Previews
[Preview] ‘Warhammer Chaosbane’ is a Polished Diablo-Style Dungeon Crawler, But Level Design Needs Work
The world of Warhammer goes dungeon crawling, but can it emulate Blizzard’s benchmark series? Discover why there’s a lot of potential for a grand game in Bloody Disgusting’s Warhammer Chaosbane preview.
In all fairness, the dungeon crawler genre has always seemed like a snug fit for Games Workshop’s fantasy Warhammer setting so it comes as little surprise that, even at this early juncture, Warhammer: Chaosbane is looking to do a commendable job of marrying the two together with savage aplomb.
The premise of Warhammer: Chaosbane is pleasingly simple. Those horrid Chaos-lads are at it again as they’ve decided that they want to batter everything that’s breathing in the world into a fine red mist. As the representative of an alliance of races comprising of Humans, Dwarves, High Elves and Wood Elves, you (and your buddies, if you have them) are tasked with putting magical swords/axes/arrows and spells into the faces of your grotesque foes with a view to driving them back to 90s Death Metal World forever and ever.
So far, so Diablo then really.
In the closed beta client that I had access to in order to author this preview, there were two different characters on offer; High Elf mage Elontir and Human imperial knight Konrad Vollen. Because I prefer the intimacy of ramming blades where they shouldn’t go into the anatomies of demonic evil-doers, I naturally elected to strap on my sword and shield as the good Sir Vollen.
With the entirety of the first act available (it *is* one of the more sizable betas I’ve ever got stuck into, that’s for sure), I was able to clock in a good three hours with the beta build of Warhammer: Chaosbane before all was said and done. The first thing you notice is just how polished everything is. From the easy to navigate menus, through to the detailed environments and the resolutely silky smooth 60 frames per second action that is a world away from the jerky, turtle-plod of recent franchise Diablo-like Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor Martyr, it’s clear that Chaosbane is already a very polished looking effort even this early on.
As to the core of the game itself, Warhammer: Chaosbane doesn’t appear to be making any big, genre-shattering moves at this point – preferring instead to closely follow the template established by Blizzard Entertainment’s dungeon crawling, magnum opus. With a camera that follows you from a roaming isometric perspective, you are tasked with carving and blasting your way through the Nurgle horde – a particularly unpleasant (and unkempt) branch of the series longtime Chaos antagonists.
It’s simple stuff too – a quick tap of a button executes a standard strike, while more exotic and damaging attacks can be mapped to other keys and pad buttons and chained into combinations with ease. Just like Diablo, Warhammer: Chaosbane also uses an energy system whereby those more powerful attacks consume varying amounts of energy which can, in turn, only be generated by hitting monsters in the face as hard as you possibly can, over and over again.
In case you find yourself overwhelmed and on a one-way trip to Beatdown Town, healing comes in the form of an infinite healing potion that when used triggers a cooldown, and so its use must be tempered well lest you find yourself without a pick me up when you need it the most. Speaking of pick me ups, should you succumb to a beastly beating, you can elect to resurrect yourself with shards that are found in plentiful quantity, or, elect to quit and return to the beginning of the dungeon.
Elsewhere, the progression system appears to be impressively layered. With a robust range of unlockable abilities and skills that can be plucked from a number of different progression trees, there is no shortage of incentives to keep pushing through the levels and crushing your enemies.
Supplementing the incentive yet further, on top of the regular skills, each class also has an archetype ability which defines their vocation. Our Sir Vollen, for example, fires out a magical shield that stuns enemies caught in its path for a few seconds, allowing for an easy set of kills. Finally, Chaosbane’s Bloodlust mechanic pretty much functions like the rage meter we all know and love – when it fills from collecting pockets of red matter, you can trigger it at any time and for a short period, your character morphs into an invincible and unrelenting tornado of face-smashing violence. Happy days.
Though supremely polished and a lot of fun to play, there are a few things that aren’t quite so appealing about Warhammer: Chaosbane at this point in time, too. The first of these is the level design. Though impressive to gawk at from a technical standpoint, Chaosbane seems fond of repeating huge sections of its play area from one quest to the next. Compounding this repetition is the revelation that roughly 85-90% of Choasbane’s first act takes place in that tried and tested introductory bastion of evil – the sewers, whereupon dull grey and mildly depressing green are the order of the day.
