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Quantic Dream, the studio known for rich storytelling games like Detroit: Become Human, announced something totally different last month. Spellcasters Chronicles is a competitive 3v3 action-strategy game that promises to have an element of ongoing storytelling. And the game just announced that it's entering a closed beta from Dec. 4-7.
Spellcasters Chronicles follows the general mold of a multiplayer online battle arena game like League of Legends: Your team battles along three lanes, with player-controlled characters helping waves of computer-controlled minions as they push toward objectives ("lifestones") deep in enemy territory. Player characters have different classes and abilities, giving them defined strengths and weaknesses.
I got to play an early build of the game earlier this month to get a sense of the gameplay loop and the general vibe of Spellcasters Chronicles. The usual caveats apply: This is an early build of the game, so things were not optimized, features may change, and so on. I should also be clear that one or two matches played is not a lot of material to judge by, so I'll be focusing on the broad strokes.
Based on a quick match-and-a-half, here are the three things I'm hoping the game changes.
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Surprisingly, we came back to win this.
Quantic DreamPut more action in the action-strategy
The match I played, which came down to the last dying seconds, felt like it was primarily decided by the two teams' strategic decisions more than individual plays. Our opponents summoned an early titan, a massive creature that helped them gain control of most of the map, but my team worked together to stop it before it could damage our lifestone (each team's most precious structure). We used that momentum to flip one of the lanes and ultimately destroy one of our opponents' lifestones.
At the end of the game, the other team made another push with a titan while one of our teammates was on a long wait to respawn. But we had stocked up on resources and were able to dump everything into eliminating the titan before it took out one of our lifestones, though we cut it pretty close.
Those big swings felt like they came down to our strategy, rather than relying on landing important shots or abilities, which is what I'd hoped to see in an action-strategy game like this. And deckbuilding elements of selecting ability cards to bring into the match, which were limited in our playtest, further swing the game toward rewarding strategy over moment-to-moment combat skill. That's certainly not unheard of for MOBA games, but I'd like the balance to shift more toward the action side, or at least somewhere more in the middle to reward great plays.
The existing action elements need some help
To be clear, the game does have action elements, but they probably need a little tweaking if Quantic Dream wants them to stand out. Flying around the map with dash abilities and raining spells down upon enemy summons were fun, and by far the most dynamic parts of the game, but other pieces of action came up a bit short.
The biggest thing for me was that it felt impossible to hit other spellcasters with primary attacks and abilities due to the travel time of projectiles and the small hitbox of the spellcasters. Maybe the struggles were particular to the spellcaster I was playing (the swamp witch), but about halfway through the game, I kind of just gave up on shooting at enemy spellcasters because I felt like a Death Star stormtrooper firing at Luke Skywalker. The swamp witch is listed as a duelist class, so I had hoped to feel more useful in 1v1s against other spellcasters.
Unlike traditional MOBA games, players have to manually summon minions, rather than having them automatically spawn from their base. This gives you some element of control -- you can pick which lane to spawn them in, and as you gain map control, you can spawn them further up the lane. But spending time summoning minions felt like a bit of a chore, even if it happens pretty quickly. There were times when I wanted to rotate to another lane, but I felt like I had to hold off in order to summon more minions in the area I was currently in. In fairness, the deck I selected was very heavy on minions rather than spells or other effects, so other builds might have a different experience, but that doesn't change the fact that the hands-on summoning process really slowed the game down for me.
Titans are enormous creatures that can swing a match, and battling them was among the highlights of my experience.
Quantic DreamThe art style is engaging and enjoyable, but visually, a bit hard to read
The game has a bright, vivid art style that makes spells and parts of the scenery pop. But sometimes, there was a little too much popping. I'm a veteran of Overwatch and Marvel Rivals, so I'm no stranger to a barrage of particle effects, but there were moments where I got totally lost in Spellcasters. Three casters barraging a titan with spells in front of a glowing lifestone can be pretty visually disorienting.
In the visual style of Spellcasters Chronicles, size is power. Ultimate abilities have enormous areas of effect, and the most powerful summons, titans, are kaiju-sized threats that stomp across the battlefield, demanding your attention. In general, I think that works, but when those large elements all cluster together, it's challenging to decipher what's happening.
Half of my screen is particle effects, making it difficult to follow the action of the game.
Quantic DreamWhat's next for Spellcasters Chronicles?
Spellcasters offers an interesting twist on a popular game type, and it's already doing some things right. Games run 25 minutes long, which helps dodge the classic MOBA pitfall of feeling trapped in unwinnable games or slowly grinding out a victory for 45 minutes to an hour. (Though 20 minutes might be an even sweeter spot.)
Seeing a titan lumbering toward your lifestone is appropriately thrilling, and summoning one feels nicely cataclysmic. It's one of the game's biggest strengths in the current state.
But I hope Quantic Dream spends some time tightening up the action elements and some of the visual clutter. The early state of the game probably wouldn't be enough to break into my rotation of other competitive games, but if spellcaster-to-spellcaster combat felt more consistent, and if the game depended a little more on landing shots and spellcaster abilities, it would be a more serious contender.
