The stone element, for example, has a secondary in which you fire a massive boulder at an opponent. Elements can then be combined in action, making for some fascinating strategies as each match develops. The first is the one you choose prior to entering a match, while the second is decided by whatever elemental gauntlets you happen to find lying around or hidden in treasure chests. The fire element, on the other hand, basically uses a rocket launcher as its primary, while its secondary is a firewall that you can place to cut off an opponent’s escape.Īdmittedly, the classes don’t feel terribly well balanced – wind takes so long to kill enemies that it’s hardly worth the time – but part of what makes each match so thrilling is that you can have two elements available for use at once. The ice element, for example, is basically the ‘sniper’ class, and its primary fire is a slowly charged ice spear that does tons of precision damage. Each element has a primary attack and a secondary attack, the latter of which is governed by a cooldown and is generally used as more of a crowd control device. There are six classes to choose from prior to entering a match, each corresponding to a different element and playstyle. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before, but the fascinating mechanics explored by the different classes in Spellbreak make for matches that are thrilling, varied, and – most importantly – fun.Ĭaptured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) Instead of guns and pickaxes, your characters here fight each other by hurling fireballs and boulders at each other in the desperate struggle for glory. Fortnite’s influence on Spellbreak is visible everywhere – there’s even an ever-encroaching killer storm for goodness' sake – but the main way in which Spellbreak notably splits from its inspiration is in the distinctly fluid form of magical combat. To say that the genre has become saturated is quite the understatement, then, which makes it that much more difficult for a newcomer to stand out.Įnter Spellbreak, an enjoyable new battle royale which ultimately feels like it’s releasing about two or three years too late. There’s a battle royale version of Tetris. There’s a battle royale version of Super Mario Bros. If you want something a little goofier, you can try for some crowns in Fall Guys. Fortnite has proven itself to be the poster child, of course, but there are other shooter alternatives like Call of Duty: Warzone or Apex Legends. It will undoubtedly get better with future updates, and not only that, Spellbreak supports cross-play and is free-to-play. Battle royale fans looking for something that's a little different flavor than the military shooters that dominate the genre have no real reason not to give it a go, but they should keep their expectations in check.These days, it’s hard to imagine that there was once a time when the 'battle royale' genre didn’t exist. While somewhat annoying, it was easily fixed and otherwise, things ran smoothly.Įven so, Spellbreak's shortcomings at launch make it a far less compelling experience than many of the other battle royale games on the market. In fact, the only technical problem we ran into during our time with the game was a strange bug that essentially made the interact button useless until we shot off a spell. Technically speaking, Spellbreak is much more impressive than many other battle royale games are on day one, with very little in the way of performance issues, glitches, or game crashes. There are certainly many key ways Spellbreak can improve, but one thing that the game should be commended for is its polish. Unfortunately, fans are still waiting for access to the genre-standard solos and quads modes at the time of this writing, but they will certainly be added at some point down the line. Since then, Spellbreak added a duos mode, and it's quite likely that more team composition options will come in future updates. At launch, Spellbreak only allowed for trios, similarly to how Call of Duty: Warzone was when it first released.

The orbs are able to move around the battlefield, so players will sometimes find themselves running around looking for orbs to exile.Īnother area where Spellbreak has room to improve is its number of available game modes. Of course, players can down every member of the enemy team to eliminate them all at once, but Spellbreak makes it easy for players to run away when things get too crazy.

It's like the opposite of reviving a teammate - players stand in front of the downed enemy and hold a button until a meter fills if they want to officially get the kill. While the battles themselves are a lot of fun, having to manually 'exile' enemy orbs after defeating them slows things down too much.

Something else in Spellbreak that may be able to use some work is the flow of combat.

Spellbreak player count