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This promising battle royale might be the next Brawl Stars

6K View2023-10-25

BATTLE CRUSH

7.2

Fast-pacedActionOnline Co-OpMultiplayer

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SHOULD I PLAY BATTLE CRUSH?

Play it. Battle Crush offers a challenging yet familiar approach to the genre. The game takes on a top-down isometric look compared to other first- and third-person battle royale titles, but it still provides the classic, lootin’-and-shootin’ experience that most players like myself have grown to love. While Battle Crush suffers from character selection problems and connection issues, it shows a lot of promise as an up-and-coming battle royale that could be the next big hit.

TIME PLAYED

I played Battle Crush for three hours on PC. I’ve unlocked five of the fifteen playable characters and leveled my seasonal battlepass to level 41 by playing and using in-game currency. I’ve also played around thirty-some matches, with each one lasting between three to ten minutes depending on how long I survived. I’m still trying to get my second victory in the game.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT BATTLE CRUSH?

• Fighting players on a battlefield. Shooting arrows and firing off orbs of wind has given me a lot of entertainment. I was exhilarated by looting chests, facing off against opposing players, and attempting to survive until I was the last one alive. Combined with fifteen unique, unlockable characters—all of whom I was able to test thanks to a trial pass—combat felt intense and refreshing.

• Dashing around. Battle Crush features a map full of islands hovering over a bottomless pit where players can accidentally fall to their death or get pushed over. There are paths that bridge each island, but it’s not always the best route. In most situations, I could just dash over thin air from one island to another to escape (or zoom after) enemies. Since dashing used stamina, I had to be careful of where I went so I wouldn’t fall to my death. That one simple mechanic made the game feel much more complex and challenging.

• Tutorial and tips. Even though Battle Crush wasn’t that hard to get the hang of, the game made it even easier for me to understand thanks to an in-depth, hands-on tutorial. I was able to learn the ropes comfortably, and the tutorial was very thorough, which I appreciated greatly.

• The looks, the style. Battle Crush’s fabulous look struck me as something like Realm Royale mixed with Brawl Stars, plus an added dash of vibrant colors and Greek mythology. From the menu layout to the characters and battlefield, everything in this game looks gorgeous.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT IN BATTLE CRUSH?

• Character selection. There needs to be some sort of lock-in feature during the selection phase to stop players from picking the same characters in a match. Not only does stacking characters ruin the experience for everyone else, but it’s a less challenging way to play the game. Hopefully something gets added soon because it’s excruciating to continuously lose to teams that stack crowd control characters.

• Limited servers at the moment. This issue doesn’t impact the game generally, but players should be warned about it before playing. I connected to the US server from Australia, but if you can resist the urge to dive into Battle Crush immediately, I highly recommend waiting until more regional servers arrive. Since battles require players to react quickly, playing on a server that’s far away from you might impact your gameplay experience. You might experience rubber-banding, lag, and delays.

💬 Will you play Battle Crush or are you going to skip it? Let me know down in the comments!