Think of a game like Age of Empires and mix it with waves of enemies like a zombies match from Call of Duty. This is where Becastled from Mana Potion Studios comes into play. With a new way of looking at a real-time strategy game will you be able to survive the long nights and defeat waves of enemy forces? Find out in our preview below.
New RTS titles always take a little bit of getting used to. Becastled is no different in this fact. It took me about ten minutes to figure out one key that you will want to know early. How to build in adjacent areas. The main thing is building a lumberyard so that you can begin harvesting resources. Once you have enough then you have to physically click into the adjacent blocks and then purchase them. Then, and only then can you move buildings and defenses into these areas. This is the key to most of your building needs. This is a definite change to how I normally play RTS, but it is simply an addition to the normal systems in other games. Similar to Age of Empires, you are required to build homes to create villagers however, you only get one villager per house. Keep that in mind. It makes it a bit more difficult when you are starting out but it works better over time. I will say the music is good and the game mechanics do seem solid at this point in development.
Another good note about this preview version is the number of units and buildings that have been entered into it. From what I can tell I have seen most of them to this point. Each building produces different units for battle or construction allowing you to expand your castle into new regions while defending it from enemy forces or wild animals. With so many options to build up your village, there will be no shortage of the style of game you want to play. Each battle that I have played so far has had a fifteen-day time limit that you can fight through but you can have anywhere from ten days up to an unlimited amount. This is all dependent on how long you want to play for. The longer you play the harder the enemies become each night.
I get that this title is brand new in the early-access realm but, I feel like there should have been more to do before releasing it like this. The problem with new games nowadays is that developers release them with a lot of hope for the future and without enough content to keep people happy. Don’t get me wrong I love where this game is already going, however, I feel that if we had had at least one more element from the list of developments coming that it would have been better from the start. One or two missions in a campaign mode with some actual story to progress through would have made this even two times better than just playing the same mode over and over to see what differences you can get with map type and randomization.
Overall, Becastled’s page states that their early-access timer for full release is one to two years. I don’t feel right now that there is enough in it to purchase right now unless they add something in the next month or to the story or something campaign-wise. I like the premise and the mechanics of this title and I hope to relook at it again in the coming months to see what has changed going forward. It is 14.99 USD right now on Steam so if you want to get access now while it is cheap and try it out then I say go for it. At some point, this will cost more based on additions made to it.
Note: Our copy was previewed on Steam with a code provided by PR.
