PG 18 rated game

Humans vs vampires deathmatch

Team based action multiplayer game

Game set in the world of “Legacy of Kain” series

Game state: open beta (with new content coming every now and then)

Game size: around 6.5 gb

Game page on Steam

Note: I am playing on lowest possible graphic because my pc has a bit of a problem running the game (probably because of my bad graphic card, but not sure) so have that in mind when you look at in game screenshots.

Content of this review:

Note: This is a long review, and half of it is describing every class, their role and their abilities. If you don’t have the time to read all of it, I suggest you to skip classes part. You can jump to every part of the review clicking on one of the links above.

Story time According to Steam, I spent 75 hours playing this game. Most of the time I played it was over a year ago, back in closed beta. I even stalked all of the small streamers on twitch who were playing the game at the time, because most of them were giving away the keys for closed beta. After few weeks of stalking I finally got myself a key from one German streamer who later became one of my friends. Often, when we want something, and after weeks of begging our parents to buy us that thing, or working hard to eventually get it, we end up disappointed with it. And that time this wasn’t a case. I was so hyped when I got the game, and I realized it is even better than what I thought it was. I had hours of fun playing it, and I had friends I could play it with. A lot has changed since then, but more about that later.

Basic information Nosgoth is a multiplayer action game, developed by Psyonix (yes! Rocket League guys) and published by Square Enix (more games than fingers on my arms and legs, but Kingdom Hearts!!!). It is a spin-off of “Legacy of Kain” series and therefore takes place in its fictional universe. If you wonder if you need to play any of “Legacy of Kain” games to enjoy this game, you don’t! I never even heard of “Legacy of Kain” before I started playing this game, and to this day I don’t know almost anything about that series (but shh, don’t tell anyone *wink*). The game entered open beta in January 2015.

Gameplay Nosgoth is team based humans vs vampires deathmatch game. Game is exclusively multiplayer oriented, and it is not a mmorpg so there is not a big plot in which you must defend the universe from forces of evil. In this game, you don’t actually have to defend anything, except for your own life. Both as a human and as a vampire your mindset is kill or be killed. Look at it this way: as a human you want to kill vampires, because if you don’t they will kill you so they can feed on you, or even worse, they will eat you alive (they can’t eat you alive in game, but for the effect, let’s just pretend they can), and as a vampire you want to kill humans to feed on them so you won’t die from starvation (again, if you don’t feed on them you won’t die or lose health in game, but, uhh, just go with the flow, ok?). So as you can see, however you look at it, it is definitely a bloody situation. So how does an average match looks like you ask? Let’s talk about this for a bit. As you already know players are divided into teams, dependable on a mode you pick, it can be 4 vs 4 or 5 vs 5 match. When you start a match your ultimate goal is to either score 60 points (1 point per kill) or have more kills than your opponents as the timer hits 0. The reason I say ultimate goal is because your match is divided into 2 matches, where in one you and your team play as humans vs other team made entirely out of vampires, and in another where your team plays as vampires and enemy team plays as humans. Each of those 2 matches is over when either 1 of the teams get 30 kills or a 10 minute timer runs out. The winner is a team which in the end of both matches has more kills. I was thinking for about 10 minutes of which game should I or rather can I compare its gameplay style with Nosgoth, and there are none. Allow me to explain. Nosgoth is a mixture of many game styles.

Maps Every map is a type of an arena full with closed areas like houses and passages, and open areas like bridges and squares. Closed areas are used by humans to hide or reorganize while vampires use them for surprise attacks. Open areas are used by humans to gain control of a map and spot vampires from afar while vampires usually try to avoid them for the very same reason, however, sometimes they will use open areas to search for humans when they are hiding. Every map is different and currently there are 7 maps total.

Humans Humans have that 3rd person shooter aspect of the game. Left click is for shooting and right click is for zooming. They use ranged weapons like bows and guns. Every class has variety of weapons in their disposal, with their difference lying in their stats, some are faster but weaker, and some shot slower but they deal more damage when they hit. Weapons have ammo which can, along with your health, be replenished at health stations. However, it can be risky for a human to just run to a health station (which are spread through the map) by himself, because the action of replenishing health and ammo takes a few seconds, while enemy vampires can easily jump on you and kill you. In case you run out of ammo and a vampire comes to your mele range, every human class has a mele attack, it is the last resort of defense. Besides weapons every class has 2 class specific abilities to choose from. More about that later.

