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Now on Mobile (Cloud), It’s basically Brotato on steroids, but it needs more work | Wild Legion

852 View2023-12-22

Wild Legion

7.7

World War IITacticalCold WarVampireDarkArcheryTower DefenseAction Roguelike

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✨Overview

I’ve been on a rogue-like roll recently, and now we’re about to cover yet another game the in the genre with Wild Legion, an upcoming rogue-like survival game with some refreshing twists. I recently played the Demo available on Steam and it’s basically Brotato on steroids, featuring auto-attack horder survival gameplay filled with elements taken from other genres such as tower defense, twin-stick shooting, crafting, and questing. The game is still under development, and set to be release in Early Access on Q1 2024.

⭐️Score: 7/10

Pocket Playfest: An Indie Celebration 2023 Winter Edition

In a recent hands-on exclusive experience this past weekend, I had the privilege of testing a handful of titles on TapTap's experimental cloud gaming service, setting the stage for this 16-day event where indie game developers show-off their creations exclusively on the TapTap mobile platform — fully playable PC games without the need for an actual PC, Android/iOS version, or the need to download the games and install them. Granted, you’d need to have a reliable internet service to be able to stream these games, and preferably are located in US and Canada for consistent play and latency, at least for now.

🔗Join the Playfest >>
https://www.taptap.io/events/playfest2023winter

📅 Schedule

Dates: December 23, 12 AM PT - January 7, 11:59 PM PT.
Playfest Winners & Player Rewards Announcement: January 8, 12 AM PT

For my personal cloud gaming experience in this specific, please see further below in the review.

📖Premise
While the demo, or the possibly game itself doesn't delve deeply into narrative, Wild Legion sets the stage for players to enter a rectangular arena filled with hordes of enemies, survival challenges, and the quest for ultimate weapons and magic spells.

🎨Graphics and Art Style

The graphics are reminiscent of the game Don’t Starve. The game's visuals are characterized by a dark and exaggerated cartoon aesthetic, featuring hand-drawn characters with elongated limbs and combining 2D graphics with a gothic and whimsical atmosphere.

🎮Gameplay

Wild Legion presents a rogue-like experience with auto-attack hoard survival at its core. The ability to wield multiple weapons and magic spells feels very much close to Brotato’s gameplay mechanics. Equip them all and use them all at the same time, automatically firing and swinging at enemies. There is an option to toggle manual targeting for long range weapons, which kinda turns the game into a Twin Stick shooter. The weapons range from typical knives, swords and medieval weapons like hammers and axes, to modern day firearms like shotguns and rifles.

Additionally, the game features optional tower defense elements by gathering trees around the arena and crafting towers to assist you. By saying optional, I mean there is an option to fully automate it, allowing you to focus on the traditional horde survival gameplay if you prefer.

Scattered throughout the arena are some minor flavors that add more layer to the gameplay. Pets to capture and rescue, and the Moon Tower to defend at night. During the day, enemies only attack you, but come night time, they’ll go for the Moon Tower if it spawns and you must defend it or else you’ll also die. There is only one character playable in the demo for now, but there are slots for a lot more currently locked, if it’s anything close to Brotato’s character system, then the different characters will cater to different playstyles; Melee, Ranged, Guns, Tank, Magic, and more.

⚔️Combat

Combat in Wild Legion is fast-paced and intense, as players battle hordes of enemies while strategically using multiple weapons and spells. The game's emphasis on auto-attack hoard survival requires players to navigate through waves of adversaries, utilizing a combination of weapons, spells, and towers for effective defense.

Most enemies are melee but there are also ranged projectile attacks to avoid, especially from high level enemies and bosses. Wild Legion also features ultimate “S-rank” version of weapons when at max level and combined with other items which is similar to how ultimate weapons are handheld in Vampire Survivors.

The combat is enjoyable; however, one gripe I have is that the spawn timer, starting from displaying the "X" indicator on the ground, is too fast, giving players almost no time to react and avoid standing on the spawn. This has damaged me more often than I have control over.

⏫Progression

Wild Legion introduces a progression system where players unlock an array of deadly weapons, powerful equipment, and mystical spells. The ability to stack buffs and unlock S-rank attacks enhances the player's arsenal, providing a sense of accomplishment and growth.

Unlike most contemporaries, where you need to finish a wave or level to access the weapon or item shop, you can access the shop at any point in this game, and the cost of rerolling is low. There is a high chance of achieving your target build and the game does not rely too much on RNG.

📊Technical Performance

The game, at least the demo, suffered from horrible frame rate drops in late-game segments when you have multiple ultimate weapons and massive hordes of enemies coming for you. It takes away from the enjoyment, and the game is almost unplayable during these slowdowns. I do hope this is resolved for the release version.

⚖️Conclusion

Wild Legion, with its auto-attack hoard survival gameplay and a blend of genres, presents another intriguing addition to the rogue-like genre with its mix of many gameplay elements from adjacent genres. While the demo provides a taste of the game's potentially fun nature, it also highlights the need for optimization to ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience. As Wild Legion prepares for its Early Access release in Q1 2024, addressing technical issues and refining gameplay mechanics will be pivotal in realizing the game's full potential.

☁️General Cloud Gaming Experience

This past weekend, I had the chance to be chosen as one of the testers for an experimental cloud gaming service by TapTap, and I must say, it holds a lot of promise. The quality is seriously impressive - we're talking sharp HD resolution, not like your typical streamed game. Looks and feels native and doesn’t feel like its streamed. The performance is also smooth (60FPS), with good frame timing (by visual observation only, as there was no tool to monitor this). There’s currently no way to play at a native 16:9 with black bars, as the screen is stretched out to the phone’s screen.

📶Cloud Latency

In my experience, my latency during the test phase was around 200ms --- only because the servers are currently located in United States for now and I'm connecting from asia. Even then, It’s still a bit playable, especially for games that are not latency sensitive like point and click games or those with simple controls. Having said that, it’s just a matter of server location and having lots of servers. It’s understandable since this is just a testing phase with limited servers. If a datacenter is nearby, I am positive that I’ll have a smooth and fluid experience, same with those living in the US or Canada. It works like a charm on 5GHz wifi, but the experience took a hit on 2.4GHz, so won’t recommend that.

🕹Cloud Touch Controls

Now, onto the user interface. I'm a fan of how each game has its own custom on-screen buttons, tailored to the specific control scheme. It works like a charm for simpler games, but things get a bit tricky with more complex ones.

🔃Cloud Accessibility

Accessing the service is a breeze - the Instant Play integration is right there on the game page, next to Download/Steam/Play buttons. Loading times are impressively fast, and I love that I can minimize the TapTap app and return to the game still streaming. Progress is not yet saved between streaming sessions, so it’s clearly just for testing purposes. Overall, it's been an interesting experience, and while there are some kinks, the potential here is exciting. Definitely surpassed my expectations.

🌩Specific Cloud Game Experience

Wild Legion is semi-playable on the cloud and requires some adaptation time due to minor UI quirks such as small buttons and UI elements; especially in the buy menu where the difference between upgrading a weapon or selling it is merely a few pixels only that you’ll more or less misclick most of the time due to the phone’s small screen nature. There is dependency on the Latency, especially when evading enemies in real-time. Additionally, touch controls may not navigate all menus, and sometimes require using the virtual joystick in certain situations.