Review of Counterspell

So the first thing I noticed about this game is that movement is faster and looser than I thought it would feel. In a good way, like Quake 3. You're very mobile in this game, and parkour is a totally valid strategy half the time(especially if you play a rogue, who can double jump against walls and take half falling damage). How did slow fpses ever get popular again?

The second thing I noticed is that a grenade's radius is about twice as big as you would think it would be and the bouncing splash damage thingies last twice as long as you think they would. The first two times I died was me hoisted by my own petards. Afterwards, about 33% of all my deaths were friendly fire from my coop buddy who just thinks grenades are the best thing in the world. I honestly can't help but agree with him. Grenades have a good variety (standard fragmentation, A Storm of Swords inspired wildfire, mines with poison, freezing, etc), they feel very natural and satisfying to throw. Most importantly, I feel they really even the playing field between martials and casters, giving rogues and fighters at least some response to the wizard's late game ridiculousness. I also can't even get mad at him for killing me all those times because respawning is pretty painless. You can resurrect someone in your party like in a modern shooter and even if your party is wiped, you just respawn at the beginning of the area(enemies also respawn, of course).

The third thing I noticed is that stealth is an option. Hell and yes! Only a rogue can fully capitalize on it with sneak attack, but anyone can use a scroll to turn invisible and warlocks can disguise themselves as goblins. Even the fighter is better off not drawing the aggro of every goblin on the block. I'll talk more about this later, but there a lot of different ways to take a dungeon. Sometimes even not taking it is an option. Sometimes you can just try to cowboy through an area you have no business being in. The game respects you like that.

About the ninth or tenth thing I noticed is that this game is pretty rough. It's still an Early Access game, but it's also a game on Steam being sold for money so I don't feel bad telling you that the menu and UI are Runescape levels of suck. Also, if I want to delete a character slot, I have to go to the local file and drag my goddamn save into the recycle bin. There is no delete button, and if you think you're clever by pressing "delete", the game will crash. Also, the game won't even hint at this, but if you want to create a character and choose a class you have to press escape at the start menu. Also, none of the characters, enemy or pc, are animated beyond moving their legs. So you don't get to see your badass rogue slice with both daggers. I''m sure it'll be fixed later and it's obvious Abnormal Software focused on the making the gameplay tight, but still, it's a bummer.

The whatever hundredth thing I noticed is that multiplayer is pretty awesome. This may be the most fun I've had with a LAN party since Payday 2. There are some great PVE and PVP modes (my favorite is defense where two teams control a portal that spews enemies at the other team) and it only suffers from there not being very many people online. Everything is more fun with other people but this game is pretty special on that front. All of the sections from the main quest mode are split into levels and all of the levels are beautifully optimized for multiplayer, with a lot of verticality and hiding spots. The Quake 3 reference I made earlier was not an idle one. Everyone is moving and slaying fast in all directions and respawing just fast enough to keep from getting frustrated. Lag seems to be an issue with anyone outside of LAN range, especially in the coop quest, but beyond that the multiplayer is beyond solid.

The Fluff

The story is no great shakes but I've read worse D&D modules; An affluent island town has effectively disappeared with no ships entering returning. The Kingdom sends an army to secure the town only to be turned back with terrible power. The kingdom then hires you as a kind of scout/D&D commando to infiltrate and eventually secure the island. Again, loose but it sets the tone, especially in the strong implication that stealth is viable.

The overall tone of the game is cutesy, gamey, with an obvious sense of danger. Most people I hear compare it to Minecraft. I am reminded a lot of Hexen 2, but with brighter colors. The open ended level design is like the better parts of Morrowind. The dungeons aren't too claustrophobic and the open fields aren't too sparse but are joy to explore an sufficiently dangerous with just enough randomness to keep things from getting stale. The monster design is likewise cute, but could use a bit of variety and, honestly, only the elementals stand out artistically. Also, I truly hope that they eventually change out the player character design(a palette swapped old man).

The Verdict

I would be remiss to finish this interview without mentioning the final boss, Cinder. She's a goblin wizard and she's bullshit. I simply could not solo her even at a maxed out level. The only ways to her is through a gauntlet of level twenty monsters or to literally walk across lava. from there, the only way to get to her is to climb a ladder up a tower through the most obvious killzone ever made in a videogame so she can get a couple free shots(ie flame strike ie wizard's napalm) at you. She also has a bunch of hp and hits like a truck in melee. She's also my favorite part of the game. So since my other friend and I couldn't take her head on we got creative. My friend downed a potion of invisibility (I cast invisibility being a rogue) and set up some traps to lead her into. My wizard friend drew aggro first(I know, I know) leading her through the traps, then I struck her in the back, getting dozens of crits in seconds. My wizard friend, dying, had to duck out; which left me alone with her. She destroyed me in seconds, casting flame strike on the both of us. The second I died, the wizard reappeared throwing three wildfires at the monster, and she was done. The game credited her death to a suicide by her own flame strike.

We were, of course, pretty stoked when we killed her but also a little sad. She was the end. No more quest mode. A new game + is sorely wanted. A lot is sorely wanted. But what is available for five dollars right now is pretty dang good. Well worth it in my opinion.