Among the best-announced RPGs, new brands and items that no one had heard of a year ago stand out above all. The genre is slowly evolving, but rest assured – there will be a few familiar-sounding titles for old-timers, too.
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Forspoken
Realia: Fantasy
Manufacturer: Luminous Productions
Platforms: PC, PS5
Forspoken is a sandbox RPG set in a classically understood fantasy land, but using a novel approach to gameplay. The protagonist is a young girl – Frey Holland – who has been magically transported directly from contemporary New York to a world in crisis. An enchanted bracelet talks to her, suggesting to the woman how to use her new skills. And these are in abundance. Frey doesn’t so much run, as she rides across the beautiful land, like the fastest cars of the 21st century. On top of that, she jumps sky-high distances, performs acrobatics in the air reserved only for anime characters, and spectacularly fights enemies.
The game has been perfectly soundtracked. Noteworthy is not only the atmospheric soundtrack but also the expressive sounds, as well as excellent dubbing. No matter what language you hear, it will let you feel like you’re in a great show that you don’t want to leave anytime soon!
Dark Envoy
Realia: Steampunk
Manufacturer: Event Horizon
Platforms: PC, PS4, XOne, PS5, XSX/S
Dark Envoy’s predecessor, Tower of Time, turned out to be one of the biggest surprises of the independent RPG market a few years ago. And it was hard to believe that only 11 people were responsible for the production of such a title, polished in every way! Now that the Event Horizon studio has deservedly succeeded in achieving, at least in the European market, serious status, things look even better.
So fans of the spin-off and sequel in one will no longer have to limit themselves to exploring the title tower as in the “one”, and thanks to the ability to move around in an air vehicle, we will visit many more places or less important to the main plot.
This time the choices we make are supposed to be even more significant in the context of the whole journey, and the consistent steampunk scenery will remind us every now and then what kind of world we are in. The Earth will be defended from the collapse of civilization by Kaela (but not the same one from the studio’s previous game), but also Malakai. One thing is certain – real-time tactical combat, despite the rather high level of difficulty, should give any at least slightly experienced player a great deal of satisfaction, and after what the Gdynia studio showed a few years ago, we can be sure of an unconventional storyline.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
Realia: Fantasy, ancient China
Manufacturer: Team Ninja
Platforms: PC, PS4, XOne, PS5, XSX/S
On the promotional materials Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty even shocks with graphical waterworks. The atmosphere changes significantly depending on where you are at the moment, and clashes with demons are a real macabre masterpiece. What’s more, the developers decided to use Chinese martial arts, rarely really used in other games of this type (unless in a heavily Europeanized version).
The first promotional materials indicate the extraordinary care with which an effort has been made to convey the reality of an alternative timeline of ancient China. And it must be admitted that, as a result of the creators’ efforts, the demon invasion during the late Han Dynasty does not seem so unusual at all. Well, just another danger, which has to be faced by the last members of the family (indirectly) and soldiers fighting for the security of the Middle Kingdom (already quite directly).
The clashes are geared toward the player’s skill. Of course, sufficiently high statistics can help, but they are no substitute for mastery of weapons. We can activate supernatural powers only when we kill enough demons and increase our confidence factor. However, it is worth remembering that, by design, they are only meant to assist the fighter, not to replace real struggles.
Diablo 4
Realia: Infernal fantasy
Manufacturer: Blizzard Entertainment
Platforms: PC, PS4, XOne, PS5, XSX/S
Diablo III was awaited with bated breath by all fans of the first two parts. And – truth be told – despite the years-long delay, they could be satisfied with the game that Blizzard produced. Mechanically and audiovisually, it succeeded in bringing the cult hack-n-slash series into the 21st century. Thanks to this, new players – those who, for various reasons, missed the releases of the first two parts of the series – could also get acquainted with this title. However, the worst rate after the release was the atmosphere of the story itself. The most ephemeral thing, yet it is well visible in the colorful locations, the cheerful accents of the music, or the difficulty of the game. Thus, this title could be rated very highly…. if only it wasn’t a sequel to Diablo. And so the players have left to mod the game, return to the aging roots or wait…. The latter turned out to be such a good choice that next year we will finally welcome the fourth installment of the series. This time it is expected to be decidedly darker and more difficult, as heralded by promotional materials. If the game manages to maintain the atmosphere from the trailer, we can rest assured about the quality of the whole thing.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn
Realia: Post-apocalypse
Manufacturer: Aurora44 / A44
Platforms: PC, PS4, XOne, PS5, XSX/S
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is an action RPG maintained in an unusual atmosphere. For we find ourselves in a world that barely survived a magical apocalypse. Or rather, a mythological one. After all, the dormant gods, having come back to life, found that the intelligent civilization on their planet didn’t like it very much and threw it to the hordes of the undead. Doesn’t sound optimistic, does it? That’s why the whole style of the game, including the music track, is not particularly uplifting.
The strength of the game, however, is the anger and desire for revenge of the main character, Nor Vanek. As one of the rebels, she faces her enemies in an unequal battle of numbers. Although it is almost impossible to kill all the creatures, the survivors want to close the Door of the Beyond and try to take revenge on the gods, even though they cannot predict what specifically awaits them.
The fight that Nor Vanek is waging is, in her rendition, so much easier than the struggles of her fellows, because she is accompanied by Enki – a somewhat fox-like creature, wielding powerful magic. The key to winning successive clashes is the use of combinations of blows, powers, and dodges, often in correlation with Enki’s support. An item only for the truly patient.