Then there’s the hub area. Whereas in Diablo III, you could wander around the Town of Tristram and speak to various folks, get an idea of the local flavor, chat to numerous vendors and even take on side-quests, Chaosbane’s hub area is, by comparison, rather limited to say the least. With just one vendor to speak to, no additional folk to really chinwag with and a seeming complete lack of side missions to get stuck into (which would hopefully *not* take place in the sewers), here’s hoping that this is merely a content issue which will be addressed in the final code.
Another issue, albeit a small one at this point, is how this game deals with loot and more pressingly, loot collection. Chaosbane has automatic loot equip, however, there is no option to enable automatic equip when you find better items, as instead, you need to go back into your menu each time to equip new gear. Yes, it sounds like I’m being a lazy bastard (and to an extent, I am admittedly), but when most other titles in the genre offer this feature as standard, its omission should be noted. Something for the final product or the inevitable day one patch, perhaps?
Further afield, destroyable barrels yield the usual sprinklings of gold and other minor loots one might expect, but anyone expecting the free-range, wholesale destruction of furniture and other elements of the environment as seen in Diablo III, will be disappointed. Though again, such nagging issues are ones that could be reflective of the current build status, rather than a systemic issue which will manifest in the finished product.
Based on this rather large morsel then, Warhammer: Chaosbane suitably impresses. It’s far more polished than I thought it would be, has oodles of satisfying combat and rounds it all off with decent loot and progression systems. Though not perfect on account of its level design and other minor seeming shortcomings, it still manages to confidently stake its claim as one of the most lustrous takes on the Warhammer license seen to date and I’m eager to see more, certainly.
Warhammer Chaosbane preview code for PS4 provided by the publisher.
Warhammer Chaosbane is out on PS4, Xbox One, and PC June 4, 2019. The beta is available now via pre-order.
The gaming world owes so much to David Lynch. “Twin Peaks” alone has inspired the premise and setting of so many games, from Deadly Premonition to Alan Wake, and its dreamlike tone is one that’s perfect for an interactive medium.
Silver Pines, the upcoming title from Swedish-based indie developer Wych Elm, is the latest in the lineage of Lynchian games, this time presenting survival-horror-style gameplay from a 2D perspective. While I’m not traditionally as hot on 2D games, after spending time with the demo, available now on Steam, I can’t wait to see more of this intriguing new world.
It starts out simple. After a brief, narrated dream sequence, you wake up in an empty diner in the small American town of Silver Pines. There’s a quick tutorial sequence that teaches you the game’s mechanics as you escape from the diner, followed by a phone call that sets up the premise of the game. You play Red Walker, a private investigator on the hunt for a missing musician named Eddie Velvet. It’s an elegant bit of exposition that’s delivered with a slightly dreamlike vibe, setting the tone for what’s to come.
As you begin to explore the titular town, you find it eerily abandoned, thanks to an evacuation order that’s caused the majority of the residents to take the ferry out of here. Empty streets and vacant buildings bring to mind Silent Hill, which is a great start in my book. There’s something really unique and special about small town horror like this, and Silver Pines is able to capture it immediately without feeling too much like a tribute act.
Navigating the Unique 2D World of Silver Pines
One of the things that impressed me immediately was how easy I found it to navigate the 2D space. Much like the indie classic Lone Survivor, you have a map that represents the space, and you turn down streets and hallways by pressing up or down at certain openings in the background to “turn” on the map. It seems like it should be incredibly difficult to follow directional shifts like this, but it becomes immediately intuitive, especially with the addition of diegetic signage that guides you without feeling out of place and handholdy.
I usually associate 2D games with more dynamic jumping and movement mechanics, but Silver Pines keeps things grounded, managing to find ways of creating navigation challenges without resorting to platforming tests that would feel out of place in a narrative like this. The map is particularly excellent in this game, as you can use a camera to add photos to it to help remind you what’s there. I love it when main characters mark up maps with locations of puzzles or items, and putting that power in the player’s hands was an interesting mechanical wrinkle that felt helpful and unique.
The other thing that gripped me from the start was the art style, which uses a slight cel-shading technique for the character models that makes them look hand-drawn. They really pop when compared to the backgrounds, which have a slightly different, but complementary, style to them. Wych Elm also shows off a masterful understanding of lighting, creating a shadowy look that’s never too dark to understand what’s going on.
The way the various layers of background and foreground give a parallax effect as you walk adds so much depth to every moment, making the imagery feel more dynamic. This game is treading familiar ground, with abandoned hotels and empty small town streets, but the unique look sets it apart enough to justify it among its peers.
