It wasn’t entirely clear what the gameplay was going to be, but it looked fun and it was co-op; and worst-case-scenario we could just un-install it. So we downloaded it to be able to play the next day when it came out.*

A couple quick disclaimers before we dive in:

For one, as an Amazon Associate, if you decide to make a purchase through a link here, I may earn a small commission. It’s at no additional cost to you, and helps out the blog.

Additionally, I lay it all out there as I’ve played it, so if you’re sensitive to spoilers, read at your own risk. Thanks, and hope you enjoy!

Starting Out

We locked in our characters and their names, and dove in to the game.

A “Lighter” Diablo?

It’s almost impossible to talk about this game without talking about Diablo because there are so many similarities. There are a lot of comparisons here, so if you’re familiar with Diablo, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

It’s online, so you’ll see other players running around as you’re doing the same. This was pretty unexpected, and I was thrown off when I tried to name my character simply “Ice” and it was “taken”… I didn’t realize I needed to come up with a “username”.

I didn’t love that I had to do that, so I just made something random & dumb — and did the same nomenclature with the GFs character’s name. Ended up going with Icethedragon for me and Saiyathedragon for her — y’know, because she’s a Saiyan. In hindsight, I should’ve gone with ITalkGames, but, hey, can’t go back.

Story & Character

For centuries, the people have been at war with the monsters that live in the land. They longed for more, though, and eventually built a city based on knowledge and not war — the city of Numbers. It was protected for a while, and society was largely thriving.

After a while, the monsters managed to blow up the barrier that guarded the city, killing thousands, and overrunning it. The people left and were able to survive by creating their society built into the side of a Belfry — which is a giant bell tower with a windmill on top.

In Towerborne, when people die they’re sent to The Ebb. And due to whatever damaged the city protections, the boundary between their world and The Ebb has been weakened. Harnessing the power of a mirror, though, there’s a person who’s able to pull souls from “The Ebb” who are willing. These souls are the souls of Aces, which is what you play as. And as Aces, it’s our job to keep the monsters at bay.

Character Creation

The open-endedness of the main character means that you can create your own Ace to play as. And as I mentioned earlier, the customization options are fairly in-depth. The body types are just Masculine or Feminine, and there are 8 voice options (largely for grunting and exclaiming). But the face is where it really opens up.

You’re able to customize pretty much all of the facial elements, and for some (like eyes) you can even get as detailed as adjusting sliders to really dial in the look you want. It’s definitely more of an anime style, so you’re not going to be able to look exactly like yourself, if that’s something you want.

That said, if you enjoy creating a character and giving them a unique look, there are a ton of options and a lot to like here. I will say that the facial hair options leave a bit to be desired. It was because of that that I decided to make a more interesting-looking character rather than one that looked like me — I couldn’t fine facial hair that I liked.

Classes

Instead of picking a single race or class for your character, there’s 4 archetypes you can choose from and switch between freely:

• Sentinel – the sword-and-shield fighter that can block and parry
• Pyroclast – wields a a stick that they can both beat enemies and shoot them with, causing Burn
• Rockbreaker – the boxer, who uses giant gloves to pummel their enemies
• Shadowstriker – an assassin that uses dual daggers to quickly dice their opponents.

Like I said, you can switch between these freely. So if you don’t like your current playstyle, you don’t have to create an entirely new character in order to try out something new. Each class does level independently, though, so you’ll have to take a bit of a step back when switching between them.

At first, I did try to level mine up uniformly — switching to a new class every 3 or 4 levels — but it got tedious. And, since I’m playing with my girlfriend, we’ve decided to stagger the leveling of our characters so it can be done quickly. When she decides to switch it up, I’ll carry her low-level characters in higher-level, well, levels, so she’ll get that much more XP. And vice versa.

Gameplay

When you’re thrown into the game, you’re given a short tutorial on how to fight, jump, dodge etc., and then you’re taken to the Belfry. The Belfry is the main “base” area of the game, and is where you collect and turn in missions, upgrade your gear, things like that.

