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“Battlerite” is a unique free-to-play moba from Stunlock Studios that is all about the exciting team fights, doing away with some of the typical moba elements such as towers, creeps and farming.

The game has graduated from Steam Early Access back in Nov 2017 and has been well received and currently has a thriving community. The current game modes are team versus team battle arenas of 3v3, 2v2 and also 1v1 duels. There is a somewhat small roster of champions, but it’s growing steadily with Alysia and Zander being the newest additions. The champions are divided into three categories, support, ranged and melee. However, it’s not really necessary to have a specific team composition to be competitive.

Anyways, as I was saying. Some of the champions seem to have the same ability or a very similar one making them a little less unique. However, all champions with well-rounded kit mean that you won’t be penalized for not having unlocked a certain champion yet.

Other than that, champions can be all purchased with the champion back, obtained via loot boxes or unlocked with in-game currency. The loot boxes can only drop cosmetic items and champions. You can’t buy power in this game and there are no levels or items either during matches, all champions are on a leveled playing field when it comes to power, and the battle is decided by skill and coordination.

The only way that you can customize the abilities of your champion is via battlerites, which is a loadout that you prepare before battle that gives passive buffs to some of your abilities, and you decide which of your abilities to buff. Sure, while there is no grinding gold and items to be found during the game. There still are health drops and energy drops to be found in the game. So what are those then? Well, the energy drops, filling your energy bar will enable you to execute your ultimate abilities or Ex abilities, which are a stronger version of normal abilities

The art style and presentation of the game reminds me a lot of Blizzard’s games (the way the characters are designed, the progression system, the questing system and the lootboxes). While the presentation is similar to other games that we have seen before. For example, the soul of “Battlerite” is a greatly polished version of “Bloodline Champions” (which is a previous game made by Stunlock studios seven years ago). As a matter of fact, even if you watch old videos of “Bloodline Champions” you can still see the similarities between BC and “Battlerite”.

In this case though, that’s a good thing. So “if” you enjoyed “Bloodline Champions” (or lighting fast PvP​ ​arena​ ​brawler games in general), then you might want to give “Battlerite” a try.

Pros:

+ Polished gameplay

+ Skill based matches without buying or grinding power

+ Good presentation and aesthetics even they’re not the most original

Cons:

– There are some typical moba issues to be found in the game, such as matchmaking and unbalance. However, to their defense, no game is perfectly balanced

Gameplay: 4/5

Graphics: 3.5/5

Sound/music: 3.5/5

Controls: 4/5

Replay value: 4/5

Verdict: 3.5/5

“Battlerite” is the story of a dev studio that stuck to their guns and believed in their concept of the isometric Arena Brawler even after their first game wasn’t so successful. So if you love team fights but hate characters snowballing, you want it all to be about skill and like quick matches, then “Battlerite” is the game that you should give a try.

Title: Battlerite

Developer: Stunlock Studios

Format: PC

Genre: PvP​ ​arena​ ​brawler

Resolution: 1680 x 1050

Release date: 2017-11-08

Difficulty: Normal

Spent time: +10 hours

Average grade internationally: 85.67% Gamerankings.com

PEGI/ESRB age rating: PEGI16+/Teen

Price:

Credit:

Robin Ek – Editor



Jack Davis

The Gaming Ground

Twitter: @TheGamingGround

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Tags: Battlerite, Indie games, PC games, PC review, PvP arena brawler, Stunlock Studios