Mages have made their mark on video games for a long time as secondary healers or damage dealers. This time the mages get the spotlight right upfront. Proletariat INC. has created Spellbreak as a battle-royale that pits mage versus mage in a massive environment. Different elements are available to make you feel like the wizard you always wanted to be. Find out a little bit more in our review of Spellbreak.
Battle royale games have been my favorite genre since I learned about PUBG. When I saw Spellbreak was an up-and-coming wizard battle royale I jumped right in and applied to test the game. While the alpha was basic, this title has evolved into more than it once was. Everything has gotten better, the scenery, attacks, and everything in between. The thing I love the most is all of the different elemental gear that you can equip to use different powers. I tend to main the Pyromancer but love the Frost Gauntlets as well. The best part of the gear is the tomes that allow you to manifest different powers. There is one that allows you to fly for a short time, one shoots you into a spinning upward motion to get away from your enemy, and others that allow you to temporarily see the outline of your enemies that are close to you. These help a lot in battle.
Easy to learn movement is always good in a game where you need to get right into the action. Basic shooter controls are the norm with WASD being your walking keys. Instead of using Q and E for strafing, these are secondary powers based on the gauntlets you are wearing. Mana is key for everything you do in Spellbreak. The main thing to remember is that you need to be careful when you are jumping around and fighting. If you haven’t upgraded your gear so that mana is more available then there may be problems in your future. In my first four games, I won three of the four with a total of 16 kills. Of those four matches, I had everything upgraded by the time I got to the end except in the fourth match. I was not able to gear up enough and got caught by a player who was more geared than I. Jumping and hovering in the air while trying to attack with magic causes severe loss of mana and then you take more time to regenerate before being able to attack again. With the wrong skills equipped you will not win the fight without a little luck.
Matchmaking is very simple. You select your main skill and then launch the game. There is a short waiting level while other players load in, with lobbies of thirty-two. This is the highest number I have seen and I wish it was more like fifty players per round. Once everyone is loaded up then you select the spawn point you want around the map, similar to Ring of Elysium. Forget the battle bus, forget the airdrop from the airplane and just drop from a portal in the sky. It is truly the only way to drop into a match.
After touching down on the battlefield you will begin to search for small, medium, large, and epic chests to open and claim all the awesome loot. There will be gauntlets, other armor pieces, potions, and armor uses. All of it is available if it is found. If the gear being worn is not good enough continue to look around or beat someone and take their gear. Once again gear is key and it will save your life. Then it is as simple as defeating all of the other mages and claiming victory for yourself.
Spellbreak is free to play though there are optional founders packs available. The code I received included some in-game currency for clothes and emotes and titles.
Overall, I really like how the game is coming along and I think it is moving in the right direction. The graphics are good, the mechanics are really good, and overall community play is pretty clean. There always seems to be enough people to fill a lobby. You can check it out for yourself by visiting the Spellbreak official site.
Note: Our copy was reviewed on Epic Games Launcher with a code provided by PR.