Vampires Vampires have more of a hack and slash element to them. Right click is for attacking and left click is for special ability. They are mele only class and unlike humans, they use their fists/claws to fight. Because of their disadvantage they rely on surprise attacks and they have abilities which greatly help them with surprise attacks. They have 2 types of attacks, normal and charged attacks. Normal attacks deal fair amount of damage and are only executable in mele range while charged attacks are stronger versions of normal attacks with slightly bigger range, however, they take time to be charged in order to make a hit. Vampire health regeneration works a bit different from humans. After being hit by an attack, after a short delay, vampire regains health until he heals for 20% of max health or he’s being attacked again. He can regain significantly larger amount of health by feasting on dead humans (50% of max health). Similar as humans, feasting takes a few seconds to execute and in that time you are vulnerable to enemy attacks. Also, if you are hit while feasting, your feasting cancels and you won’t regenerate any health. You can only feast on dead humans until they respawn, so you only have a 10 seconds window, but as you play the game, you will see that 10 seconds is often plenty of time. Another thing that greatly helps vampires not to die as well as to launch a surprise attack is climbing on walls. They can climb almost every wall and jump on buildings. Same as humans, vampires have 2 class related abilities to choose from. Note: Every time you die, either as a human or a vampire, you can choose to change to another class or to pick other abilities for the same class.

Classes

Human Classes

Hunter Hunter is a main human damage class. He wields a crossbow. His primary abilities are meant to disable enemies. He chooses between a bola, which if hits disable enemy from attacking for a few seconds and a whip which stagger an enemy it hits and pulls it down from a wall if he is climbing one. Secondary ability is more of a damage one. He can choose between blinding shots which deal damage on hit and briefly blinds an enemy or a grenade which explodes on hit, dealing area damage. In my opinion he is the most straightforward class to play. You want to deal as much damage as you can and when you are being attacked by an enemy, you want to hit him with a bola or whip to disable him.

Alchemist I would say alchemist is a healer. She wields a hand cannon. Her primary abilities can either go offensive – flamethrower that burns enemies when activated or to drink a kamikaze potion that for a portion of her health (in personal experience most times killed me) after a short delay emits bright light from her body and damages all nearby enemies; or defensive – healing mist, area of effect ability which heals all allies standing inside the marked area by 50,000 health over time. Note: average human health is a bit above 1000. Her secondary abilities can be used in lots of ways. She has light bomb which damages enemies in certain range, sunlight vial which instead of damaging them blinds them for a certain period of time, poison cloud which deals damage to vampires standing inside its area of effect and firewall which basically creates a wall of fire burning every enemy passing through it. Most fun I had with it was in closed beta when everyone was new to the game. Vampires would mindlessly chase me and when I knew I would die, I would throw firewall at my feet to burn myself to death, however, as vampires wanted to kill me, they would rush in the fire and burn themselves alive. Sometimes that even got me triple kills. Ahh, good old days. Note: friendly fire is off, however, your own aoe abilities hurt you.

Scout Scout is human assassin. He wields a bow. He can charge his arrows and deal huge damage to the enemy he hits, even if it is far away. His primary abilities are camouflage – it can be really helpful if you are attacked by vampires and want to escape quickly, you become almost completely invisible; throw knives – you throw knives that wound and slow enemy they hit, it is a solid defense ability; and mark target – you fire a shot that tags your enemies on hit, increasing the damage they take from all humans and marking them on the map for a short period of time. His secondary abilities are turret – you deploy a turret that fires shots in all directions at a certain range for a limited period of time; grappling hook – when you use it you can climb a wall, it is here to utilize your charged shots and improve your assassination skill, it is a 2 edged sword though, since your teammates can’t climb walls to come to you, you are a sitting duck for vampires if you’re not careful; volley – you throw a flare which calls down a rain of arrows for a few seconds in the area you threw it in; and trap – it basically works as a land mine, it explodes when an enemy walks over it. Scout is the biggest human powerhouse in terms of damage due to his charged shots but because of his play style he can’t fight well in cramped spaces. He needs to either go to open areas or to higher ground like on top of the houses. Because of his risky play he can often get isolated and therefore be an easy target for enemies. He is specially good in dealing with flying enemies, because when using a special bow, he can shot them down from the sky with a charged attack.

Prophet Prophet is more of a support human class. However, don’t get fooled, she deals huge amount of damage if he is any good. She wields dual pistols. Her primary abilities are draining curse – deals damage to enemies in target area while healing you for a portion of that damage; hex shot – fires a shot that disables and slow your enemy; and disabling curse – damages enemies in the area and disables their abilities for a few seconds. Secondary abilities are sacrifice – heals your teammate at the cost of a portion of your own health; life leech – takes away a portions of enemy health to heal your own; and eldritch guard – protects your target with a shield that absorbs damage. It is a good support role with nice durability with all of its self healing powers. Like with every class, her attacks deal fair amount of damage so she will be useful either way you play her, if you can aim well of course.