In the beginning, you’re introduced to a few of the main characters. And through the first couple of quests that they give you, it introduces you to the gist of what’s going on. I will say that at first, even with the introductory missions, things weren’t extremely clear. I had a hard time figuring out where to go, and more than once I found myself in the completely wrong area. But after a couple missions you get the hang of it and it all falls in to place.

Map & Exploration

It’s pretty interesting the way they’ve gone about exploring and finishing quests, and I kind of dig it. You interact with the “map” to go out in to the world, but the world is made up of several hexagonal tiles.

You stand on, and interact with, the tile in order to start the mission or obtain the item. And you can pretty clearly see what you’re getting in to before you start a mission or objective. You’re shown the recommended “Gear Score” that you should be in order to complete it; and if you’ve advanced beyond the first area, you can choose the “Danger Level” before you start, but I’ll get to those later.

Some of the tiles can only be completed once — in fact, most of them can only be completed once. Doing so is how you’re clearing out the area of Monsters and making the Belfry a safer place. That said, there are a few tiles with repeatable events — and the “boss” areas in each biome are repeatable — so you can always go back to level up your characters.

Equipment & Items

Like Diablo, as you complete missions and clear out areas (in the form of the tiles) you collect various items — weapons, armor, and resources to enhance those. The weapons and armor come in various tiers and rarities, with common+ items also granting additional bonuses.

These bonuses run the gamut from increasing your crit rate or damage, to causing a status effect (like Bleed or Poison). Or even increasing the amount of health you have and granting regen. Again, if you’re familiar with Diablo, this will be right up your alley.

I brushed on it earlier, but each weapon and piece of armor grants a Gear Score. The higher tier, and more-rare items grant higher Gear Scores (naturally). This is done in a bit more simplistic way than Diablo (if I may continue the comparisons) where each tier and rarity of item grants the same Gear Score, rather than them being individually rated.

So for example, all T2 Rare (blue) pieces of chest armor are going to increase your score by the same amount, no matter what the power itself is. It definitely streamlines the decision-making process and I might say I prefer it this way.

Don’t worry, yes there are armor sets as well. These are how you take your character to the next level. By equipping the correct number of items within the same set, you’ll get additional bonuses on top of what’s already granted by each item individually.

Sometimes they’ll grant health bonuses, sometimes they’ll grant strength bonuses for yourself and your teammates, sometimes they increase the power of a move or move-type, and more. This is something that I love, and I’ve spent hours in various dungeons trying to complete sets in other games. I can definitely see myself doing the same here.

Danger Levels

In the beginning when you interact with the map, you’ll notice that you’re restricted in how far you can go. Near the borders where you can’t progress are numbers; and those numbers are the Danger Levels you have to reach in order to get there.

In order to progress to the next Danger Level, you have to pass a trial. The Danger License Trial can only be done solo, and it’s a challenge to defeat groups of enemies within a certain amount of time. If you pass, you move on to the next level. It’s a pretty unique gameplay mechanic that I haven’t seen before, and I like what they’ve done there.

The additional skills do things like increase the strength and type (poison, burn) of your attacks, and add bonuses to other attacks and combos. They also will allow you to have better defense — recover from knockdowns faster for example — and will increase the benefits of life potions.

There are several different skills in each group, and you can mix and match your skills at any time. There’s no penalty for de-selecting a skill, you don’t have to pay anything to re-map your moves, and you don’t get fewer skill points back than you spent. You can feel free to experiment with any sort of combination and switch it up on the fly.

I’m not gonna lie, I have issues making decisions sometimes. And when I’m playing something like Diablo, it can get overwhelming. And sometimes, I end up spending more time making sure my skills and equipment are in sync than I do actually using my skills and abilities. Here, I can pick and choose with ease, so I don’t have to worry as much about it.

Umbras

In addition to your own skills and abilities, you also have an Umbra that follows you around wherever you go. They’re also souls that have been pulled from The Ebb, and they take the form of (honestly, adorable) “pets” that follow you around.

