Currently in Steam Early Access, Warlocks vs. Shadows is a 2D action platformer that offers a pretty enjoyable co-op arena experience but not without some issues. Sort of similar to Risk of Rain, players have four abilities to choose from during combat. Warlocks changes things up however by allowing you to level up persistently and improve one skill every level. I was impressed overall, but of course a lot still needs to be tweaked and added if developer Frozen District wants to release a high quality experience for the fifteen dollars that they’re asking for.
My main concern is the amount of content. If the trend continues, then there are only five or six tile sets containing six arenas and one boss arena. It sounds like a lot at first, but the current amount of content can be completed quickly if you don’t play the whole game solo. Even by yourself, Warlocks vs. Shadows shouldn’t take you much longer than two or three hours to complete if my predictions are correct. If you could play the PvP modes online I wouldn’t mind this lack of content so much, but unfortunately the game is currently local play only. It’s too bad, because the game and core mechanics are actually a lot of fun. If you have a few controllers and anticipate playing locally, then it’s worth it, otherwise, maybe not so much.
My other big problem is in relation to the audio and the net code. While the audio that’s in the game already is good, a little more variation in this area would really lift this game higher in this area. More looping tracks for normal arenas and boss arenas, more character noises, and more enemy death sound effects would help immensely. It gets annoying hearing the same effects repeatedly, and the boss loop sounds really cool…until it plays again for the next boss and then the next boss as well. For some it is the little things like this that don’t always seem important during development, hence the importance of constant playtests. As for the net code, it’s not terrible and doesn’t make the game unplayable, it just that it needs some adjusting. Other players tend to shake or teleport slightly when moving around, and your body isn’t always in the spot you actually died. This can make for some very tough revives, and definitely led to having to restart the arena a few times. It felt like me and my friend had latency level of 150ms when I know we normally sit between 30 and 75 in other games.
Ok, with my main concerns out of the way I am happy to say that the gameplay itself really is a lot of fun, and easily the biggest redeeming factor for Warlocks. Thankfully there are quite a few characters to choose from, starting at five and ending at ten in total. After battling each environment boss you unlock someone new. The developers have done a good job of making every character feel rather different, and I had a good time switching around and trying to figure out each character’s move sets. Not only do they all feel rather different, but they look different as well so you never get confused about who you are when there are multiple players on screen. There are a few roles, but you don’t have to have the standard Healer/DPS/Tank set-up to clear arenas. Potions help take care of healing, and most characters who don’t have a ton of HP tend to have a lot of mobility or other means of avoiding damage
The persistent character growth of each character threw me for a loop at first, as I was expecting a Rogue-like style, but I quickly grew to enjoy not worrying too much about dying. My only problem is that most of the warlocks handle differently from each other, and it’s annoying when switching to another character and you can’t reallocate the skills. Basically every time you level up, you can put one point into any of the four skills. When you switch warlocks, the skill in the same slot is already levelled. I like the constant growth; I just don’t like not picking different skills for each different character.
The boss fights are a ton of fun and all feel unique, though only three bosses are available to fight so far. A unique music track for each one would really make them stand out and I hope that’s part of the plan for release. Otherwise, I’m only excited to see what else they come out with. A really cool idea for some end game content would be randomized environment sets, followed by a random boss, but we’ll see what Warlocks vs. Shadows ends up with. Even being able to go back and fight bosses you’ve already beaten would be pretty cool, as right of right now you can only move forward.
I always worry when dealing with a Kickstarter funded game or Early Access title, and I think this is another case where you should wait to see the final product. If they can commit to expanding on the solid foundation they’ve built, I can see this being another really fun indie game to play with friends, both online or locally. As is though, I worry about the price tag. Ten dollars, as opposed to fifteen, seems a bit more appropriate to me, though they do have a 4-pack available for around eleven dollars each if you want to split it. At the end of the day, although the nostalgia and core mechanics are great given some of the concerns noted above, many of you may want to wait and see. I think that they just need to deliver a bit more bang for one’s buck to swing my vote to a fully recommended buy, so let’s see what happens for the rest of the development cycle.
 ***A Steam Early Access code was provided by the developer/publisher for preview purposes***
