Towerborne Early Access Impressions – Xbox Game Studios’ New Game Has Lots of Potential

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Towerborne Early Access, Developed by Stoic Studios and published by Xbox Game Studiosinvites us to explore a post-apocalyptic fantasy world. The last city of humanity is protected by a mysterious tower that dominates the horizon. This place, called “The Refuge”, is the only safe bastion after the collapse of the world. As a newly awakened hero, your mission is to protect the survivors and uncover the secrets behind the Tower.

The Towerborne universe is fascinating, full of details that build an intriguing narrative. Throughout the game, you can interact with various characters who have their own stories, which enriches the immersion. However, this title that It is still under developmentleaves many open questions about the tower and its origin, generating interest for future updates.

Fast, fluid combat keeps you glued to its world

As in any good game of the “beat'em up” genre, the combat system is one of the highlights of Towerborne and works with a couple of buttons. The movements are mainly focused on the Fast action with precise control. This is how the game offers fast-paced and satisfying combat. And, of course, there are combo attacks and special abilities that allow us to experiment with different combat styles.

Each encounter challenges you to adapt your strategy, especially against stronger enemies or large groups. However, despite the fluidity and dynamism, The combat mechanics can get a bit repetitive after several hours of gameplay. The lack of variety in enemies and mission design tend to limit the feeling of progress.

Personalization is key to survival

One of the most appealing aspects of Towerborne is the deep character customization. From the choice of weapons to the skills you can equip, the game allows you to allows you to shape your own playing stylePlus, you can upgrade your gear and skills as you go, which keeps progression interesting.

Speaking of progression, the system is robust, incentivizing you to explore and complete quests to unlock new upgrades. This is especially important when facing more powerful enemies and surviving the more dangerous areas of Towerborne's world. However, it still feels like Some options are limited in this initial phaseso it will be interesting to see how customization evolves as the game receives regular updates.

Charming visuals in a desolate world

Towerborne stands out for its artistic style. It is gorgeous as hell. We move through a hexagonal square map to select missions, but once inside, the desolate landscapes and ruins of humanity are depicted with a design done with great taste that blends a hand-drawn style with modern graphics. Despite the bleakness of its world, there are moments of true beauty in the environments you traverse. From withered forests to colossal structures, each area has its own visual identity that helps differentiate the regions you explore.

However, and despite its excellent artworksome animations can feel clunky at times, especially during combat or dialogue sequences, where characters don't always convey the right emotion.

Despite its potential, it has areas that need polishing.

While Towerborne has a ton of potential, it's important to note that it's still in Early Access and therefore It has some problems that need to be corrected. Missions, while fun at first, tend to repeat themselves and lack the depth you'd expect from a game of this caliber. The “leave the shelter, complete missions, and return” gameplay loop can become predictable.

There are also some technical issues that affect the overall experience. During embargoed early access, a moderate amount of issues have been reported. Graphical errors and stability issues that Microsoft and Stoic Studios need to address before full release. Despite this, the developers have been committed to the project by announcing regular updates, which generates confidence that these inconveniences will be resolved as the game progresses in its development.

Hero in the making or future legend

It's up to Stoic and Microsoft, but Towerborne is a project with a solid foundation that has plenty of potential to become an incredible experience. I don't want to say too much about the plot so as not to spoil anything, but the narrative, the characters and the dynamic combat are the pillars that support this action-adventure game. However, to reach its full potential, it will need to polish certain key aspects, such as mission variety and technical optimization.

If you enjoy narrative-driven action games with an engaging world to explore, Towerborne is worth a look. As Early Access evolves and the studio continues to fine-tune the experience, It could become one of the big titles from Xbox Game Studios when it officially launches for PC and Xbox sometime in 2025.

Why does an Xbox exclusive come out on PC before it does on console? The creators of Towerborne justify themselves

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