A perfectly acceptable Diablo-like for those looking to scratch an ARPG itch. Not amazing, but functional, and decent, which is why I'd recommend only purchasing when if it is on sale, as I have. The base game has its faults, particularly a relatively low enemy variety (lots of palette-swap cultists for whichever chaos gods' forces you are fighting), and lots of reusing the same environments in any given act. The game also lacks some of the 'visceral-ness' of diablo 3 that I had liked, with the large majority of enemies simply ragdolling to the floor when slain. I would have preferred more of my demon foes bisected by my dwarf slayer's axes than there were.

All that keeps it from being a recommendation at full price, but on sale, its a good way to spend several hours blasting through hordes of enemies.

Chaosbane is a isometric hack and slash ARPG (Diablo clone) set in the Warhammer (The Old World) universe. It has a modular skill tree which has a fair amount of customisation, but suffers heavily from reusing environment assets, mostly linier stage design, lack of enemies and holds back too many of its gameplay features until too late in the game to be useful (or interesting). I’d only recommend purchasing for diehard Warhammer fans (or for a super discounted price). This would comfortably sit with a average mark (for solo play) if steam supported it.

Story
Set 200 years before the end days, Chaos Everchosen Asavar Kul has been defeated by Magnus the Pious, and his chaos hoards scattered through the Empire. After a chaos sorceress curses Magnus in his throneroom in Nuln, you track down some of the cultists and start your adventure in the cities sprawling sewers. The story has you fighting champions of the all 4 chaos gods who are trying to unite the scattered hoards and become the next Everchosen, with each chapter being dedicated purely to one god. There’s a 6th chapter (the 5th is DLC) that has you investigating the gunnery school that has been taken over by a chaos cult (and is ½ the length of a regular chapter). The story does have some interesting turns (the Khorne semi boss) was memorable, as was the outcome of the Slaanesh boss fight, though the ending of the Thzeentch boss fight felt really rushed.

Gameplay
While being a diablo clone, the gameplay does significantly diverge from it and is based around casual, short missions where you have a set target, entry and escape path which take around 15-25 minutes to complete. While most of them are standard seek and destroy (eg kill a boss), there are a few timed rescue missions or mission where you have to find items to mix things up. As each chapter is set around a particular area or god there is significant environment asset re-usage, and the stages are fairly liner with usually a few paths for you to explore (usually with a treasure chest at the end).

Each character has a expansive skill tree, which is locked at the beginning but expands as levels are increased. There are multiple skills that generate energy, and other skills that consume energy. Each skill has 3 mastery levels (which provide different effects and damage outputs), is categorised as either a active or passive skill and costs points to equip. I found myself chasing certain skills and always being a few point shy of what I wanted to equip, or having too many passives and not enough active skills equipped, but it keeps gameplay interesting as you are constantly changing equipment and skills.

The initial difficultly level should be renamed from normal to cakewalk. All enemies (including bosses) barely put up a fight, and get destroyed fairly quickly as they rush to mob you. Combat can feel lacklustre, as you are essentially just holing down the attack button, and pressing one of the other buttons when required to use a energy consuming attack. It gets much more fun at the chaos difficultly levels, which is actually a challenge and required proper skill usage. The level limit is 50, however then you unlock legendary skills (which add a % to a buff you can freely select from).

Many of the games features come too late to the game, which is a major drawback. You can trade (sell) items to the vendor fairly early on, but don’t get to enhance equipment, use gems or trade gems until far too late into the game, at which point it makes little difference, and can’t purchase equipment at all. This include invasion modes, relic hunts and boss run fights, which would have been more fun if available earlier. These modes can be used to try and find better equipment (the game is generous with loot drops), though each mode costs gold coins (these are lost if you die in that mode).

Graphics
The not a lot to do in the hub areas, other than talk to a quest giver, drops items in your chest, or trade with the merchant (or enter a different game mode). Stages look nice (with tentacles and fleshy growths coming out of buildings), but are heavily reused and linier. Enemy skin re-usage is also rampant, and though each enemies has a few different skins, with the amount of enemies that mob you it doesn’t feel like enough. The enemy designs are good, and follow the tabletop game well- the towers of chaos (where every type of enemy exist together) makes it much more interesting. There is a 4K texture pack with does drastically improve the visuals for those running at higher resolutions. The character animation is good and everything you equip on your character’s changes. As you unlock rewards with the merchant, you get the options to set visuals for your character, which was neat.

Music
I thought the voice acting for the main characters (high elf Teclis), witch-hunter Voss, and in my playthrough Dwarf Slayer Bragi was ok, though there’s segments where I think it could have been slowed down. This seems especially noticeable for the narrator that sets the initial scene. Because of the small amount of enemy types you fight, most of the sound effects are demons screeching, or your hero constantly yelling their skills. The music is orchestra based, with lots of aggressive tone which suit the setting, and loop in the background.

Multiplayer
Supported, but not tested. I think the game would be quite fun with a party, and cranked up to a much higher difficulty.

Achievements
100% achievements requires a play through with each character (around 10 hours each), a significant amount of relic runs and a boss fight at harder difficulties. Not impossible, but does require some investment of time and maybe a party for the chaos 5 boss fight.

For more reviews please visit https://store.steampowered.com/curator/31327216/

neneää