Lichdom: Battlemage Review

Lichdom is a RPG game, but done a little differently from the AAA titles of The Elder Scrolls and The Witcher. Instead of being placed in a medieval world with swords, maces, dragons, and the sort, you're a mage (huge suprise right?), and that's the only thing you can be. Now some may see that as a downfall because they just love sword fighting, but that's actually why this game has so much potential! Normally when you play as a mage in some other RPG, you just feel weak. When you run out of mana, what can you do as a mage? Just run around and wait until your mana comes back? What fun is that? In Lichdom, you don't have a mana bar. You can spam all the spells you want, whenever you want. That being said, spells do take a decent amount of time to cast, so spamming isn't the most ideal thing to do.

Currently, Lichdom is in its very early stages, but they released it on Steam where you can purchase it to gain early access to its content. When you start the game up, you're literally just placed in a cave with no tutorial on how to play, or any direction of what to do, kind of like Dark Souls. But there is a screen that tells you the controls, and for now, it's good enough to get you through.

The graphics in this game look very good. Coming from a company that doesn't have much experience, this game is a very good step forward for them.

Now they did something unique for sound. There's a video somewhere on YouTube I watched a while ago where they demonstrated how their audio is way better than other games. When you hear an enemy, you don't just hear him, you hear exactly where he is. Even if it's behind you, it actually sounds like it's behind you, and a lot of games fail to do just that. When an enemy is to your left and slightly higher than you, again, it sounds like he really is to your left and higher than you. It's actually crazy and makes the game very immersive and enjoyable. Although, not all the audio is finished. There is currently no dialog in the game, just subtitles for the characters for now. I'm not even sure if they finished the story line yet.

The gameplay is unique compared to other RPGs. There isn't really a leveling system in this game, but instead you upgrade your spells by creating new ones. Throughout the game, when you kill enemies or open chests, you'll find these orb things (I don't know what they're called), and with those you can create better spells for your character to use. Again, I think its limited to what you can create for now.

The best part about this game is that it's actually a difficult game. I hate games that babysit you and make the game a cake walk, this isn't one of those games. Boss fights are challenging, even regular monsters sometimes give you a hard time. I'm really happy that difficult games are coming back into the picture with Dark Souls and The Witcher (on the hardest difficulty). Games are meant to be a challenge and when you beat a game, you should feel like you really accomplished something.

All in all, this game looks very promising. But for now, it's probably best to keep your money and wait for the game to be further into development before you buy this game. Right now, all there is to do is combat. So just wait a little longer, unless you were super hyped for the game like I was. I really hope this game becomes something big, because being a mage is always the most fun thing to do in RPGs, and this game allows you to be exactly the mage you've always wanted to be.

Lichdom is early access!

I've been pretty hyped about this game, and I kind of forgot about it when listing my most anticipated game. The game looks gorgeous and I can't wait to play it after it finishes downloading. I'll give a review shortly afterwards though so stay tuned to read it!