It’s easy to get distracted by flashy cutscenes and photorealistic visuals, but real ones out there know that you should never judge a game by its graphics, and some of the most visually unassuming games can hide some of the most interesting ideas.
Forsworn is a case in point. Developed by Resummon Studios, it’s a tactical roguelite about leading a small party of adventurers through a host of fantasy battles.
As you’ll see in the screenshots below, Forsworn doesn’t have the strongest visual identity. It’s not that it looks like a bad game, but it also doesn’t really stand out from the crowd. That first impression had me concerned that it would be just another generic party-based RPG, but it didn’t take long for Forsworn to reveal its true colours.
Speaking of which, each of the main characters, generic as they may look, has distinct colour coding, which makes them simple to identify in battle. You don’t seem to be able to do much with them from a visual perspective; however, you can level them up in a whole bunch of really interesting ways.
Forsworn is all about party-based tactics and making sure that your team of adventurers is working in harmony. Characters can buff themselves and each other, plus apply damage and status effects to enemies. In fact, I think the best bit is the upgrades and abilities, which you can combine to good effect.
It’s all very straightforward, and I’m not sure there are too many big surprises in terms of the special abilities and powers you can unlock, but the whole thing seems well put together. Not only that, but once you’ve found a winning build, there’s fun to be had in fine-tuning your damage until you’re cutting through your enemies.
The movement system is crisp and easy to manage, and the various areas of effect are also cleanly displayed. Once in position, you’re able to work through all of your available attacks, which are on cooldown timers, handing out damage as tactically as possible.
As you move through a map covered in events and battles, you will jump in and out of combat scenarios. These take you to small locations, where you and your team must take down the enemies present using the skills you have available, collect any loot, before returning to the map.
One thing I haven’t had a look at is the co-op side of the game, but I can see how a team moving together could create a nice flow. At the moment, you have to nudge all the characters along yourself, but that works absolutely fine in the solo-player context, so no complaints.
Forsworn might not look as distinctive as it could, but that doesn’t stop it from boasting clever tactical gameplay. If I get to the co-op, I’ll be back with more impressions, but as a solo roguelite experience, Forsworn delivers fun theory crafting and engaging tactical battles, and that’s much more interesting to me than a fancy 4K cutscene.
Forsworn is out now on PC (Win), and I played via access kindly provided by the developer and the PR allies.
