Closers , Closed Beta Preview - Early Access Watcher -
0Disclosure: This game copy was bought by the reviewer. The purchased tier was Trainee Bundle.
Join five Closers in their fight against the dimensional threat attempting to take over the world. While battles can be done by yourself or with friends, the main goal remains the same: knock the ever-loving wind out of the invaders along beautiful animated environments on a side-scrolling scale. Paths are linear for each level and no matter who you play, the enemy layouts remain the same. This doesn't mean the experience will be the same, as each character has unique dialog and reveals their own motivations/flaws as you progress through the story. Collect ingredients, craft up powerful weapons and improve your main attacks with special buffs to overcome the increasingly difficult challenges.
Alright, with the generic opening out of the way, I can focus on the three main points to this game: micro-transactions, combat, and fatigue. It is safe to say that the combat is by far the game's greatest strength, even if it results to skill combo mashing. Each character has a unique set of moves with some having more utility based moves while others having pure damage output. The moves have some great weight to them thanks to the spectacle style shown on screen. It is fun in short bursts and is a great time waster for thirty minutes as you send flurries of blows to enemies. It is a mindless system at first, but as you progress enemies get more advanced attack patterns to make things a smidgen harder, but at the end of the day it is a power fantasy in terms of difficulty.
The PvP, on the other hand, does require some effort to get into. Gear is a heavy influence on player stats which requires tuning of stats, increasing a piece of gears level through enhancement and crafting better stuff from drops found in dungeons or bought from the store. This is where the fatigue system comes into play. Almost every dungeon has a fatigue cost to enter and every character has a limit as too how many points can be spent. This means if you plan to play this game competitively you will be severely hampered by the limited access to key areas. If you just want to mess around for a hour or so a day for the fun combat, you shouldn't have an issue. Even creating another character doesn't fix the issue as their is a overall limit placed on the account in terms of fatigue. It is an annoyance I cannot support, which is why I recommend waiting for it to go free to play before trying it out. It looks, sounds and feels great at least.