Towerborne is a co-op RPG, entering Steam Early Access on September 10. Developed by Stoic and published by Xbox Game Studios, Towerborne will be heading over to Xbox and Game Pass after Early Access on Steam. Ahead of the Early Access launch, I got to play a few hours of Towerborne, which feels like it has a good foundation for early access.
The Bones of a Fun Co-op RPG
Towerborne plays similar to something like Castle Crashers, with multiple people running through a 3D side-scroller, where you have to use weapon combos and special abilities to fight through enemies. The combat feels fluid and offers a bit of depth, thanks to a large amount of abilities at your disposal. You have three active abilities, which change depending on your class and weapon, alongside light and heavy attacks. Light and heavy attacks can be combined into a combo attack and special moves like a shield breaker and a knock up provide other ways to take down enemies.
The combat is easily the most polished and interesting part of Towerborne in its current state.
Not only does each of the four classes currently available feel distinct, but once you figure out how you like the flow of combat to go it can really sing. Weapons can have different active abilities, giving you even more options depending on the loot that you have gathered.
There are four classes; Sentinel, Rockbreaker, Pyroclast, and Shadowstriker. Each class uses a different weapon, on which their abilities and attacks are based around. The Rockbreaker uses giant fists to beat enemies and the ground, letting you do large punching combos. My favorite of the bunch was the Shadowstriker, since some of the gear I had allowed me to inflict both poison and bleed damage, allowing me to take enemies out much quicker than without those status effects. Both in co-op and solo, fighting enemies and figuring out the best strategy to take them down was interesting throughout my time, in part thanks to the increasing difficulty of Towerborne.
Time to Grind
The flow of Towerborne outside of combat feels grind heavy in its current form. There is a massive map around the Belfry, the main hub where you get quests and improve your equipment. Each tile on the map is a mission you can take on, but these Discovery Missions all feel generic. There typically isn’t any story associated with them and it usually features a slew of enemies you have seen previously. There are also Ventures, which are harder, more story focused missions, which can be done repeatedly.
Completing missions rewards you with loot, which will continually bump up your gear score. Once you get high enough, you can take on a special mission to unlock the next Danger Level. Increased Danger Levels provide you with better loot drops, but you have to take down tougher enemies to get them. The increases in Danger Level don’t just bump up health and damage though, different enemy types start to appear, along with an increased frequency of boss enemies. Bumping up in Danger Level increased the difficulty and felt more interesting and engaging than just making the enemies tougher.
Where Towerborne feels a bit lacking in its current state is the level variety. While the Discovery Missions can have different biomes, like grasslands, mushroom swamps, and mountains, the level layout doesn’t vary much from mission to mission. A large part of this comes from the game being a side-scroller, but the issue comes from the objectives as well. Most missions just ask you to make it to the end and defeat the monsters, but occasionally there will be another objective like destroying an enemy camp or freeing captured people. There aren’t a ton of differences in gameplay between these objectives, since both revolve around beating up structures. All of this results in the missions feeling very similar, making the grind for loot feel a bit monotonous.
You also get loot pretty continuously, including weapons for the other classes you aren’t currently using. Equipment does have a class level requirement, so even if you save only the best weapons for the other classes, you may not be able to use them when you switch over, leading to more grinding.
The Belfry
In between missions, you can return to the Belfry, where you can dismantle unwanted loot, upgrade equipment, and pick up quests and jobs. There are a variety of different NPCs that offer more world-building if you want to engage with them. The hub itself doesn’t feel like it distinguishes itself much from similar hubs in other co-op RPGs. Part of that might be part of the early access, but I never found myself interested in the Belfry as a place and not just a hub full of vendors. It does avoid the cardinal sin of making its layout confusing, instead placing everything in a manageable circle, making it a smooth experience to quickly run through in between missions.
Towerborne enters Steam Early Access on September 10, with plans for an Early Access launch on Xbox sometime in the future. When it reaches its full launch, it will be available on Xbox Game Pass as well.
