random person to so battle with you (also have a contest section but never really messed with it). The battle starts with your army in a row, and you get to place them wherever you want in a selected high-lighted area, but you only have about a minute but shouldn't take you too long.
After, you get to play the game! (!Applause!)
Its your pretty typical tactics game, but with alittle twist. You get to move, attack, wait, and use special abilities(some soldiers only). The twist, comes with how you choose to attack your opponet. Everyone has 2 hit bars, The actual HP bar, and a armor bar. Your HP and your warriors Strength are connected (The less your HP, the weaker your attacks may be) and your armor bar (obviously) helps reduce the damage taken by foes. This adds alittle bit MORE strategy to the mix, asking yourself, "Should I attack his armor and when its all gone take him out with one blow?" or ,"Should I just try to take him out old school style?" they also had 'Willpower', which give your warriors a bit more damage on your HP hits or armor hits.
I love this game so far, I CANT WAIT for the single player(if there is any), if this is the mutiplayer, they just have to fix a bit of things, for instance, The Connectivity issue while in a battle happens alot, I'm gonna forgive this because its a Free to play game, but in the full game, you really gotta make sure it doesnt happen every round. also, getting just 1 renown for 1 kill makes the game longer, but im the type that gets bored WAY to easy, and might lose interest fast! I also wish there was more to do, the only thing to gain from winning or losing battles is renown, I wish there was an equipment mechanic to make it more fun to play and wouldn't be so bad when grinding for levels.
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Pros:
- Art style is AWESOME, everything looks crisp, the character models, the maps, the map backgrounds(Also have little things going on while you are battling).
- Gameplay is easy to get into, if you are into tactics games, you pretty much know what you are getting yourself in.
- Upgrading your characters is fun, and its hard to choose what you want your army to consist of.
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Cons:
- Not much to do, just battle and promote your army or enhance their stats. Wish there was a equipment mechanic or something else to make it less boring when trying to get renown.
- Connectivity issue is really bad. Cant tell how many times I got into a battle and it took about 40 minuets because it took forever for the other player and I to connect.
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LAST WORDS -
To sum it all up, this (only) mutiplayer Free-to-play/Tactics/RPG just sprouted into life, and i'm sure the Stoic studio just wanted people to get their hands and what they are working on and I agree with Kotaku, more people should do this, it really isn't a bad game, just needs alot of work but i'm sure they are hearing it from the fans. They could have a real winner with this game.
Hopefully, this will get a single player (I'm praying) or alot of updates on new classes and new ways to play.
I say go check it out if your interested, If anyone wants to play me, just add me on Steam, my ID is Spanish_godzilla.
