There is A LOT going on in Champion Shift, the new action-roguelite from SRG Studios. This indie outfit has managed to cram a whole bunch of disparate themes and mechanics into one surprising package, and while it does have some rough edges, I’ve really enjoyed my first look at the game.
What is Champion Shift?
First and foremost, Champion Shift is a roguelite auto-shooter. In this hybrid action-RPG, you control a mythic, a hero from ancient mythology who has been brought to life by an evil corporate entity called the Dominion. Upon escaping your confinement, it’s up to you and your mythic to take down various targets on your way to battling the Dominion’s CEO.
These mythics are inspired by larger than life heroes of the past. You start off with Arthur Pendragon – King Arthur to his friends subjects – and then other characters such as Athena and Sun Wukong are unlocked as you progress through the game’s different biomes.
Each character has their own ability tree to work through. Using your unique starting attack you must dispatch the waves of enemies that charge at you relentlessly. Once you’ve got enough and reached a predetermined number of kills, you’re able to initiate one of the missions that you’re required to finish before you complete the biome.
Throughout your time, you’ll be grabbing up XP and health. XP is split between in-game upgrades and the meta-systems that allow you grow stronger over time. Nothing unusual there, but the in-game notifications in Champion Shift didn’t catch my eye, and so I’d often have lots of upgrades building up over time.
In fact, I died a few times because I was underpowered and not taking advantage of the abilities I’d failed to unlock, or because I had a stack of abilities to work through and so I was more focused on reading the text instead of what was happening around me. I use a widescreen monitor so that might be less of an issue for others, but I think it could be more obvious when you’ve got new abilities to choose from. This is even more pronounced in co-op, I think, because in solo play, time slows down while you’re picking your new abilities, but in co-op there’s no way of putting on the brakes.
They’re not robots in disguise, but they’re not far off
Up until now I’ve been talking around the American muscle car in the room, and that’s the fact that your mythic hero can, at will, change themselves into a car (see above). I bloody love this mechanic. It transforms a rather straight forward auto-shooter into something altogether more chaotic and memorable.
The ability to turn into a car puts an individualistic twist on a number of familiar elements. In Champion Shift, if your hero is cornered, you simply transform into a sports car and blast your way through the onrushing crowd. It’s practically a Get Out of Jail Free card that you can play whenever you’re in a bind.
Similarly, if your objective is on the other side of the map, you can drop down onto four wheels and cruise to your destination rather than trudging this way and that. As long as you’ve got the energy to make it from A to B, of course – you can’t just hit-and-run your way through the game. There’s a balance to be found.
You can use a number of your abilities in both forms, but there are additional powers that you can unlock just for your vehicle self. You’re essentially turning your ride into the perfect battering ram, and then switching out of this form into a powerful mythic that uses a different range of abilities to deal more localised damage and tackle specific objectives.
Champion Shift’s roadmap and the journey ahead
I’ve been very positive about the game, but I need to acknowledge that there are a few things that need fine tuning. SRG has already been busy squashing bugs, and the studio’s roadmap on Steam acknowledges that the game needs more mission variety. New challenges will be added in with new playable characters and stages, with more abilities, game modes, and leaderboards on the horizon.
The soundscape was one of the things I noted that isn’t on the list. It felt like there was a disconnect between the action on screen and the audio. Bullet heavens like this one aren’t synonymous with great audio, however, I feel like the driving aspect here lends itself to a more impactful audio-visual experience. It just needs a bit more crunch.
I also noticed that the crowd of enemies that attacks you seems rubber-banded to your location, so as you move around the map, the same enemies follow you. While it’s not a problem, it is a little weird to transform into a car and blast your way over a bridge, and then be confronted with what feels like the same group of enemies on the other side of the river.
Most of my time with the game was spent playing alone, but I wanted to wait until I’d tried the co-op before writing this up. I was really pleased with how everything worked in two-player (it supports up to four) but at times we did get separated from one another by barriers that are put up to contain you during a boss battle or similar.
All in all, I’m rather taken with Champion Shift despite it having a few issues that need addressing as it winds its way through Early Access. It’s challenging so I’ve not just blasted my through the content, and the experience scales nicely as you work through those early levels. I’ll definitely be checking back in to see how this one progresses as I think there is tremendous potential here, and I’m very eager to dive back in when version 1.0 rolls around.
