Find out why this dungeon crawler is a pretty, but bland, take on the genre in Bloody Disgusting’s Warhammer Chaosbane review.
The Warhammer license has been used to make pretty much every type of popular game genre and type possible. There’s been Gears of War-type cover shooters, Left 4-Dead-style co-op shooters, and even a sports game. Some of these have gone on to be great in their own right while others end up being a pale pastiche of the games they mimic. Eko Software’s Warhammer: Chaosbane is closer to the latter, but does manage to be enjoyable to a degree.
You see, Warhammer: Chaosbane is essentially Diablo, and if you’re going to try and be like Diablo, you need a different approach to stand out (see last year’s charming Book of Demons). Quite brazenly Chaosbane is not only near-identical to its inspiration, but it’s also a weaker variant. Still, it isn’t without its charms.
For a start, it’s managed to blend the world of Warhammer with the world of dungeon crawling perfectly. Sure, it’s ready-made to slot into that game model when you think about it for more than a second, but to make that slotting comfortable is a whole other matter, and that’s exactly what’s been achieved here, and it looks pretty good for it too. Compared to many recent Warhammer games, Chaosbane is assuredly polished, running fairly smoothly and brimming with world detail. It’s not exactly struck with much in the way of imaginative visual flair, but it is at least easy on the eyes. Oh, and it isn’t afraid of a bit of blood and grime. It’s not overly gory, but there’s plenty of claret spilled as you chop down foul beasts along the way.
You start in a palace hub area, and can head off in one of several directions, either to take on the main quest, or one of the side quests on offer. It does the job as hubs go, and you learn a bit of story information here and there, but it’s not a particularly memorable place to hang about in.
You take one of four classes into the depths of Plague God Nurgle’s horde-based hell, and each is a named character, but customizable with the loot and treasure you find along the way (the dwarf character’s beard and tattoos pleasingly change depending on setup). They make up the typical class types, ranging from all-rounder tank attacker Sir Vollen (who has a trusty shield and a whopping sword) to magic-flinging Mage Elontir, and chances are if you have a particular type to play as, Chaosbane has what you need.
In co-op play (because it really did have to have co-op play) is where the different classes come together in interesting ways as you stack abilities in a tactical manner. When a team-up goes right, it’s a glorious and satisfying thing to watch. One character’s ability to amplify another makes for some interesting experimentations between the four, and the tactical depth of this is surprisingly high, and wonderfully simple.
A neat wrinkle to Chaosbane‘s combat, and probably the most distinctive aspect of its own making is the bloodlust system. The more dangerous enemies in Chaosbane drop blood orbs, and by collecting these long enough to fill up the bloodlust meter, you can unleash more powerful versions of your characters abilities, which shows both in damage and in visual changes.
As good as combat is, it’s a shame the dungeons, sewers, et al you go a-slaying in are so drably-designed and painfully unimaginative, it’s a waste of otherwise good Gothic Old World visuals to be slapped across something so boilerplate. Quests become increasingly repetitive and as you wind towards the endgame, it becomes very clear it’s not about to change gears. It’s damned further by not having a particularly interesting story or NPCs to interact with.
Chaosbane does, however, just about work well enough. If you’re looking for something to plow through with a friend or two, then it’s perfectly serviceable. It just doesn’t have that hook to keep you coming back beyond the endgame. That could change of course with updates, but in the here and now, it’s a dry, if enjoyable, imitation of a superior title.
Warhammer Chaosbane review code for PS4 provided by the publisher.
Warhammer Chaosbane is out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.