Don’t Play With Nature – “Spirit Oath” Early Access

Nature is hard to beat, everyone who has decided to lead the druid’s fate during RPG sessions knows it. The wild fury of the fauna can sweep away its opponents with the force of its tusks and claws, the multitude of flora with its roots and shoots buries its enemies with a tight shroud of greenery, and the immaterial beings, associated with nature for centuries, do not rest in their efforts to remove the threat from the constant cycle of life. How the latter work can be seen in the Action-RTS Spirit Oath game developed by Triangle Square studio.

Nature will be reborn – you will not!

Dark forces tear the world apart, roaming it as if it were its own lands. Shadow and chaos spread their tentacles farther and farther, destroying everything good and beautiful in their path. In this confusion, you awaken, the caring spirit of the forest, with power over a part of nature and its specters. Although the chaos around you has greatly weakened your strength, you know you must fight. Nature cannot fall, it must be reborn and defend itself, and your task is to find your sisters and brothers with whom you will face the dark powers as you rebuild a falling world.

This, in a nutshell, is the story that we will get to know while playing Spirit Oath . The whole thing is presented in the form of a story told by a woman by the fire, reminding her listeners about the strength and determination of nature. It is true that this form of presentation allows us to easily predict the end of subsequent missions, but thanks to this, the whole thing has a significant atmosphere – a bit mysterious, artistic and sensual. When we listen to a legend told by someone, we have no influence on its course, but we can immerse ourselves in it, experiencing it sensually like our own adventures, impatiently waiting for its continuation, absorbing the next sentences. This feeling was fully achieved in this case, although of course we are not just a passive listener. It’s a game after all!

Piece by piece

As befits a real-time strategy production, our main task is to recruit more and more diverse troops to eliminate the opponent by force. However, forget about building construction and storing resources, because Triangle Square has departed from this scheme for a completely different solution. Here we start on an almost empty surface, having only the hideout of the caring spirit of the forest and three cards that allow us to place tiles that create a regenerating surface. Most of the elements contain drawings that can be arranged in various patterns. Each completed ornament creates a totem, summoning the animal spirit that forms the backbone of our army, and the larger and more complex the path, the more powerful units are at our command. However, you have to be extremely vigilant, for the enemy acts in exactly the same way and you never know when enemy forces will appear in our rear, eager to destroy what we have created. Defending the structures is crucial as they allow our troops to respawn each time they fall in battle.

The way it works and the pace imposed by the developers mean that the game requires constant focus, quick decision-making and reflexes. Opponents multiply quite quickly and unexpectedly, although schematically, so most of the tasks have to be repeated many times, basically learning by heart what is ahead. However, remembering the enemy’s pattern of behavior and planning a strategy of action faces the problem of randomness in receiving cards. It is true that we cannot get tiles that cannot be placed anywhere, thanks to which we will never be blocked in action, but it happens that we cannot complete larger patterns for too long, and thus we lose the race through no fault of ours. armaments. This usually ends up having to restart the mission.

Dark forest can also be charming

As for the visual side of Spirit Oath , you could summarize its description into three words – extremely atmospheric beauty. The appearance of the production is by all means consistent, expressive and created with full awareness of what the goal was to be achieved. An environment full of various types of plants, embellished with a galaxy of dark and dark colors, reflects the atmosphere of a world destroyed by chaotic forces, and the snow-white allied units and the slightly less bright opponent’s forces, consisting of fairly simple blocks, contrast perfectly with the background, giving us not only transparency in military management, but above all emphasizing the purity and strength of forest spirits, and the fiery nature of the destructive demons. If, like me, you are enchanted by the artwork presented byOri and the Will of the Wisps , the setting for the production of Triangle Square studio, despite its much greater simplicity, will certainly also appeal to you.

The calm, somewhat enigmatic sounding may not be too much in the ears, being simply correct, but it almost perfectly harmonizes with both the appearance of the whole and the climate of the fight between the forces of nature and a brutal enemy. Calm music, gentle clicks of tiles and light sounds of action correspond with each other, creating a nice and quite nice impression. One can only point out that the voices of the animal spirits we control are more reminiscent of technological twitter than the responses of intangible beings, but to point out this is just cliche on my part.

Spirit Oath is a game that definitely cannot be passed with complete indifference. Visually atmospheric, not captivating, but still quite pleasant from the audio side, fully consciously guided in a clearly defined direction, and at the same time presenting its plot well, a bit demanding and simply well made. The production of Triangle Square studio deserves attention and recognition, and if the creators do not stray from their chosen path, we can look forward to a really successful work. Personally, I will observe with interest the further development of the history of forest guardian spirits, which I also recommend to you!