Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - Hier 05:52

Dragonkin: The Banished – Review

With a completely new class for Diablo II, 21 years after its initial release, and a lot of new content underway for Diablo IV, Action RPG fans are already being spoiled a lot. In comes NACON to make the wait for Diablo IV’s new content even better, with the full release of Dragonkin: The Banished. The game has been in Early Access on PC for quite some time now with limited content, and was already fairly well-received thanks to some original mechanics, overall good graphics, and satisfying combat. We sadly never got around to trying the Early Access version, so we were quite stoked to delve into the experience on PS5. After spending quite a few hours with our chosen class(es) on the game, we are here to present you with our rather positive findings. Story In the world of Dragonkin, dragon blood is the cause of corruption for many things. Dragons are evil entities that can take over the minds of humans, turning them into their minions. While a select few can still defeat dragons, the world is somewhat in shambles, and the human resistance is slowly dwindling. You will be fighting at the frontlines to banish or kill these legendary creatures while also fighting off the corruption yourself. While the story is a lot more complex and fleshed out than this, that’s somewhat the gist of it. You’ll be building up the city of Montescail during your travels while playing through the storyline. There is quite a bit of story exposition, making this a very story-driven experience for the most part. Graphics Graphically, Dragonkin isn’t a bad-looking game at all. The character designs are neat, the monster designs are also spot on, and we loved the different dragon bosses. The world itself is also divided into different habitats, where the maps have clearly been designed with care. We did find some of the areas to be a bit empty at times, and by that, we don’t mean with enemy encounters, but with clutter and structures. Then again, a lot of large-scale action RPGs suffer from this problem, where you’ll go from one largely open area to another. That being said, many of the backdrops are gorgeous. Sound All in all, the sound design of Dragonkin is not too bad. You’ll be treated to a fairly cinematic soundtrack that has enough variation to remain entertaining during longer gaming sessions, and the sound effects of your skills often have satisfying impact noises. We did notice that the sound mixing wasn’t always perfect, as some hit effects are a lot louder than others, for example. We were mainly impressed by the voiced dialogues, which are plentiful. While not every voice actor nails their performance, resulting in some lifeless-sounding characters, the majority of the cast does a formidable job. Gameplay Dragonkin: The Banished is an action RPG in the same vein as Diablo IV, but with quite a few original mechanics to not come across as a clone or copy. Of course, the genre standards are still present, where you have different classes with a variety of skills, loads of loot to find and equip, gritty combat, and quite a bit of inventory management. In Dragonkin, you’ll also upgrade the main city, work with an original skill system, and have a wyrmling companion that also aids you in combat. Outside of some skill management and the town component, things are fairly straightforward. All in all, the aforementioned city-building component is a breath of fresh air here. You’ll pretty much gain experience from venturing out of the city gates to complete quests and finding panoramic views and relics. As you gain more experience, the city of Montescail will level up, and you’ll unlock new buildings in the process. These buildings can offer new gear and upgrade options, and they add another layer of gameplay to the otherwise ‘regular’ hack and slash action. We do have to mention that the city-building aspect of the game was somewhat poorly explained, and some structures that offer upgrade options also didn’t make that much sense at first. Even so, we found this a welcome addition to the experience, and eventually, we saw this as an extension of leveling up our actual character. The skill system for the different classes is a bit different in Dragonkin. Unlike other games where you can level up skills by leveling up your character or by using them a lot, here you’re actually working on a hexagonal grid. As you kill enemies, complete quests, and explore the world, you’ll find hexes. These can be single or linked ones, which you can fit into the aforementioned grid. Some of these will unlock skills while others will provide buffs or wyrmling powerups. You’ll have limited space to fit these in, and sometimes you simply want to swap things around to get better combos. You can only have a set amount of active skills, and you must connect hexes correctly to make use of buffs or to level up your skills. It’s pretty much a big puzzle you have to commit yourself to once in a while to optimize your build. Sadly, the overview isn’t that amazing on console, and this is one of those mechanics that just feels so much better with keyboard and mouse. Even so, when all your chosen parts align, and you can plow through the clutter in your inventory, it’s a rather satisfying system. Even though the general gameplay loop is very satisfying, the combat does feel a bit repetitive and basic at times. While not necessarily uncommon for the genre, we found some of the available skills a bit too limited at times, and as you are dependent on finding skills out in the wild, you might not always be able to build your character according to your playstyle. Nonetheless, it’s a blast to take our huge groups of enemies with interesting combos. Dragonkin’s minions scale to your level, so you will not feel very strong or overpowered when having to revisit certain parts of the world. As you level up via combat or completing quests, you can upgrade your stats (and your Wyrmling when it levels up), to gain passive bonuses. Conclusion Dragonkin: The Banished is a capable action RPG, but it does feel a bit bland at times, and inventory and skill management feel a bit clunky on console without a proper overview. Luckily, the combat is enjoyable, figuring out skills and buffs to place on the hexagonal grid is satisfying, and having some freedom over your stats is also a nice way to create some character diversity. While still rough around the edges in some areas, with a few updates along the lines, this one could be a great title. As it currently stands, Dragonkin: The Banished is really enjoyable and certainly worth checking out, but it misses a certain something to make it an iconic entry in the genre.