Battlesouls First Look

A quick look through the alpha of this soon to be released free to play game. There are many games right now like Paragon, Overwatch, Paladins and more. And you can check out also another not so known competitor Battlesouls.

Battlesouls is a team based shooter that's going to be free to play, the game seeks to capture the magic of the old shooters like Team Fortress and Unreal Tournament. But at the same time being easy to pick up and play. 

This not a MOBA.

Wizards and warriors

Set in a fantasy setting, blue and red team must fight to destroy three crystals that are set on their respective bases. Both teams share the same set of characters which the player can use. Let's see the actual roaster.

Baruus: Your typical cape mage, which in game has the role of freezing enemies and nuking them with fireballs.

Darmian: A knight in shiny armor, a melee focused character, hard to beat and also a hard hitter. 

Cornelia: An elf druid that uses the power of nature to either heal or make damage. This could be the closest to a support character at the moment.

Rosita: A Pirate with a canon, same as Baruus in the game, just with a weapon that favors area of effect.

Fharaz: A mysterious hooded assassin, that serve as the stealthy lethal up-close, but it doesn´t stand as much damage as Darmian. 

From right to left: Fharaz, Rosita, Cornelia, Baruus and Darmian
And there will be many more. These are  just the ones that were available during the alpha test. However the developers have promised to add more characters in the near future. 

Crystal Warfare

The core gameplay mechanics of the game, besides just shooting other players, is to destroy the crystals that are located on different parts of the map. But to destroy them the team must capture an inhibitor which is located in the middle of the map. Once it is captured the enemy's crystals will become vulnerable, and ready to be struck by the opposition like you are used to from other MOBA games. This is great, since it makes two great focal points in the battlefield, so the teams can coordinate to either defend or attack. 

Get off my crystal!
Besides this fact, the game also works differently from most shooters in the genre. You’ll be able to pick only three classes out of the roster of heroes, and you’ll be able to swap those three anytime you want without any respawning penalty making the heroes feels more like weapons than actual characters like most games in the genre do. Once you swap the hero, new cooldown timer will start. Therefore swapping at will is not just an option, it is reinforced by the fact that each character has an ability that is activated whenever you swap. Swapping in this game means commitment since it can be a matter of life and death. 

Green Valleys 

As for the maps, there were only three of them available and so far they are pretty and well design. Since they hope to host a large number of players, they are big. However each one of them flows well enough and they never feels dull besides the crystal and the inhibitor players can look forward to capture power ups which can increase damage and speed among other things. Those are located far away from the points of interest to make them feel like a risk.

Green Valleys where dragons fly.
Map design is where the presentation shines. Aesthetically the game aims for that cartoonish medieval fantasy that was popularized by Blizzard games, however it is still unique enough to make them feel like an original property. At least for the Rosita and Cornelia character. But this game looks nice and is not demanding for any computer which makes wonders for any free to play games. 

Free to play, not Pay to win

The developers are aiming to only charge for the cosmetics of the game, like dead animations, character skins, image banners and pets. But nothing that affects the balance of the gameplay as a whole.

As for any future plans, besides releasing the game for an open beta, the developers hope to add a Ranked matchmaking but they want to see how the people react to their game first. 

Concluding 

Battlesouls looks like a great alternative to any intensive shooter that’s on the market at the moment and even a great platform for newcomers in the genre. If you want to introduce someone that plays mostly MOBAs, Battlesouls will not only lure them, it will engage them and they won’t get owned at the very beginning very often thanks to the team centric goals and easiness of the shooting and movement mechanics. 

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