The main problem with Chaosbane isn’t the iffy voice acting, but rather the sense that there’s nothing here to wow you. I’ve heard bad performances before, although this isn’t really “bad” because I feel it’s a deliberate character trait, but by god it’s awful to listen to.īut I digress. Actually, I had seen it all before, because I needed to start a new character after around 2 hours because my original choice of Elessa, the Elf Ranger had such a teeth-shatteringly hateful voice that it was either start a new character or play the entire game with her muted. It’s definitely enjoyable enough to hack mindlessly away at hordes of enemy monsters, but for some reason I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d seen it all before.
It’s actually incredibly hard to quantify what is enough and understand fully why Chaosbane isn’t that, but at a certain point towards the latter half of Chapter 1, I started to realise that Chaosbane was lacking that certain something, and the feeling persisted throughout. But simply having the loop is, oddly, not quite enough. The core loop is certainly present: you kill enemies to earn loot and level your character up to wear the loot while unlocking or upgrading skills and abilities which make it easier to kill the enemies to earn the loot. As a human soldier, wood-elf ranger, dwarven slayer, or high elf mage, you’ll descend into catacomb after catacomb to obliterate the enemies gathered therein and pick up all the inexplicably precious loot they’re carrying. Which translates into lots and lots of hacking, slashing, looting, and levelling.
Only a year later, Magnus is attacked in his fortress at Nuln by a mysterious sect and left suspended, inert, in a magical forcefield that’s slowly killing him.Īs one of four veterans of Magnus’ war, and the unlucky sot who just happens to be standing in the throne room when it all kicks off, you’re selected by Witchhunter-General Voss and Magnus’ Elven advisor Teclis to unravel the mystery of the Emperor’s fate and free the world from the grip of Chaos. The story takes place predominantly in the Empire, Warhammer’s analogous melting pot of Renaissance-era European nations, that recently saw off an invasion by the forces of Chaos thanks to current Emperor Magnus, who rallied the forces of good and defeated the Chaos Lord. It’s more of a Diablo impersonator, in that it looks and sounds like Blizzard’s looter if you squint your eyes but if you stand too close you’ll spot the false nose and pair of socks stuffed down its trousers. The shorthand that’s been thrown around is that it’s a Diablo-clone the longhand is that “clone” is a bit of a strong word.
Obviously I’ve given the game away a bit with that spoilerific intro, but while it’s certainly not an instant hit, it’s not an instant fail either. Being the first action RPG loot-em-up set in Games Workshop’s Warhammer universe, Warhammer: Chaosbane should be an instant hit.
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