Puzzles Balance Logic and Surrealism
Aside from just navigating the spaces, you’ll need to solve a variety of puzzles in order to progress. Many of them are just finding keys to open doors or figuring out which item is helpful in which situation, like an adventure game, but there were a few in the hour-long demo that gave me a level of satisfaction in actually figuring something out. Like the best survival horror games, the puzzles are an equal bit grounded in reality and slightly surreal, adding to the tone of the game. One of them gave me a Silent Hill vibe with its logic, asking me to win a BB gun shooting range mini game to get a pool key (which also teaches you how to use weapons).
While the game isn’t crawling with enemies, there are more threats scattered throughout the levels than I expected. Early on, you get a blade to defend yourself, which also acts as a key to cut through doorways blocked by cloth, and it’s just the right balance of effective and clumsy. There’s a surprisingly useful dodge that lets you slip past enemies. With the right timing, it’s not too difficult to survive one-on-one encounters, but it’s also not so easy that you can go on autopilot. Once multiple enemies get into the mix, it starts feeling more desperate, forcing you to make smart use of your stamina and weapon durability to survive.
A pistol gets introduced late in the demo, and that also felt surprisingly punchy, but its power was balanced smartly by limited ammo. One of my favorite gameplay elements of survival horror is ammo management, and it seems like Silver Pines is going to make that a core part of its combat experience, asking you to think carefully about which enemies are worth your precious bullets. This is further complicated by the fact that your gun can also be used to shoot padlocks to access previously locked areas, making it an even more valuable resource.
Enemy Design is the Demo’s Biggest Question Mark
Ammo and tape will be crucial to the continued use of your gun and knife, respectively, and there’s a quick little minigame for reloading and repairing that adds some tension to encounters. In addition to scavenging for resources, there was a vending machine I ran across where I could spend money to buy ammo or health kits. Be careful, though, the money is what you use to save at the payphone save points, so you don’t want to spend it all. It’s a clever variant on the classic Resident Evil-style ink ribbon system that makes your resource for saving a more abundant currency, but one that is used for more than just saving.
There were a couple of mementos that I ran across while exploring, and these can be equipped to provide specific character modifiers. I’m not entirely sold on the system yet, as there weren’t enough in the demo to really be able to craft a meaningful build, but with the surprisingly fun combat I’ve seen so far, I’m hoping that they will allow you to shape your playstyle in a way that’s tuned to how you like it. Any new wrinkles on combat are welcome, as it will need to find ways to keep fresh if it wants to stay compelling throughout.
As much as I think the combat is responsive and interesting, I think the enemies might be the weakest part of the game’s identity. This could also be a symptom of just seeing the early game, but so far, they are a bit more indistinct than I’d like, consisting mostly of shadowy people and bugs that didn’t have much going on. There was a boss fight that had a bit more of a menacing design, but I don’t know enough about the full shape of the narrative yet to see if the enemy design is in sync with the tone it’s trying to achieve. Right now, they just feel a bit generic, but I’m hoping things improve as it goes on, because they are pretty fun to fight for a survival horror game.
A Strong First Impression
Back to the opening thoughts about Lynch, the part that has me most interested in this game is the narrative. It’s simple so far, but there have been some surprisingly effective surrealist sequences that make me think this story is going to be something that will sink its hooks into me. One of the coolest moments of the demo involved turning off a light switch and being transported into an entirely different space, one dripping with dreamlike vibes. Even the choice to have the person you’re searching for be a musician adds a nice bit of texture to the narrative, putting a thematic focus on the game’s music in an important sequence involving a performance.
The cutscenes shift to a distinct painterly style, making them stand out without having to animate them, and it’s all brought to life with great voice acting. There’s even a little show you can watch in bits on TVs you pass, feeling a bit like a nod to Alan Wake II’s “Night Springs”.
I’m going to be honest, watching the initial trailer for Silver Pines had me feeling a bit sceptical. Not everyone can nail that Lynchian vibe, and when you try for that tone and miss, it can leave you with a narrative that’s either confusing or pretentious. Based on my hour with Silver Pines, I’d say they are on the right track, ready to deliver a surrealist narrative that draws from its inspirations while still carving out its own identity.
No word on the release date yet, outside of a vague 2026 timeframe, but I’ll be there day one to check it out.
Silver Pines is scheduled to release on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
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