Champions of Anteria (PC) Review

The world of gaming has had its fair share of medieval fantasy realms… too many to count to be exact, and this one doesn't do much to stand out. Sure, the narrator presents everything in a humorous way, and the titular champions are more concerned with looking good than doing good, but the comedy is only worthy of a few chuckles and nothing more. Generally, Champions of Anteria does not embrace its silliness to its fullest, which is a typical mistake of most light-comedy titles.

Even the colourful and cartoonish, Warcraft-like visuals, tend to be a bit too conservative. Grasslands, deserts, and snowfields, humans, wolves, and trolls; compared to Blizzard's style, these feel generic, and end up being forgettable. Well, maybe the concept of combining elements from various genres into one might tickle gamers' fancy. Take a look: city building, a non-linear overworld map to conquer, MOBA-like action with hero units, and lots of ways to upgrade the said heroes - great, right!? …Right?

The journey to kill the evil warlock tyrant what's-his-name of this world, begins with the best part, the city building - best when compared to the rest, that is, because it's nothing special. On each of the sectors that are available, it's possible to create residences to house workers, all sorts of resource building structures, and even more specialised buildings that enable the creation of everything from potions and turrets, to gear for the heroes, as well as a place to trade goods for gold coins.

Certain resources get a boost/decrease if a certain building is on the same area, so some thinking ahead is useful before expanding. Unfortunately, while this part is fun and all, it lacks the required depth, and soon leads to everything feeling the same after a few hours. The greatest example is the skill tree, which is not really a skill tree as it is a series of upgrades, ranging from gear to structures amongst other things. Sure, these are useful, but receiving a piece of +2 armour instead of +1 one doesn't really alter anything.

Next comes the overworld strategy map, where it's possible to examine what route of expansion it's best to follow, since conquered regions offer different benefits, like more gold, a better fortification rate, or more renown (the points needed for the skill tree). Sadly, this is feels pretty barebones too, mainly because there's not much to do. It's possible to attack a region, defend a captured sector… and that's it.

Each turn will only require about 10 minutes tops for both of these parts, though. The main action will take place… well, in the action part; the MOBA-esque, ARPG side of this world. While on a map, the player gets controls of three heroes (five total to choose from), and they can be ordered just like the units of any real-time strategy out there, with the only difference that's it's possible to pause any time to issue commands more carefully, which is a good thing because this isn't Diablo.

Every single being and action in Champions of Anteria, is tied to a certain element, which makes the game rock-paper-scissors-Pokémon kind of ARPG. Someone aligned with fire, for instance, can deal critical damage to metal foes, but his/her posterior will get whooped by a water-aligned enemy… and this is where the pause mechanic must be put to good use, because, if left on their own, the "Champions" will surely not "win by not losing." Unfortunately, this is the part that suffers the most.

Besides crashes to the desktop, orders sometimes not working (mostly ironed out from the latest patches), or one of the worst path finding in the genre, this also feels simplistic. For starters, nothing feels tactically challenging. It's all a matter of using the right guy/gal for the right baddie - and if a match is lost, it will usually be due to a lack of potions, since there's no regenerating health. Finally, the maps offer the same two-three scenarios again and again, which, coupled with the subpar battles, makes it all feel like a chore - not a heroic adventure.