Conqueror's Blade

Conqueror's Blade is mmorpg combining PvP in fast paced hack ‘n’ slash combat with dedicated class abilities and PvE in squad tactics meaning you will lead a unit chosen from your selection, limited only by your leadership level. Story Non existent. 1/5 You start running around a noob camp and go through series of narrated tutorial quests until you reach level 12, you'll

Conqueror's Blade is mmorpg combining PvP in fast paced hack ‘n’ slash combat with dedicated class abilities and PvE in squad tactics meaning you will lead a unit chosen from your selection, limited only by your leadership level. Story Non existent. 1/5 You start running around a noob camp and go through series of narrated tutorial quests until you reach level 12, you'll learn to fight, order units, ride a horse, use siege weapons, then you'll travel to friendly city in region of your choice, you'll dive into PvE battles. Then you're ready to do PvP. The game doesn't explain anything afterwards, for example world outside of the city. Once you leave a friendly fief, you'll appear in bordered area where your food consumption doesn't decrease, however once you leave area, you will either have to stock on food into your wagon, or buy it at the inns where you also heal your units, however not fully, to resupply units with new weapons and heal too you have to visit friendly city again. Gameplay Good. 4/5 MMORPG focused on combat. Each player is accompanied by a horse and single unit that has 4 abilities to his or her disposal. You can equip yourself and horse with better equipment, improve your abilities or unlock another weapon class with the same character, but you will have to gain your abilities from scratch. It's somehow important to mention you can only play certain classes for female (dual blades, short bow) or male (spear, poleaxe, bow). Some classes can use abilities from horseback, like spear and glaive. Dual blades have additional abilities while being invisible. There are gathering sites that deplete after players empty them, you can gather resources once a day by paying a fee, lowest is usually 500 bronze coins, or requisition as many times as you have orders with you, but also pay a fee, some sites can be claimed by houses. There are roaming bandits which are classified as easy, medium and hard and the respective difficulty camps (same map), which can be only visited by a group of three and more advanced players. You can also exchange gathered resources with other cities for “loot boxes” that provide you with various uncommon rewards. The cap for fief rewards is 20/week that resets on Mondays. PvE includes 3 levels of Expedition and Ironman mode (Siege offense and defense, Field battle) against waves of incoming bot heroes, their units and also includes fighting bandits, their camps, gathering resources, conquering territories and building up strong house with additional alliances. You can build siege engines, manage your resources, repair equipment and craft materials inside friendly city where you can also heal, replenish and resupply your units with weapons. Game has very few maps but most are big. You can use buildings and walls for cover, during siege battles, you will shoot from siege weapons on both sides of the wall, besiege a castle with trebuchets, battering rams, towers and ladders too. If you're an attacker in siege battle you're allowed to use trebuchet one time. Save this for the most decisive strike, it is deadly but can be blocked by buildings so shooting at flocks of units, especially accompanied by heroes that are standing on capture point, is the best possible usage of trebuchet. Only one player at a time can use it, then it's on cooldown for 15 seconds. Occasionally, there's Deathmatch, pure hero vs hero, where the first team defeating 30 enemies wins. The game strongly reminds me of Mount and Blade world, without its combat though. However, commanding units is kind of alike and can be also compared to Total War games, where units have abilities as well. It doesn't really have a story, so it's better experience with friends, especially for PvP battles and houses. You can learn new abilities and improve the existing ones for unlocked weapons with experience gained in battlefield and personalize them to your playstyle, while being able to change your weapon which you can swap directly in battle if you have required armor equipped, as bow and dual blades users can only take light armor set, musket, spear and nodachi use medium and light armor parts, by equipping heavier armor set you are allowed to take sword and shield, halberd, poleaxe and glaive. You will hit max cap with stats at level 60, technically meaning only armor and units give you advantage compared to lower level players matched against you. Teamplay is important. By the way, I reached level 60 after some 60 hours in-game, first levels went fast, then I reached level 70+ after 100 hours, unlocked only 2nd tier units (fully improved) out of 5. Game has tactical features like commanding your unit with basic orders (hold position, change formation, follow, attack). You improve the unit and unlock its abilities in the unit skill tree more you play with it. Some units have fast learner skills so they gain more experience. You can command foot militia and horsemen to charge, or spearmen to form a shield wall, preferably squadron to protect the hero inside, archers to fire selected points. Each unit has some goods and bads amongst their abilities, you can research new unit types and tiers. First of all, to unlock higher tier, you have to unlock a certain number of lower tiered ones, for example silver era requires to research 4 units with 2+ stars (mainly bronze era). You can swap the units only at own or captured flag points with commander anytime you want but can not be interrupted by enemies, and you can only take limited amount of units into battle according to your leadership that grows per 5 levels up to 60th level where the leadership reaches 700 points, however the number can be improved with certain items adding few more points on top of that. If your horse or units take damage you can heal them at your own unit spawn point, however if you lose them, you'll have to walk for the rest of battle without assistance or take new ones if you have reserve. If you as a hero die, you can take only units that didn't suffer great loss of troops, and if they survive, you can swap them only after resurrection. After your horse falls in battle, you need to take care of it in town and feed it with hay. My biggest concern is the balance of certain heroes. Stunning is a decisive feature that locks the player in place that can not move nor defend. Heroes that have stun abilities have significant advantage in 1v1, sometimes 2 cooperating heroes can easily burn 100% HP of the enemy without taking damage themselves. Once you gather enough experience and a required amount (5 & 20 & 35) of certain skill pages, you will unlock the ultimate ability that will take your 