RPG in a nutshell – review of the game “Warlocks 2: God Slayers”

The minimalist action RPG has recently ceased to be an exclusive title for Switch and has hit PCs. Is it worth taking this opportunity and giving the production of the Frozen District studio in Krakow a chance?

Effects of irritating the deities

Warlocks 2 draws the most from the hack’n’slash sub- genre , so you should not expect an overly extensive plot here. Years of hunting monsters angered the gods. In an act of revenge, they sent into the world powerful creatures. Therefore, the title order of Warlocks must deal with the threats and get rid of unfavorable deities once and for all. The main character is supposed to participate in this, and – right after being released from captivity by a certain shaman – decides to join the order. That’s basically it. Although there are many conversations with NPCs, and often even there are choices in them, they mainly concern commissioning and describing subsequent quests. Sometimes jokes are also smuggled in, mainly based on pop culture references. Although humor is a very subjective thing, I don’t think anyone will tear your sides off and sooner once in a while to smile. 

Simple but fun

Before starting the actual game in Warlocks 2, we have to choose one of the available characters. This is where the first screeching appears, because although each of the heroes represents a different class, with a different style of gameplay, the game does not communicate it in the slightest. So he chooses to “feel” and only then faces the consequences. At least you can tell if the chosen fighter specializes in close or long range combat.

The gameplay resembles a very simplified form of any action RPG . A peculiar game hub is a space canteen, in which the player accepts new orders, trades and uses a portal that transports him to new characters. Quests are primarily about fighting monsters, finding story items or characters, and fighting even more dangerous monsters. Apparently nothing original, but the two-dimensional perspective stands out on the plus side. In combination with the couch cooperation mode, we get an affordable side scrollersimply created to play together even with Sunday players. Virtually all the elements are easy to learn. Character development trees are not complex, but they allow you to unlock interesting skills. There are not too many items, and you immediately know what perks they provide. Although each death takes players back to the beginning of the stage, they are, in turn, so small that it is only a matter of moments before returning to action. 

The game is therefore a light and casual entertainment for a lazy afternoon. Well, at least if we have someone to play with, be it locally or over the network, because Warlocks 2 has some problems with the balance. The whole thing does not seem to be tailored to a single player. He often has to deal with many more enemies, which, combined with the cooldown of attacks and skills, can give you a hard time, especially in the early stages. There is also a situation in which bosses are much less of a challenge than more numerous groups of opponents. Fun time is decent though. It took me about nine hours to complete the campaign, which is not a bad result with the smaller title.

No fireworks

Warlocks 2: God Slayers focuses on simplicity not only in terms of the plot and gameplay , but also the setting. The eternally young pixel art was chosen , which works here … differently. Although the animations and character models please the eye, the locations are less. The first of them seem really well developed, but the farther into the forest, the more generic and less distinctive areas we traverse. I don’t know if at some stage there was simply no idea, or whether the player was enthralled with the first impression.

The soundtrack is exactly what you can expect from a pixelart hack’n’slash . Oh, calm, minimalist music to explore and more rhythmic to fight. It is a pity that there was no attempt to use tribal motifs in the path, as they constitute the background of the game.

In the end, Warlocks 2 turned out to be quite successful production. The creators managed to extract the essence of RPG mechanics and present them in a light form, pleasant for the layman. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t have much depth as a result, which reduces the replayability potential. There are also some scratches in the form of gaps in the balance and unclear beginning.