Lichdom: Battlemage, PC-exclusive "first person spellcaster" - Released

[Stereotypical Villain]

 

[DeepOcean]

linear as fuck

pure combat

Bioshock Infinite, is that you?

The only thing it has with Bio Infinite is that is linear but, from what I seen, is different on everything else so it is a decent game.

 

[Matalarata]

Playing it now, actually fun but I'm still in the beginning... Linear as fuck, with some linear/circular deramation to harvest loot. Gameplay is fun but quite easy once you get the hang of it. Still a more robust casting system than Skyrim. It has already been mentioned that the game encourages you to survive via a loot bonus wich resets on death and increases (max level 5) when you reach a checkpoint. This is actually nice, since when you DO die, you can build it up again. A similar system was in Sacred (now why I played that game so much I do not know...) but I started hating limitless loot rarity bonus when I died for the first time with my level 66 Seraph, that was... painful.
Here death is something you try to avoid at all cost, but not a ragequitting inducing mechanic. Enemy variety is good, and graphics are nice both thanks to Cry engine and an artistic level design, if a bit clichè maybe. Textures are uneven... Some really good ones, others (the trees come to mind) are quite blurrier.

Extremely simplified loot system but little thought is needed to collect and this is not a tipical loot grinder... Crafting system is where the meat of the "strategy" is. You have Sigils (6 in game I think) wich are part of your character, they can be levelled up and have a nice variety of effects.
Fire has high crit, ice high base dmg & good crowd control but lacks dmg scaling, lightning stuns and jumps between targets. Then you have corruption, a bit tricky but fun, massive stored damage + pets, triggered via crit. Force is the best crowd control imho but I didn't test much... No idea on the last siglil Delirium.
Then you have the actual loot, wich comes in 2 variety (extremely simplified as I said) shapes and augments. Shapes dictate how your spell will behave, there are 3 great categories and many sub ones.
Targeted are your usual long range missile. Area (wich are cast pressing both buttons) are slower, wider spells (duh). Nova is the name for the kind of spell you unleash when doing a charged blink or "Galvanized" (timed) block.
Now, sub categories change all that dramatically, for targeted you have things like homing missiles, continuous rays and lobs (not homing, small AoE grenade-like missiles). Area comes as an istant effect, a trap (triggered by enemies or yourself) and "pools" (they last a discrete amount of time and continuously affect the casting area). Novas have much less variety...

Each shape has a max number of "Augments" (the second kind of loot) you can attach to it, they have a bunch of diablo-like tags like faster casting or higher crit chance. BUT they define what your spell actually DO, remeber shapes affect behaviour. You have 3 kind of base augments

Damage: if selected as primary augment the spell will be a direct damage spell
Control: if primary, the spell will freeze, stun or generally impair
Mastery: applies a "mastery debuff" wich varies from sigil to sigil, mastery accumulates on enemies as a pool that is dicharged the next time a critical (or charged) damage spell hits
Crafting is about choosing a single sigil, a single shape and up to 5 augments iirc. In game you can equip 3 sigils, each one allowing for one targeted one aoe and one nova. So by mixing and matching you have lot of options.

Shield mechanics are quite interesting. Basically you have your recharging health, wich comes in 3 bars. They regenerate but stay down once destroyed and a single barrage from an archer can destroy the more filmsy shields. You can recharge them by finding static power ups. Shields too come in 3 variety: Strategic, Tactical and Agile and each one of them has a big impact on your strategy.

Strategic shields allow you up to 3 "quick blink" dodges, then you are stuck on your legs for about 5 seconds, you lack charged blinking (a slower, longer range targeted blink wich unleashes a Nova spell on arrival) but you can galvanize your parry and unleash a nova.
Tactical shields are tankier, you lose quick blink but charged blink is faster and galvanize timing is easier
Agile shields are the lightest one, unlimited quick blink, you can charge blink but you lose galvanization (you still can parry, but they absob less dmg)

Shields are crafted like spells, you have a shield sigil, chose one of the 3 above and then add 1-5 augments

Hope this is useful to some undecided Bros

 

[Infinitron]

What, the Codex was overly edgy about an unreleased game again? Imagine that.

 

[Matalarata]

What, the Codex was overly edgy about an unreleased game again? Imagine that.

Don't get me wrong... It IS popamole and consolized. For example you rarely have more than 5 enemies active. Controls are streamlined eccecc

Still... good for what it is? I dunno, it is a functional package. Good graphics, nice gameplay, decent voice acting (im not a native english speaker as you probably already guessed). The story is clichè and conveyed via segmented conversations wich become repetitive soon, but still I find myself looking forward to it. Villains are stereotipical but not badly written.

Not decline, not incline. I'd say a plateau with a 3° inclination at best...

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

What, the Codex was overly edgy about an unreleased game again? Imagine that.

MHC beat you to that deduction by a couple of years.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Meh, will probably buy for a dollar on the next Steam sale.

 

[Mastermind]

You have Sigils (6 in game I think) wich are part of your character, they can be levelled up and have a nice variety of effects.

There are 8 sigils, you missed Necromancy and Phase (i don't have them yet myself, but I hear Necromancy is an awesome button). Kinetic mastery is excellent, it locks the target in place for about 10 seconds (maybe more, been a while since I felt the need to screw with my perfectly serviceable kinetic missile) so melee enemies become pretty trivial, though ranged ones are still a threat since anchored enemies can attack if you're in range.

Controls are streamlined

They could use some more streamlining, I'd like to be able to set a different default direction for blink since if I'm not moving it'll just blink me forward, usually into a pack of machete rapists.

