Spellbreak Review

"Battle Royale Spells"

Campaign

October 8, 2020 at 3:48am
By Jason Stettner

This is a free to play battle royale experience that does something a little new with the saturated genre by infusing a little bit of fantasy and magic. In threes, duos or solos depending on what’s available due to certain game adjustments you’ll be battling it out using powerful spells.

Like with all games of the genre you drop down onto the map, this time around using a sort of teleportation into freefall. It’s then a mad dash to collect loot as you then use those very items to protect yourselves or go on the offensive. It’s all about being the last individual and or team standing in order to win.

That’s the core of the experience, and the general just of what you’re doing. I was able to experience this on a number of platforms since it does have the option for cross-progression and cross-play which is great for a seamless time. That worked fine whether I was on Xbox One, Playstation 4 or Nintendo Switch platforms.

Gameplay

This is a game about spell casting and its systems are very interesting. There are these elemental gauntlets you collect while playing. You start off with a selection, and then can add another to that. You will also be able to find upgrades as you explore and loot. You’re easily able to upgrade, no confusing inventory management on this one. It’s streamlined and very well done inventory wise. Continuing on you’ll use these gauntlets to unleash a few abilities, and some of them can be combined to provide more devastating effects.

That’s really quite cool, to see the combinations of the abilities being sent outwards. It can be particularly wild if you’re in a group and battling other factions. There are also some secondary abilities you can use, and a neat sense of speedy movement. The map itself is decently large in scale, it’s called The Hollow Lands. It has a sort of ruins vibe to it, with some distinct areas.

The look and quality of this does change a lot across the platforms. It looked really great on Xbox One X and less so on the Nintendo Switch which also struggled with frame rate in some frantic moments. The Playstation 4 and Xbox versions ran perfectly fine while looking good even during some intensive segments of combat. I should mention that this does support up to forty-two players in a battle, it seemed to matchmake fairly quickly no matter where I played it.

The Conclusion

Spellbreak is typically a blast, no matter which of the platforms you jump on to play it delivering some fast paced fantasy battle royale action. I think it definitely fills a bit of a niche within the crowded genre and does something a little bit different. I liked the aesthetics of the experience, especially during those frantic times of powers being unleashed by battling factions.

It’s very much a core battle royale experience, it’ll be interesting to see where they take the formula into the future as the genre usually means the games mix themselves up every once and a while. The cross-progression and cross-play work well, it’s great to see this become more common of an option as time has progressed. It’s got some neat, fast paced fantasy action.

You’re down to loot, gain better abilities to battle onwards as you’re pushed inwards. It’s got a neat orb based system for revives, and it felt generally balanced. It had some complexities to the core components of conflict in this one, should keep it fresh for those wanting something different. Will be neat to see what they do with this one and how it will evolve over time.

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Spellbreak Review on Xbox One X, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch
Review Code Provided by The Amplifier Group

Rating Overall: 7.6