And while they may be cute, they can really turn the tides when fighting monsters. Each one does something different, from shooting a projectile to dropping a bomb, or even supporting you with health increases; and you find them as you’re exploring the world. It’s a nice addition, and you can use them in fun ways to devastate your enemies.

Combat

All of that leads in to the “meat” of the game: fighting. Combat is fun and pretty satisfying, and I haven’t even found a legendary item yet. What I mean by that is (if it’s as I’m expecting) the Rare items are great, but there’s a significant shift with the abilities of the next tier up and beyond. And sets at those levels are where the “Thor showing up to the Infinity War” vibes really start to come in. I haven’t even gotten there, and I’m still liking it.

It’s largely combo-based, with a Light Attack and Heavy Attack (X and Y respectively on Xbox). And pressing them in certain sequences produces different results. And as you add additional skills, different variations and bonuses can be applied to your combos. There’s also both a Focus Meter and a Weapon Meter, which fill as you fight, and can be spent to execute the additional skills you can equip. There’s a good variety of moves for each class, and I’m excited to find out the different combinations I can make.

When your attacks connect with enemies, it’s pretty satisfying — it’s pretty good about making you really feel the hits. And you can definitely feel your strength increases when you start to eviscerate weaker enemies. It’s largely melee — there’s the Pyroclast class can shoot a bit, and there are some skills that let you occasionally attack from afar. But by-and-large, you’re going to be up-close to your enemies attacking them.

I typically like to play as a bit of a stand-back, attack-from-afar, mage-type character, and I’m kind of glad that that’s not even an option here.

Enemies

There’s a good variety of enemies, too, so you need to stay on your toes. There’s enemies that block (which you have to break to really damage them); there’s spear-wielding enemies that charge at you; there’s bombers, which you have to be really careful of — but if you get to them in time, they’ll blow themselves up, and more. Not to mention the bosses with stronger hits, and attack patterns that you have to memorize to defeat them. I’m continually surprised coming across new enemies, and each one gives a unique challenge in how to approach them and take them out.

I do want to point out that because of the side-scrolling 3D aspect of the game, missing your attacks is relatively common. You can be standing right next to the enemy, but technically slightly behind them… maybe..? so your attack won’t register. That can be pretty infuriating, especially when you use a focus attack or something that uses a resource that you have to wait to replenish.

All-in-all, attacks are gratifying, the enemies are challenging, and it makes for a rewarding leveling and looting experience.

Skins, Cosmetics, Stickers & Emotes

In addition to unlocking more, and better, armor; there’s also a plethora of cosmetic options that can be unlocked, too (and it seems to be a pretty significant part of the game (of course)). One thing I like, already, is that a lot of these cosmetics seem to be accomplishment-based, and not monetary-based¨.

I have no idea what some of the later-game outfits and skins look like right now, but I’m excited to find out. And I really like that you have to pay attention to the side missions and actually go for them in order to attain these items. Like going for Dark Matter in Call of Duty. When people see what you’ve got on, they’ll know that you’re elite.

Other than COD or Diablo, none of the other games I’ve played does this well. Typically, if there are cosmetics to be earned, they can also simply be bought. And there’s often no indication of which was which. I really prefer it this way, and hope more games do it this way in the future (looking at you GTA VI).

Overall, if you want something a little less intense, and a little less in-depth than diablo, then you’ll definitely want to give this a shot. It’s great. It’s relatively lighthearted and fun, but there’s still a ton of customization and move combinations. And with the different classes and moves to try, alongside the cosmetics and emotes that can be unlocked, there’s a near endless number of things to keep you engaged and coming back for more.

Thanks for reading! Have you played Towerborne yet? Let me know in the comments what your favorite playstyle has been so far. If not, give it a shot on GamePass. And make sure to come back soon for more gaming content!

The post Towerborne – Satisfying Side-Scrolling Brawler/Looter appeared first on I Talk Games.