buttons, all but the most basic attacks
have a cooldown linked to stamina.
There are no health pick-ups, as you
have a bottomless healing potion that
also has a cooldown – so get into too
much trouble and you might not have
an available potion to heal yourself
with. Things get pretty busy, too,
swarming enemies will overwhelm you
quickly, but while it looks crazy and
you can certainly lose yourself when
there’s four of you on-screen at the
same time surrounded by hordes of
mobs, the action is smooth and fast.Stop, ’hammer time
The warrior is pretty much a smash
everything kinda guy, with a powerful
shield for protection, as befits the
tank role. The mage has a bunch of
destructive magic attacks including a
directable fireball – he can throw out
a bunch of them, and bounce them
across dungeon corridor walls, but the
last of these can be directed with the
right stick to cause maximum damage
to groups of enemies. The dwarf has
a grappling hook which he can use to
pull himself out of trouble, or move
quickly to attack foes, and a spinning
berserk attack with his axe.
The game is set in the Warhammer
Fantasy Battle Universe, with the
game divided into multiple acts set
throughout the Old World, each linked
to a Chaos God. Chaos Gods are
basically demonic big cheeses who
like a bit of strife on earth.
If miniature-painting tabletop
fantasy wargame Warhammer isn’t
really your bag, though, don’t worry.
This is an arcadey action game that’s
giving us all sorts of Gauntlet vibes
(warrior, mage, dwarf, archer anyone?),
especially as it’s playable by up to four
players, either couch co-operatively or
online, or a combination of both.
There is a limited RPG element
only in the existence of a skill tree
which will determine the path of your
character’s skill progression, the
points of which can be reset, but
otherwise the game is a hack’n’slash,
pure and simple. The dialogue and
story have been written by fantasy
writer Mike Lee, while the suitably
grandiose fantasy score is by Lord Of
The Rings Online composer Chance
Thomas. We’re pretty excited to get
hacking and slashing when the game
comes out later this year. QThere just aren’t enough couch co-op
games these days. Nothing beats
the fun of sharing a screen with a
mate – in the same room, gasp! – as
you co-operatively hack and slash
your way through hordes of monsters,
collecting treasure and watching each
other’s backs. We still absolutely
love Diablo III, and pretty much any
game like it, and here for the first time
from the Warhammer universe comes
a four-player isometric all-action
dungeon crawler: Chaosbane.
We went hands-on with the game
recently, courtesy of developer EKO
Software and publishers Bigben, to
play through the Praag city and Nuln
Sewer levels as a newly announced
character, the Dwarf Slayer. The Slayer
is one of four characters playable
in the game, alongside a Human
Warrior, a High Elf Mage and an as-yet
unannounced Wood Elf. In traditional
RPG terms, the Dwarf Slayer is a
damage dealer, or DPS, the Warrior has
a tank role (heavily armoured) while
the High Elf is a mage spellcaster.
Though the devs are tight-lipped
about the Wood Elf, we did eke it out
of them that it’ll be the only female
character, and will almost certainly
have ranged (bow) attacks, balancing
out your dungeon-delving party.
All characters have a range of
attacks mapped to various XboxWarhammer was first published by Games Workshop in 1983 as a tabletop wargame
Warhammer:
Chaosbane
Action hack’n’slash brings a
sword to a Warhammer fight
Chris Burke
PUBLISHER BIGBEN INTEACTIVE DEVELOPER EKO SOFTWARE
ETA 2019HAMMER OF
THE COD
Warhammer has
enjoyed a few outings
on Xbox, though
they’ve mostly been
turn-based tactical
affairs. Chaosbane is
the first action
hack’n’slash set in
the Warhammer
universe, but last
year’s excellent FPS,
Warhammer:
Vermintide 2, got
itself a 9/10 from OXM
while we praised its
mix of co-operative
play and being kind of
like Call Of Duty but
with axes, and rats.
“Things get pretty busy,
swarming enemies will
overwhelm you quickly”
034 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
PREVIEW