Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - Aujourd'hui 02:47

WARRIORS: Abyss – Review

It has barely been a month since we took a closer look at Dynasty Warriors: Origins, the single-player-focused Musou title that many fans of the series had been waiting for. We concluded that Origins offered the best combat in the series and had an interesting campaign progression. Sadly, it lacked co-op functionalities and had a severe lack of character variety, driving it further away from a perfect experience. Now, Koei Tecmo is steering the Warriors franchise in a different direction with WARRIORS: Abyss, a roguelite title where many Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors’ characters will descend to hell to restore order. We were curious to see what this genre shift had in store for this beloved franchise. Story WARRIORS: Abyss surprisingly comes with a story, which is something we didn’t expect given the game’s format and setting. You’ll be one of the many heroes summoned to hell, not to pay penance for things you may have done while alive, but to defeat a great evil that has knocked King Enma off his throne. Gouma has escaped his fiery prison and has taken control of hell, leaving King Enma in a weakened state. All he could do was summon you, grant you a bit of his power and wisdom, and hope for the best. That’s pretty much all there is to it, but it does serve as a nice framework for what the game is about. Graphics Probably the most underwhelming aspect of WARRIORS: Abyss is the quality of the graphics. While we wouldn’t say that the game looks bad, it just looks a bit bland and dated. The different heroes look like they do in the Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors games, albeit less detailed, and you’ll look at them from a zoomed-out perspective. The enemy designs lack variety, and these look a bit uninspired. The boss designs aren’t bad, but the textures look dated, and even the animations look clunky. The arenas you’ll be battling in feel empty, and when there are actual obstacles, these are barred off by invisible walls, sometimes even interfering with the gameplay. Nonetheless, the attack and skill animations look great, and it’s still ever so satisfying to clobber massive hordes of enemies with your chosen character. One thing we do have to mention is that telegraphed enemy attacks were hard to see when you unleash special moves. This caused us to be hit a lot more frequently, simply because we couldn’t see where the enemies were attacking. Sound The sound design of WARRIORS: Abyss isn’t too bad. The supporting soundtrack is decent, the SFX pack a proper punch, and even the voice acting during story segments is nicely handled. That being said, the soundscape is a bit simplistic and there isn’t that much variety as a whole. Gameplay WARRIORS: Abyss is a roguelite spin-off title of both Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors. While technically the game could still be called a Musou title, it feels more like a hack-and-slash combo of Diablo and Vampire Survivors with a bit of Hades sprinkled in for good measure. In WARRIOS: Abyss, you’ll descend further and further into hell, clearing floors of demons. The goal of how many demons you’ll have to kill increases for each floor, and on every eighth floor you’ll have to defeat a boss. After clearing a floor, you’ll be presented with your reward as well as three options to choose from where you’ll go next. You can opt to select floors that simply require you to kill demons, but some floors reward you with materials, additional clear conditions for bigger rewards, or simply more hostile floors. It’s all straightforward stuff for the most part, but some of the game’s mechanics do get explained poorly. For example, the game made hero formations seem awfully complicated, even though these formations just give buffs depending on what upgrades you have unlocked during your run. The game’s mechanics prove to be easy to learn but hard to master. You’ll have a light attack and a heavy attack, a dodge, and some special moves you can activate when the corresponding gauge has been filled. Things become slightly more complex when you clear floors and start bonding with heroes. These heroes can then be summoned at the end of a specific combo, adding even more destructive power to your attacks. Summoning them does sometimes take time, as some combos take a while before they are wrapped up. This sometimes made it hard to dodge enemy attacks (which are telegraphed beforehand) if we wanted to summon specific heroes. WARRIORS: Abyss does allow you to dodge and then continue the combo you were already trying to perform, but getting the timing right is a bit tricky here. All in all, WARRIORS: Abyss is a fun grind, as you collect more and more Karma Embers. These Karma Embers in turn allow you to unlock more heroes to play with, eventually adding up to a roster of 100 playable heroes. Unlocking new heroes also comes with other benefits, as each unlocked hero will also slightly raise the stats of the other heroes further, slowly making it easier to descend further into hell. However, the game suffers from severe difficulty spikes, especially during boss battles. Whittling down a boss’ defense is a bit long-winded and takes the flow out of the otherwise fast-paced nature of the game. Even so, for something as simple as WARRIORS: Abyss is, and given how limited the content may be, everything feels reasonably polished. Conclusion WARRIORS: Abyss is an enjoyable spin-off title that’s fun to play in short bursts, while slowly making progress to descend further and further into hell. The Musou and roguelite genres blend well together, and the impressive character roster was supposed to ensure that no two runs end up the same. Sadly, the enemy variety is a bit on the low side, which eventually makes these supposed different runs feel a bit similar, safe for the RNG of what hero combinations you’ll end up with during each attempt to defeat Gouma. The gameplay loop is extremely enjoyable, but the overall package does look a bit dated. It feels as if WARRIORS: Abyss could have used a few additional layers of polish before hitting the digital stores. Nonetheless, if you’re a fan of the Warriors games, then we reckon this one will certainly manage to entertain you as well. The fact that it comes at a reduced price, might just be a reason to pick it up already.