Today we have our hands on an RPG-Strategy hybrid, Conqueror’s Blade by Global publisher My.com and developer Booming Games, where you create a character who takes up the role of a warlord in a world struggling in constant war. This game is reminiscent of the Mount and Blade series and Bladestorm: The Hundred Years’ War. If you have taken a look at the trailers and are interested, let me tell you what you are in for. Spoiler: It’s not like the trailers, but that’s not a bad thing.
I was under the impression that I would be constantly making decisions about my fiefs, trade, armies, diplomacy, and all the other Total War good stuff. In actuality, the game centers on your character and you fill the role of warband leader. You can form your own house (or guild) or join another to take part in large scale battles with significant rewards. You pick one of 10 classes and rack up skills in a horizontal skill tree in a fairly easy and natural progression. I went with the longsword and shield, and I found that my skills weren’t plentiful, but they were effective.
Conqueror’s Blade gets interesting when you start commanding troops, and you unlock troop types through a billeting officer. He’s essentially the guy who knows how to recruit people for you. You can have a lot of different troop types, but you are limited to how many units you can bring to the battle scenario based on your leadership score and how much leadership the unit needs. I’m not sure if there are any troop counters, because everyone seems to be on equal footing with experience being the deciding factor. Luckily, if your troop counts are low, you can swap units from your roster at certain points on the map. In case you were wondering – when you die, you just respawn where you first started on the map.
There are quests, some with more story than others, and they offer copper coins, loot, and other rewards (like an experience boost or a unit blueprint). But this is mostly your story. You get to choose where you start and where you want to go. There are multiple regions, all of which have their own culture (Western and Eastern influences). You’ll also find that your troop types are not limited based on where you are travelling. You can get around with your own caravan, and you’ll notice you will need to keep your group supplied. I’ve played for a few hours, but I’ve mostly stayed put and used the battle finder to fight the AI with other players. In these battles, your objective is to take control of objective points to lower the influence bar of your enemy at the top of the screen. All the while, leaders and their troops storm the field and are looking for Rambo units to flank. I finished off my daily quests with a handful of battles that lasted less than 10 minutes each.
The only things that have grinded my gears were moments when my character got caught on random objects or even enemy units. If you get surrounded by mobs you might as well be ready to respawn, because there is no getting out of it. You can’t roll out of the way, you can’t jump out of there, and you definitely can’t fight your way out of there. Originally, I thought I was just bad, and it’s interesting that you can walk through your own units, but somehow the enemy foot soldiers are brick houses. I also don’t think the game properly knows what an assist kill is, because I am 80% sure I helped take out certain heroes. Or when someone kill steals the guy I spent the last minute fighting – I still didn’t get an assist. Do these things mean anything to your player reward? Yes, actually. The amount of coins you receive is partly dependent on how many units you destroy.
Regardless of my rage, Conqueror’s Blade is a fun concept. I enjoy being both my own character and an officer for my own mercenary group. You can walk around town just like in every other MMO, buy equipment as you level, and hone your skills as you unlock them. I think the game looks pretty good too, and it runs pretty well. The music is also pretty good, a sort of mix of medieval, oriental, war-drum conundrum type of beats. This has been my experience so far, but I already know there is so much more (I.e., travelling on the world map). It seems like a grind-to-win type of game, but I’ve always respected the merits in that. I think a fair rating for this title is an 8.5 out of 10. I would definitely recommend the experience.
Check Out the Conqueror’s Blade Trailer:
The Conqueror’s Blade Open Beta begins today. For more information, please visit here.
PC Review
I like to think of myself as the average Joe who grew up alongside video games. I have fun playing strategy games, RPGs, shooters, sandboxes, the whole shebang! Every game provides an experience whether it strikes you as profound, mundane, or someplace in between. I'd like to weigh in my two cents before you spend a single penny.
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