It’s laborious for a recreation to really feel distinctive and recent in a extremely saturated market. This isn’t all the time a foul factor – typically you wish to play one thing you understand that you just’ll like. Nevertheless, there is no such thing as a feeling fairly like exploring what looks as if one thing that’s concurrently model new and like a recreation you possibly can’t imagine doesn’t exist but. That each one collectively is Battle Prepare.
Battle Prepare is a deckbuilder roguelike and, in case your gaming habits are something like mine, this can be a well-trodden (however wonderful) style. Nevertheless, Battle Prepare is a recent take that’s fashionable, humorous, and enjoyable to play.
Battle Prepare is an in-universe actuality competitors present the place, accordingly, you battle trains. That’s, you ship out trains to destroy your enemy’s bases earlier than they destroy yours. To do this, in every battle you draw a hand of playing cards that vary from segments of railroad tracks to bombs that may destroy tracks to boosts and debuffs, which you’ll all play in a turn-based system. You must construct a observe out of your prepare to your opponent’s base whereas gathering assets (that mean you can use extra playing cards in a flip) and in addition cease your opponent from reaching your base. It appears like a really distinctive system that focuses extra on motion and positioning than something.
The ways on this recreation really feel nice. There’s a fixed pull and push wrestle between you and your opponent, the place sure assaults can destroy a few of your hard-earned observe however then vice versa. One ingredient I actually like is that each your trains and your enemy’s trains can and do run on the identical observe, so that you may arrange an ideal observe for your self however have or not it’s co-opted by your opponent. All through a run it’s also possible to get playing cards that may change your technique by constructing a deck that’s extra bomb centered, for instance, or attempting to have a deck with extra versatile observe setups. It’s a extremely distinctive twist on a deckbuilding roguelike and one the place I actually have to consider technique otherwise than in different video games in the identical style.
One of many different issues that units Battle Prepare aside is in its presentation. The story of the sport is about across the fictional Battle Prepare competitors present and a documentary about its manufacturing, and it’s genuinely very humorous. The characters are dynamic and humorous, particularly Aalvado, the lengthy working champion of the present who could be very into Battle Prepare and assumes everybody is precisely on the identical degree as him, regardless of dipping rankings. I laughed out loud a number of occasions, and the animation is great. The manufacturing worth is excessive and stored me enjoying, even when I acquired pissed off at a few of my rounds of the sport.
There are a handful of points that make Battle Prepare not fairly an on the spot advice for me. The primary is that the sport feels a bit padded with mini video games that don’t really feel in any respect essential and simply really feel like new mechanics simply to say they’re new mechanics. I additionally don’t like how progressing to struggle Aalvado is gated behind ensuring you hit story content material and a sure rating – I like getting the story content material, however it’s a let down to seek out out your run ends instantly since you didn’t get to an arbitrary rating or to all of the story beats.
I don’t suppose that Battle Prepare goes to hit the identical degree as among the greats within the style, however it’s price enjoying simply the identical for followers of deckbuilding roguelikes to see one thing new and distinctive being carried out in that house. It’s humorous, distinctive, and actually, who doesn’t like trains and explosions?