Vanguard Vanguard is secondary support class. He wields an axe/hatchet. Now some of you certainly say that axe/hatchet is not a ranged weapon, well it is if you throw it! His primary abilities are judgment – slams the ground to release a shockwave that judges nearby enemies, damaging them and instantly executing low health nearby enemies; shield charge – rush forward knocking down and damaging any enemy you collide with; and shield bash – you slam a close range enemy damaging and disorienting them. His secondary abilities are rousing cry – buff nearby humans, increasing their movement speed and health regeneration for a short period of time; and bulwark – summon a storm that repels and damages nearby enemies while reducing damage taken by you and your teammates. He can be very useful for team fights because he can repel and knock enemies back. That + healing abilities of alchemist and prophet, if well executed, can be game changing. He also deals fair amount of damage with his axes/hatchets (I experienced them on my apparently not so thick vampire skin much too many times) so overall he is a good asset to the team.

Vampire classes

Reaver Reaver is my favorite vampire class and a main vampire damage class. His special abilities are meant to get you close to your enemy by leaping to him. If you don’t like charging in, you can instead choose Bruce Lee style round kick that will deal big amount of damage to all enemies you are facing that are on your mele distance. His primary abilities are mainly use to initiate fights, or rather before the fight even starts. He has a shadow bomb, which releases a dark fog in the air in which humans can’t see a thing; and choking haze, which instead of smoke releases a poison that deals damage over time to all enemies standing in it. Both abilities are best used before the fight to lure humans out on the open. His secondary abilities let you choose between safe escape and buff when attacking. They are evasion – automatically dodges all enemy projectiles for a few seconds, however, during the time it is active, you can’t attack; shadow step – you become a shadow and you fly towards the selected target at a rapid speed, you can’t be damaged while in shadow form; and haste – you get a burst of speed that lets you move and attack more quickly for a few seconds.

Tyrant Tyrant is a tanky vampire class and usually a fight initiator. His special abilities allows him to charge at his enemies, dealing damage to them and knocking them down or to jump in the middle of them, slamming the ground and damaging the enemies. His primary abilities are used immediately after he goes in with his special ability. They are ground slam – slams the ground damaging and stunning all nearby enemies; shockwave – slams the ground creating a shockwave in a line towards enemies that are being damaged and knocked up on hit; and throw – grabs a human and throws them forwards dealing damage to them when they hit the ground. Note that ground slam and shockwave are better to use if enemies are grouped together so you can hit more than one enemy and disrupt their formation while throw will be more effective if enemies are spread out so you can catch one enemy and throw it towards your fellow vampires. When you pick your secondary ability as a tyrant, you can go two ways, offensive or defensive. Offensive ability is enrage – you go on full rampage which increases your strength and movement speed but lower your health. Defensive ability is ignore pain – for a few seconds, your skin becomes harder causing you significantly reduce damage taken, however, you can’t attack while this is active. It is a good way to go all in in more aggressive teams or to greatly increase your chance of survival in more of tactical sided teams.

Sentinel Sentinel is only class in Nosgoth that is able to fly. He is a predator. At the begging of the match he flies around the map easily locating enemies. His special ability is to pick up enemies with his claws and fly with them for a few seconds finally dropping them on the ground. Higher you get before dropping the enemy, higher the damage on that enemy. That ability is mostly used to isolate one enemy from the team, and even though he won’t get far, that will certainly break enemy formation. After you wound an enemy by dropping him to the ground, you will probably want to finish him off before he gets to heal himself. Even though you are flying, you are still fighting at mele range like every other vampire. This is when your primary abilities come in handy. You can use puncture – you thrust your wings forwards to impale humans at close range, dealing huge amount of damage when hit; or wing flap – you flap your wings, creating a gust of air that knocks down enemies in front of you. Your secondary abilities provide your allies with nice air support. You can use an air strike which is actually a bomb you can aim and throw at your enemies while flying. If you would rather go down, in the center of the fight, you would probably want to use dive bomb which basically transforms you into a spiral as you hurl towards the ground, damaging all nearby enemies on impact. If you want more off a quick escape from a secondary ability, you can use take off – you instantly blast off into the air, damaging all nearby enemies. Even though you can be hit and killed while flying, it is generally harder to hit a flying moving target than a running target. If any of these abilities aren’t what you are looking for, you can also choose sonic shriek – it emits sonic screech that reveals enemy locations. I, however, wouldn’t recommend it. It is easy to find enemies without it, so it is better for you to go with some kind of damage instead.

Deceiver Deceiver is a vampire assassin. Like his name says, he kills enemies by deceiving them. As special ability you can disguise yourself as human and infiltrate enemies. Attacking or climbing the walls breaks the mask. It can be very effective way to get close to your enemies while waiting your teammates to arrive so you can stab them in their backs. Another ability you have in your disposal is mind control. You take control of a targeted human, damaging them over time and controlling his movement for a few seconds. His primary abilities are used for close combat. You can either go with backstab – manifest an energy blade that deals extra damage when striking from behind; or infect – infects human if it hits, dealing damage over time and spreading to all nearby humans. Primary abilities are best used as a surprise attack followed up by series of normal attacks to exterminate your enemies. His secondary abilities are used to conceal his presence, either for offensive or defensive actions. You can go with shroud – you turn invisible, damaging all nearby humans over time for a few seconds; or illusions – you create 2 copies of yourself with 1/5 of your maximum health mainly to confuse your enemies into attacking them instead of you. However, your copies can attack too, so in some situations, even though they are extremely easy to kill, can be really useful.

