Battlerite Royale

Graphics – 4/5

For a fantasy-inspired game, it looks quite cool. Spectacular animations, impressive heroes, even unique fonts, and all that is packed into a relatively small folder. Battlerite is full of magical spells that work brightly, with grand special effects. Yet what disappoints is the MOBA-like view from bird’s eye; unchecking “Fixed Camera” doesn’t solve that. It minimized the immersion you feel when playing conventional BR games, with an over-the-shoulder view and first-person aiming. And, of course, it’s positioned as a feature.

Gameplay – 4/5

The mix of MOBA and BR defines the gameplay. Like in BR games, you’re deployed onto Talon Island (brought there by a dragon instead of Battle Bus), and then it follows the traditional BR template. You pick your loot, use the whole set of weapons, and attempt to kill anything moving (unless it’s swifter than you).

In your adventures you can use weapons, mounts (let you move faster), or outfits that let you easily recognize your character. In MOBA-style it’s more important than in PUBG or Fortnite with camera following you. Before the game you can spend some coins on skills or abilities that can help you.

There should be only one winner! When your character gets killed, you can quit the game or keep watching. You can create your friendlist and invite friends, but you cannot log in with social media account, so friends need to be added manually.

Alas, though the game has attracted some minimal number of active players, it still takes minutes to find a game to join. This waiting time is much more than many players can tolerate.

Controls – 4/5

In fact, that’s where we miss the gamepad. Your character is moved with the WASD set, with QER and 123 buttons used for weaponry. The weapons are aimed with mouse buttons. Well, it would have been really nice to have all that on a gamepad! But no, a generic one is not supported. This control system is obviously borrowed from PUBG or Fortnite, but it requires a following camera instead of bird’s eye.

Replay Value – 4/5

It would have been 5/5 if there were more players online at any given moment, like in major Battle Royale or MOBA projects. But this mix isn’t popular so far, and now the developers need to learn what repels potential fans and fix it. Before it happens, talking of “replay value” is a waste of time, just like minutes spent in waiting before you join the party and finally start to get killed much faster.

Conclusion

We’d like to write another Battlerite Royale review in six or eight months, to see whether the developers found and fixed the bugs and attracted more players. So far it’s a promising project, and you may try it, first of all, to join the crowd that would attract others.