Senshudo TV went hands on with Battlecry Studios (a subsidiary of Bethesda and Zenimax Online) first game title; Battlecry at E3 2014!
Battlecry is a free to play mutliplayer action/combat game with a heavily stylized art form that takes inspiration from Japanese paper art. At first glance, Battlecry appears to be a different version of other games like Team Fortress 2 mixed with SMITE but once you dive into the game you realize it has many unique characteristics and twists that make it stand out on its own.
Battlecry takes place in an alternate version of Britain, where technology is key and during the last great war, a Gunpowder Treaty was signed and put into effect, making the use of gun powder illegal. The two factions of the games, The Britains and the Cossacks, had to re-strategize and build new weapons based on bows and arrows, crossbows, and energy. It is a really interesting spin on the genre and gives it another standout feature from other similar games.
During the two matches we got to play, we saw the two factions of Battlecry and the three Warrior Classes on each side. Two melee characters (Warrior and Rogue) and one ranged character (Ranger) were shown during the demo. The Warrior class is a huge melee damage class with attacks designed to deal as much damage as possible while the Rogue class is designed for more stealthy/sneaky combat. I did not have a chance to try the Ranger but a few people around me noted it was hard to control/aim with the bow and arrow or crossbow.
Combat is fast paced and fluid, with the ability to free-dodge anytime you wish and jump/double jump to avoid incoming attacks. Each attack on your bar needs to be charged over time so you have to plan your hits accordingly and know just when and how to strike your opponent.
With the game being in early alpha, I can forgive the lack of depth that I felt during the demo. The developers assured us that there will be more content in the live game and that there will be more classes of warrior announced in the coming months. Still, I couldn't help but feel during the demo that this game will rely heavily on teamwork and its hard to get teamwork going with a room full of journalists who have all just met to work together on a game they've never played before but I'd like to think we did our best!
Overall, Battlecry has a lot of potential. It isn't slated for release until 2015 with a beta coming sometime near the end of the year. I'm really looking foward to what they have in store for the game over the long run!
As always, be sure to keep your device locked onto Senshudo TV for all the latest Battlecry news!