4th slot, making you much more competitive than players that haven't done it yet. You have to reach certain levels to do more stuff in the game, like reaching 12 for PvP, 30 for bandit camp, 60 for maxed out stats and 700 leadership points, meanwhile earning experience and skill pages to unlock your ultimate ability. I unlocked mine around level 55. It's better to avoid classes that are much higher level than you, they will have better ability composition, equipped with higher level armor and weapons, improved units, more units and knowledge gained through battle veterancy. Some classes are better than others but utilizing your abilities with good unit selection can give you advantage in some situations. Furthermore you are getting rewards for completing quests and battles. PvPvE is a Field battle with 3 objective circles that you need to hold for points that decide who will win, or Siege battle with 19 players where you have to capture/defend all points before time runs out, or travelling on world map while collecting resources and fighting bandits (sometimes hero bots), but also fighting players that are creating houses and alliances. You can create a house and conquer the world, collect resources and craft, pursue other players or simply stick to playing against bots if you like, it is still challenging enough. Replay value Sandbox. 5/5 You receive daily reward for signing in that is very low and does not increase as the time passes, not giving addicted players advantage. I never ran out of in-game coins totally but still need to manage them cleverly as higher tier units are expensive to resupply. The game can be exploited to the advantage of attentive players. For example, you can hide in an allied spawn area or jump off high ground behind enemy lines or see behind corners. The matchmaking is rather strange, sometimes putting level 12 fight against level 60+, other times having almost all players 60+. When I was below level 30, there were mostly low level players too, so there is probably a cap when you will be matched only against higher players. If any player leaves before or during a match, he will not be misplaced by another in the queue, the team with such non-player will be disadvantaged. You can heal approximately half of your HP pool every minute which is done over a few seconds by standing still and using heal ability. Some heroes can also heal you if you stand near them. If you're hit or moved during self healing, it will stop and its cooldown starts. Graphics? Good. 4/5 Graphics on ultra settings are visually appealing and nice, however, not very detailed or realistic, you can differentiate between classes and use skins for you and units, which you can improve as they gain experience. There is a good distance view (you can even hit an enemy with a longbow or siege weapon to long distance). Game has weather effects and day/night cycles but night battles occur only outside the city. You can give yourself and units different skins, or customize your look. Hardware requirements? Mid range. High range. Beware, the game is pretty demanding on a mid-range gaming PC with ultra settings, FPS flies between 40-60, even worse when recording, furthermore there is one long loading before and after battle that juices my PC to maximum. I am usually waiting for other players to load. There are some bugs here and there but nothing game breaking. One particular is rather problematic, throwing off ladders is hard to do when the wall is high or when ally is throwing too, the progress resets. You may see units standing that are dead already or floating ones. How difficult bots? Normal. Hard. AI behaviour can be exploited, sometimes wiping the whole unit without taking any damage is possible. However you may be overrun by heavy shielded footmen or cavalry charge, the worst is when they are chasing you and surrounding you. The hero bot is usually a real challenge 1v1, you will fare better against certain classes. Verdict 7/10 Combat with heroes and units is very enjoyable, the game puts an importance towards planning more often than not, even when it comes to travelling outside of a friendly city. Team play is also essential for winning, though outnumbering opponents will not always bring fruit because the positioning and proper use of unit abilities is very impactful as well as heroes. I have easily spent 100 hours as a solo player and played in Beta, when the game had problems running, but I knew I'm gonna like it in full version. As the game doesn't have a story, and your final goal may be conquering all territories and forming the strongest alliance, all through grinding, I don't consider it a problem. Game is not very detailed in terms of graphics or tutorials, however if you keep following quests, you will get to know at least half of the game. After defeating bandits you are rewarded with their weapons, if you encounter a bot hero, his weapon, some rarity, or helmet that you collect for fief quests. If you defeat enough bandits in one area, you may check the main city within those borders for fief rewards. While traveling, you will find abandoned carts and tents that will often provide you with a small bronze pouch or chest with rewards, such as a siege weapon, even rarely a better chest with more valuable stuff in it. If you decide to pursue a player in the world, he will be warned by system. If your army is fast enough, you'll dive into 1v1 battle that other players may join. If you win, you get some of his resources. To sum up classes. Short sword fighters can throw their shield at a foe that will return like a boomerang. He can quickly ram enemies with sword smash finishing. He can reduce incoming damage by significant value which is a huge boost to his survivability since he wears heavy armor too. He will also slow down enemies by knocking them down and has high damage abilities, however some attacks are hard to hit. Great in 1v1. High damage potential. Long sword and shield can heal himself and nearby allies on the run besides basic stationary healing ability and healing per hit that make him a damage sponge and the only healer in the team. Increases the speed of nearby allies and slows down enemies. He can ram enemies and knock them back. Good in 1v1. Average damage output. Glaive does wide spins that can connect with enemies surrounding him and from horseback as well, has good chase and escape ability, increases attack power of nearby allies, and can recover from stun instantly. Great vs units. Good in 1v1. High area of effect damage. Poleaxe is a stun expert, causes bleeding, recovers from stun easy, can drag an enemy closer, force to dismount or knockback, some abilities deal high area of effect damage. Slow and close combat attacks. Good vs units. Great in 1v1. High damage potential. Dual blades aka assassin with almost invisibility ability that offers additional 3 abilities and has good stun and escape against heroes. Longbow with high range and good dodge abilities. Strong against lightly armored heroes.