There has never been a wider options of solid competitive multiplayer games to play than there is right now, and thankfully, there’s plenty of variety in the kind of experiences they offer as well. Soon, Playwing will be adding another game to that pile with Century: Age of Ashes, which is launching imminently and has looked quite promising since it was first revealed. With its launch approaching, here, we’ll be going over a few key details you should know about the game.
PREMISE
Century: Age of Ashes is a competitive multiplayer game, but it doesn’t exactly fall into any your more conventional categories. It’s a dragon battle game, where each player players as a rider controlling a different dragon, with several modes, classes, and plenty of customization, all of which we’re going to talk about here. According to developer Playwing, the focus here is on fast-paced action, so if pulled off properly, it could deliver a very unique experience.
FREE-TO-PLAY
The one thing about Century: Age of Ashes that’s bound to draw in a solid player base right from the word go is the fact that it’s going to be free-to-play, so hopefully that should mean it gets off to a quick start and builds a solid community. Of course, Playwing will have to be smart about the cade of post-launch support for the game and how they choose to monetize it, but they have more than a few major free-to-play games that have found great success to look at as examples, and hopefully Century: Age of Ashes will follow in their footsteps.
SPOILS OF WAR
When Century: Age of Ashes launches, it’s going to have three modes, ranging from 3v3 to 6v6. One of these is Spoils of War, which will task players with stealing gold from dangerous creatures in the arena as well as the enemy team, while protecting their own nest from getting ransacked, and also dealing with various dynamic events that will happen throughout the match.
CARNAGE
Carnage is another one of Century: Age of Ashes’ modes, and though it’s technically just Team Deathmatch, it puts a pretty interesting spin on the concept. Two teams of six players each will go at each other and compete to have the highest number of kills by the time the match comes to an end, but special power ups will also regularly appear throughout the arena that will allow you to unleash unique and powerful moves against opponents. Depending on frequently they appear and how fun and varied they are, they could keep matches quite interesting until the last second.
GATES OF FIRE
The third and final mode in the game at launch is Gates of Fire, which is a rather interesting take on capture the flag. Two teams will compete against each other over the possession of a flag, and if you fly through one of the special gates in the arena, you score points for your team. It’s a simple and effective concept, and tight mechanics and solid map design should help it work out well enough- so here’s hoping the game has those strengths.
WINDGUARD
Something else that can potentially inject some variety into Century: Age of Ashes’ gameplay is the character classes. The game will have three classes at launch, each with their own unique abilities and strengths. The first of these is Ironwind-riding Windguards, described as “an order of knight-protectors” who “use their mount’s powers to defend their allies at all costs.” One of their abilities sees them dashing to an ally’s aid and giving them a temporary shield while also healing them and reducing their fireball cooldown.
PHANTOM
While the Windguard class is more focused on support, players who prefer to be quick and stealthy will probably prefer playing as Phantoms. Their dragons, called Nightsnaggers, are described as “mysterious, spiked beasts”. Phantoms can use an ability that renders them temporarily invisible, which can be used to get out of tight situations or get the drop on unsuspecting enemies.
MARAUDER
The third and final class (at least at launch) is the Marauders. Described as “skilled poachers and ruthless bounty hunters”, they specialize in tracking and hunting down prey. Bloodchasers, the dragons they ride, are supposedly “the ultimate alpha predators”. This class’ ability allows you to lock on to an enemy and throw a homing fireball at them. If you attack a tracked enemy, you deal more damage.
SYNERGIES
One aspect of gameplay that developer Playwing has put some emphasis on is class synergies- on top of choosing the class that suits your play style best, it’s also important to think about how each classes complements the others. From stealth to damage to support, each class specializes in something different, and with the proper balance, Century: Age of Ashes has the potential to properly encourage teamwork.
CUSTOMIZATION
As you’d expect from a competitive multiplayer title, Century: Age of Ashes is going to have plenty of customization options for players to dive into, though all of these will be cosmetics. Leveling up will unlock new customization options that you can use to change how your rider and dragon look, including their gear, weapons, armour, saddles, legendary skins, and more.
MICROTRANSACTIONS
Of course, given the fact that Century: Age of Ashes is a free-to-play game, it goes without saying that it will also have microtransactions. Thankfully developer Playwing has confirmed that all microtransactions in the game will be for cosmetic items only, with several cosmetics being available in the in-game shop. Hopefully the game won’t lock away too many of its best customization items behind microtransactions, because that can be a major letdown.
POST-LAUNCH PLANS
Any multiplayer game hoping to grab an audience and actually hold on to it these days needs to be locked and loaded with a steady stream of compelling post-launch content right from the word go, and Playwing apparently does have plans for this game. While specific details are scant for now, the developer has said that several new classes will be added to the game over the coming months. It remains to be seen how frequently these will be released, or whether we can also expect new modes, arenas, and cosmetics.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Thankfully, Century: Age of Ashes’ system requirements aren’t particularly demanding. On minimum settings, you’ll need an i5 2.6Ghz or an FX-8350, along with either a GTX 760 or an RX 560, and 6 GB of RAM. Meanwhile, on recommended settings you’ll need either an i7 2.8Ghz or a Ryzen 5 3.2Ghz, along with either a GTX 970 or an RX 580, and 8 GB of RAM. Finally, storage requirements are 10 GB across the board.
CONSOLE AND MOBILE RELEASE
On December 2, Century: Age of Ashes is only going to release for PC, but Playwing has other versions of the game in the pipeline as well. The game will be releasing for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and Xbox One sometime in 2022, and then later in the year for iOS and Android. Cross-play and cross-saves will also be supported across all versions of the game.