Game:

Mirage: Arcane Warfare (2017)

Category:

Review

Duration: 10:49

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Mirage: Arcane Warfare reminds me of the games I used to make up on the fly with other kids on the playground. “I fire a magic spear at you!” “Oh yeah? Well, I summon my magic carpet and fly out of the way!” Adding those kinds of flashy, improvisational magical abilities to the high skill cap, hack-and-slash combat that worked so well in Torn Banner’s previous flagship, Chivalry, widens the tactical toolbox in the same way Total War: Warhammer did by introducing fantasy elements to a previously historical series. Unfortunately, the dismally small player base at present makes these mystic melees harder to enjoy.According to SteamCharts, as of this writing, Mirage has an all-time peak of 190 concurrent players—which is less than I could expect to find in Alien vs Predator 2 on an average afternoon when I was still playing that years after its release. During the day, I’m lucky to find a server with under 200 ping and any players at all. I live in a relatively populated region, so I can only imagine what it would be like if I were located somewhere more out of the way. During the evenings in the US, there are usually a handful of full servers with decent ping, and a couple others, with only a few players in each.This is unfortunate, because Mirage can be fun and exciting. The emphasis on special abilities makes it feel a bit MOBA-ish, along the lines of Overwatch but with more of a melee focus. The team synergies and interesting tactics opened up by the wild abilities available to each class can create some genuinely madcap, enjoyable deathmatches, and the multiple classes which can fly generate tense aerial duels high above the larger battle.My personal favorite class is the Entropist. He can glide around on a flying carpet for a limited time, and his main cooldown ability is a healing grenade, making him one of the only classes that can restore his and his teammates’ health. This in itself is a big break from the Chivalry formula, and allowed me to play as something resembling a highly mobile MMO healing class. Abilities like these encourage teamwork in a way that feels natural and synergistic, whereas a lot of melee team deathmatch games can get to feeling like everyone-for-themselves skirmishes.Not all classes are as well designed, though. The nimble, low-health Tinker, for instance, I found far less impressive. She can lay various traps for opponents, but they have such a small radius, and so many of the maps lack meaningful choke points, that I never felt like I got my money’s worth with her. I was usually relegated to making the most of her nimble rapier strikes and hoping to out-damage melee classes with a lot more health than me. Some abilities that seemed less useful in deathmatch could potentially shine in a mode like Capture the Flag where static defense matters more. But certain modes are nearly impossible to find a group for at all unless you bring a lot of friends.While you’re looking for a group, at least you’ll have time to enjoy th
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Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/mirage-arcane-warfare-review/

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