Summoner Summoner is kind of a support class. She likes to stay away from the fight for as long as possible summoning creatures to do the dirty work for her, only so she could finish off wounded enemies herself. As for special ability, she creates and throws a sphere of dark energy that deals damage to all enemies in area. Her primary abilities summon ghouls to fight in her place. She can either summon two Lesser Ghouls that attack any nearby enemies, or a Greater Ghoul that hunts a specific target. Because of the ghouls she can stand back and cast dark energy spheres while her ghouls take the damage for her. However, have in mind that vampires heavy rely on their normal attacks, and if she never jumps into the battle, she will probably have only a few deaths, or maybe even none, but her damage output won’t be even near from damage outputs of other vampires. Her secondary abilities are defensive ones. She can either use an abyssal barrier which creates a shield in form of a wall of dark magic that repels projectiles and absorbs explosive damage; or deathly shield which hits nearby enemies ripping essences from them that create a barrier to protect you from damage. The more enemies it hits, the stronger the barrier becomes. She is a nice support for your main damage dealers, but don’t expect her to be on top of the scoreboard if she isn’t extremely skilled. Note: every ability has its own cooldown, so it can’t be just spammed all the time. If you want to see more about classes in Nosgoth, you should check their official site where every class has in detail description and a gameplay video + every ability has its own gameplay video. You can check it out right here.

In game store This is the place where you buy weapons for humans, special attacks for vampires, all of the abilities, exp and gold boosters and of course, skins. Weapons, special attacks and skills are buyable with in game gold, while skins, exp and gold boosts are buyable with real money currency. The thing I like the most about the in game store in this game is availability to buy weapons and abilities either for 7 days or permanently. That way you can try every weapon and ability to see if you like it before really buying it. Everything you need to play is available to you, and players that buy exp booster got only slight advantage in terms of unlocking stuff before you do. Let me elaborate. In game you level up 2 things. First one is your character level. Your character level shows your overall progress. Every 5 levels until you hit 50, which is currently a cap, you get an artifact with which you can unlock one human or vampire class. When you start your already unlocked classes are hunter and alchemist as human classes and reaver and tyrant as vampire classes. So with exp boosts you can hit certain levels faster and therefore unlock certain classes before other players do. Second one is class level. You level up every human and vampire class separately and every few levels you get a reward bag with a weapon or ability from that class to try it on for 7 days. At level 25, which is a cap for each class, you get a special skin for that class. So all in all, that exp advantage isn’t really an advantage. If you still don’t like it, let me tell you this, when you log into the game first time every day, you get a daily reward, and among other things, you have a chance of getting exp boosters too.

Negative aspects of the game There isn’t really anything really bad about the game. Yes, it has bugs, it has glitches, but most of them aren’t even that bad. If you have in mind that this isn’t the final version of the game, but open beta, kind of an early access, by the time it reaches its full release, everything will be much smoother. That being said, game itself has one huge problem. And it is its player base. Currently there are 1545 players in game. Only 1545! It is Monday so you can expect a bit more on weekends, but even then it is far from satisfying. Lack of players sometimes causes long queuing time and unbalanced teams. Matches can get really unfair when you get full premade team vs full non premade team. Because teams rely solely on teamwork, non premade team gets outclassed by premade team that communicates over Skype, TeamSpeak or anything similar. Developers can’t really do anything about it until game gets bigger player base, because if they filter that premades play only with premades queues will become much longer and you will wait forever to get into the game. For now they are focusing on adding more content and preparing the game for its final release, and yes, that is good, but they really should start advertising more.

Overall impression Personally, I really liked the game. I played it a lot and I will definitely keep playing it in the future. I believe that, if player base would significantly rise and most of the bugs would be fixed, this game would surely go from good to great. It has nicely designed maps and it gives you quite unique gameplay style. You should give it a try and see for yourself. Maybe you will find that the game is perfect for you and maybe you won’t like it at all, but hey, you will never know until you try. Blood doesn’t look like ketchup 10/10 Humans don’t eat vampires when they kill them -1/10 If the game had more players/less bugs it would probably be 9/10 or even 9.5/10 However, Overall impression 7.5/10 Have you tried the game yet? How do you like it? Also, how do you like long, in depth reviews like this one? Do you prefer it or you like shorter ones better? Share your thoughts in the comment section. Back to the top