 

[Matalarata]

There are 8 sigils, you missed Necromancy and Phase

Sorry, I was speaking from personal experience! Also I heard about necro, but I believed it was the same as corruption, my bad!

They could use some more streamlining, I'd like to be able to set a different default direction for blink since if I'm not moving it'll just blink me forward, usually into a pack of machete rapists.

Git gud. That's just blink + one direction


Fire+Ice is good. Fire has bonus damage when breaking freeze (and stasis too apparently?) I go with corruption as 3° but I want to try delirium as an added crowd control + mastery

 

[DeepOcean]

Fire+Ice is good. Fire has bonus damage when breaking freeze (and stasis too apparently?) I go with corruption as 3° but I want to try delirium as an added crowd control + mastery

I've seen videos of people using fire attacks, over and over with some ice attacks here in there... how long it takes to get the other sigils? If it takes too long of a time stuck on fire + ice, I'm see myself very bored with it. What is the best "fun" combination, not necessarily the best but one that envolves more than spamming firebolts?

 

[Zewp]

I've been playing the release a bit and it seems better than beta. Enemies are not quite the bullet sponges they were in beta, meaning that combat doesn't feel so tedious and drawn out. It might actually be a bit on the easy side, to be honest.

Maybe I'll give it a proper second chance. Apparently they even added necromancy.

 

[Matalarata]

How long it takes to get the other sigils? If it takes too long of a time stuck on fire + ice, I'm see myself very bored with it. What is the best "fun" combination, not necessarily the best but one that envolves more than spamming firebolts?

You start with Fire and get Ice at the end of the tutorial. With both if you skip it. The next sigil is a choice (a new one is always a choice between two, the discarded one is parte of the next choice) between Force and Lightning. You'll have 5 sigils before the end of the second section. Enemies are NOT bullet sponges. That's actually the combat system. If you just spam fireball you'll ned 4-5 hits to kill a goon. Add in a mastery debuf and bonus from shattering ice and even tough melee opponents go down in 2 hit. Debuff+damage

As for fun, I'm actually running ice+fire for the coolnes factor (and nice sinergy). As I thought Delirium is a nice addition to my arsenal. I use just a couple damage spells all the rest is crowd control and debuf
There are a lot of viable combinations, you'ìll find the best one for you just playing, believe me.

Here. I'll post my actual configuration to give you an idea

Fire

-Targeted homing high Damage Bolt. Fire and forget (almost) I use it as a "combo" finisher
-High critical AoE Damage firestorm. Useful for clusters, I usualy disable groups of 2-3 targets so that's a fast way to kill them all
-Staggering Damage Nova. I mainly use novas with galvanize as a way out of tight situations, so I favour defense/disable over offense here. Fire has little defensive options...

Ice

-Control Lob, fast casting, fast charging (if possible). No homing but is a nice panic button, really fast. The Ice explosions sometimes are able to destroy an enemy's shield and freeze it with a single cast. In this game Time is your mana
-Long lasting Control Pool. Awesome, I place this on chokepoints to stop melee assailants, really good
-Control Nova. Control alligned ice causes freeze so this is a no brainer for my defensive parry

Delirium

-Targeted Control bolt. You can turn one enemy in a pet, this is really good but has some drawbacks (hard to explain, let's say they found some good way to avoid abuse). Targeted allows me to chose who I want on my side
-Mastery alligned AoE. Stores up to 140% damage on each enemy it hits (You discharge said damage with a crit/charged bolt).
Delirium + Mastery causes two interesting effects: if you have a pet debuffed enemies will aggro it with a reduced damage, if you have no pets they will cower in fear for some time.
-Mastery Nova. I favour high fear here. Again, defense...

I'm using a strategic shield, no charged blinking but I have both quick blink and galvanize, have I already said I love galvanize?

 

[Zewp]

Enemies are NOT bullet sponges.

They were in beta. And the first boss definitely still is.

 

[Matalarata]

Enemies are NOT bullet sponges.

They were in beta. And the first boss definitely still is.

I wasn't referring to your comment... I actually had to re-read above to understand why you quoted me...
I dunno I stopped playing alpha/beta/unfinished games.

As for the Boss, yeah. It is. The second one is even worse... Still I'd say two bosses aren't enough to describe enemies as particularly tough. Hell even elites and mini-bosses go down to a simple mastery + damage combo and I never found one that required more than 2 barrages...

 

[Whisper]

Just to clear some things.

Charged spell = Critical (100% chance). You can still crit without Charging but chance is less than 100% (UNLESS you craft spell with 100% crit chance).
Fire is not best spell to crit. Force have highest crit multiplier (but low base damage).

 

[Zewp]

As for the Boss, yeah. It is. The second one is even worse... Still I'd say two bosses aren't enough to describe enemies as particularly tough. Hell even elites and mini-bosses go down to a simple mastery + damage combo and I never found one that required more than 2 barrages...

Yeah, they're not as tough as they were in beta. My impressions of the game in beta were very bad because it felt like fights took forever with the way even minor enemies tanked damage. It wasn't necessarily difficult, just tedious.

I think I'll stick it out and see how the game progresses. It seems a lot better than it was a month ago.

 

[Infinitron]

Yahtzee: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/9714-Lichdom-Battlemage-Review

 

[sbb]

Yahtzee: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/9714-Lichdom-Battlemage-Review

k

 

[Bubbles]

Yahtzee: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/9714-Lichdom-Battlemage-Review

Suprisingly accurate.

 

[Sam Ecorners]

go 50% off coupon for it in the new Loot Crate. Is it worth? $15

 

[Metro]

go 50% off coupon for it in the new Loot Crate. Is it worth? $15

No