Alaloth – Champions of The Four Kingdoms PREVIEW
Combining a classic RPG in isometry, inspired by Baldur’s Gate, and soulslike battles is an interesting idea at least. And if Chris Avellon’s own participation in the development is superimposed on this, then increased attention to such a project cannot be avoided.
Exploring the world is one of the main advantages of Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms. What else can please or upset the early version, which finally appeared on Steam five years after the announcement of the project?
Well, let’s start with the fact that Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms looks and sounds amazing. If you find yourself in the snow—capped mountains, you feel your bones getting cold, and when you enter a tavern flooded with warm light, you smell the ale and delicious stew that is brewed right there – you just want to collapse at the table and listen to the local bard.
If you get into a big city at night, which is ruled by one of the most dangerous Orc clans, then you feel the dark pathos of this gloomy place. And so it is in everything. All settlements of humans, elves, dwarves and orcs look atmospheric and in their own way – and almost every location has its own music.
The world is really big, with a lot of details. There are many cities and other unique places belonging to different races.
Moreover, the world in Alaloth is also quite lively and developing. We move around the global map in real time, much like in Mount & Blade. And at the same time, enemies, neutral monsters, as well as other heroes and champions are moving with us, who are also chasing important artifacts to defeat the dark god, and can also visit quest locations.
As for the quests, at first glance they may disappoint those who were waiting for an RPG in the spirit of Pillars of Eternity. Battle arenas, clearing locations and an abundance of similar orders from bulletin boards do not really fit into this category of games. There are a lot of “Find, kill, bring” quests, but, firstly, even such ones are often presented in an interesting way, and secondly, if you play a little longer, you will see that there are more interesting assignments here.
The combat system in Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms is reminiscent of soulslikes: there is a block, a counterattack, a jerk, a kick, and endurance is spent on all this. And the controls are like in action games. There are serious enemies, especially bosses. But there are no manual saves. Battle arenas need to be cleared immediately, going from the entrance to the exit. If you are killed, the character will be moved to the nearest altar, and all the equipment will wear out more. You can immediately try again, but it’s better to visit the blacksmith to repair things.
Well, in general, a lot of attention is paid to the equipment in the game. There are rare and legendary items with additional characteristics, there is crafting and enchantment. Extra items must be thrown away or sold — the weight in the inventory is also taken into account. And money is very necessary at first — potions and healing food are expensive.
As for the classic leveling, the levels are not received very often. Usually, “levelup” allows you to increase strength, dexterity, stamina or luck by one, and only once every few levels you are allowed to learn new traits.
Of course, the set of levels is important, but at first it is more important to quickly get good equipment. The situation is also facilitated by the appearance of partners who can fight with us — in this case, either the AI or another player will control them.
Each partner, as in classic party RPGs, has his own story and a personal quest. But not everyone is ready to join us — the starting choice of race, faith and worldview of our champion already matters here.
Comrades-in-arms can drop out of the battle, but they never die, repairs cost very little, and the constant respawn of enemies allows you to grind money and equipment, so Alaloth’s level of challenge is, of course, not comparable to some other soulslikes. Although it’s not worth relaxing in high-level combat arenas.
In such cases, one should not rush to conclusions — the fact that not everything is fine with the balance and not all the claimed mechanics work is completely normal for Early Access. The authors honestly warn about all problems with the game on the game page. More importantly, Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms already has a huge potential for development.
Yes, this is unlikely to be the new Baldur’s Gate as far as non-linearity is concerned. But I was still interested: there is an excellent audiovisual performance in the spirit of classic RPGs, a living world, a sea of adventures and a good role-playing system. And soulslike battles give a special nerve to classic RPG exercises. But there is a lot of work ahead — the main thing is that it does not drag on for another five years.
