Guilds of Delenar – Steam Early Access Preview

Guilds of Delenar - Steam Early Access Preview

When I was a wee green grasshopper trying my hand at Warcraft 3 and frequently failing, I used to wonder how cool would it be if the units or other Heroes could be controlled by other players to apply complex strategies or even more timely tactics. In my time in World of Warcraft, I saw that wish granted… in a “monkey paw curls” kind of way. Seeing my raid fall to the same mechanic time and again or people decide not to show up on time, I inwardly bemoaned the inability to take control of some of my party members to show them how it’s done. But what if you could do both? Enter Guilds of Delenar by Batholith Entertainment, a strategy with turn-based combat and hefty RPG elements, currently in Steam Early Access.

Characters & Progression:

As a guild leader of a group of adventurers, it is up to you to shape your motley crew into an unstoppable force of valiant heroes by creating a party of five characters, taking on mobs, rival guilds and quests, getting sweet sweet loot and leveling up! The game features four races (Human, Elf, Dwarf and Goblin) and five classes: warrior, paladin, rogue, cleric, and wizard, each of which has their specific strengths and weaknesses.

You can get experience by completing quests or bashing various mobs or representatives of other guilds of the region – no judgment. Once your characters level up, you will get talent points to spend across three unique paths. For example, your Warrior can choose to spend his or her points in Onslaught, Steadfast or Commander specializations while a Mage has access to Fire, Ice and Arcane. You can mix and match your points to your heart’s desire.

The class of your character decides their combat abilities and what kind of loot they can equip: no heavy-armored double-wielding mages here, this is not Skyrim!

Combat:

Guilds of Delenar features turn-based combat. The order in which the characters take their turns is based upon the Speed characteristic. Each character is given three action points once it’s their turn to battle. Movement and skills take a certain number of points. If you find that you need to move closer to the enemy, you might not be able to attack during that turn at all or only use an auto-attack.

Once the combat is done, you can take your characters back to the Guild Hall to heal up and dig through the loot (the latter doesn’t require going back to your base and can be done in the field).

Graphics & Sound:

The game features hand-drawn charming graphics in a cartoon-like style. The visuals of your characters change when you swap out their gear. For example, equipping a helmet actually shows it on your character’s paper doll and in-game model. The animations are a bit robotic, but it adds to the game’s charm.

The soundtrack can be best described as “nothing special”. It is there but you also start tuning it out couple hours into the game. All melee attacks sound the same, the music is kind of same-ish as well and is not memorable at all.

https://youtu.be/OUkg_FyBqBY

Conclusion: 

Guilds of Delenar is a fun small game that combines a fair share of management with turn-based combat and RPG elements such as loot, talents, etc. It is up to the player to bring fame to their guild by tackling quests, defeating members of other guilds, earning gold, upgrading the guildhall and more.

In Early Access, the game features a small selection of characters and races as well as same-ish quests: go, kill, come back. The developers promise to add more of everything to the game once it reaches the full release: more levels, more classes (the team said there will be 10+ as opposed to current 5), as well as more talents, skills, story, UI elements, gear, systems, etc.

Pros:

  • Fun & easy to get into
  • Mix-maxing your characters with loot and talents
  • Nice mix of management with RPG

Cons:

  • Repetitive quests
  • Lack of character customization
  • The story is very basic
  • The soundtrack could use work
  • No archers 🙁

Similar to: Adventure Manager

Check out the game’s Steam page to find out more.

Written by
A lover of all things RPG and TBS, Catherine is always looking for a new fantasy world to get lost in.

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