Warhammer Chaosbane is an action RPG set in Games Workshop's Warhammer universe of table-top combat. Developed by BIGBEN and Eko Software, the game is inspired by Diablo, the true master of top-down dungeon crawling.
Chaosbane plunges players into the heart of the Old World, a continent marked by the Great War against the Chaos Army, a terrifying conflict that has decimated the Empire and many of its men. The Empire has managed to survive, but in a time of repair, the threat is still high.
The story guides you through some iconic Warhammer locations like Nuln and Praag. The environments give you a sense of destruction and disaster the war caused all across the land.
You can play the story as a Knight, Dwarf, Mage or Elf. Each character has a varying play style and each class has an intrinsic skill specific to that class. This creates dynamic team play and for some incredible moments with friends.
There are four playable classes you to pick from. The Imperial Soldier is the tank of the team with sword and shield in hand, the High Elf Mage is all about DPS and crowd control, and the Dwarf Slayer is your typical hack and slashes DPS barbarian. Wood Elves are more supports but have some very powerful moves for solo play.
The Knights has a shield bash that will stun enemies and regenerate over time. The Dwarf is a lot of fun to play as thanks to his axe hook which allows you to traverse the map and pull yourself to the hordes of enemies. The Mage has a teleport to help them adjust position from which to cast a barrage of spells, while the Elf offers more of a ranged combat role to get a safe distance and deal damage from afar.
Each class has its own Skill Tree where you unlock and improve skills as you level up. There is also a God Skill Tree that gives you passive buffs on top of your skills, gear and level. When playing solo the game does a good job of explaining most of this but there were a few times where I had no idea what certain things were for. When playing in a group the game does not give you the tutorials, which can also cause some confusion.
Multiplayer has up to four players joining forces, and the game promotes team play so well. Character skills and abilities complement each other, allowing for some impressive combinations and devastating effects on the battlefield.
Once you complete the game you can change character and start again with your crafting items and money intac. This will give you a nice boost at the start of a new character to quickly get you back to the action.
By the end of the game, you will also have unlocked all the modes the game has to offer. Expedition Mode is the best way to start a fast game, alone or with friends, in randomly-generated levels. Relic Hunt lets the player purchase a map from the Collector’s Guild in order to get access to a dungeon which offers several difficulty levels and lets players collect heroic gear. Meanwhile, Boss Rush sees you confront the campaign bosses as quickly as possible in order to test builds and gear.
Loot is, unsurprisingly, a major part of the game and boy, does it shower you in the stuff There are different types of chests in each level that provide loot, but you can also destroy enemies and environmental objects for a chance to nab some new equipment for your character.
There are 10 gear slots to fill and each piece can have different bonuses and stats. The system works well, great for the hardcore players who will want to min-max their gear and squeeze every attribute point, buff and bonuses they can out of their hoard. There's also the option to upgrade your gear with Fragments. You can also merge Fragments to then create new combinations to fit the skills or builds you may have.
The gear is not the most visually exciting thing on the map and at times can be easy to miss, especially when compared to the eye-catching flair that Diablo's loot drops have.
Although the game does a lot right there is still a lot it could improve on. The loading times on console are a bit tiresome but on PC it's bearable. If you're taking on the game with friends, the collectible energy used to charge up your super moves is generation is not instanced for each player, but is instead a free-for-all, meaning you will often find yourself competing with your allies in order to pick it up the quickest.
Some of the skills are hard to see when used in a horde of Chaos enemies. At times I was relying on button presses to know if I was completing my combos. This took away from the visuals a bit but these issues are all things the developers could work on. The game is very fun and as a Diablo veteran, I am excited to where they take Warhammer Chaosbane.
Warhammer: Chaosbane is out on Xbox One, PS4 and PC on June 4 2019, with Digital Deluxe and Magnus Editions releasing earlier on May 31 2019.
