Right when you start playing, the first thing you’ll notice is that Dragonkin: The Banished places quite a bit of emphasis on its world and story. The prologue chapter kicks things off by letting you play through an important point of the game’s fictional history, when several heroes banded together to help human armies take on the corrupting influences of an evil dragon. This prologue also serves as an interesting take on the tutorial formula, allowing players to play as multiple distinct heroes that you will then play for the rest of the game.

"Dragonkin: The Banished places quite a bit of emphasis on its world and story."

It’s important to note just how great of an idea it is to let the player experience the various heroes before you have to make the decision to pick one for the rest of the game. You get to experience multiple heroes: the Knight, the Barbarian, and the Ranger at the height of their power. You get to use their most powerful abilities as you take down hordes of the dragon’s underlings. Sure, it’s not a lengthy prologue, clocking in at around thirty minutes, but it gives you just enough information to let you make an informed decision so that you don’t end up regretting your choice two dozen hours later.

Dragonkin: The Banished makes one hell of a first impression thanks to the scale of the epic story being told. There are no punches pulled when you’re thrown against massive hordes of demons and dragonkins to take on. Starting things off in the shoes of the Knight, you get to feel immensely powerful. The prologue’s zones are also visually impressive, with plenty of debris flying all over the place and enemy corpses ragdolling away as you run through them with your shield raised.

On finishing the prologue, however, things slow down to an absolute crawl. After picking out your hero, you’re going to be spending the next several hours taking on small scale villains like bandits before you get to fight more intimidating enemies and bosses. There is also a surprising amount of time spent in mundane activities where you’re just running around and talking to various NPCs without any combat to break up the flow. While I’m not against the idea of trying to tell a story in an otherwise action-heavy genre like the RPG, things do start getting monotonous until you’re given your first real mission.

The core gameplay in Dragonkin: The Banished is a standard affair; movement is handled by left-clicking where you want to go, and can have five different abilities that can be used for a range of things, from shooting lightning bolts to teleporting around, and even getting defensive buffs. There is also an option for an alternate control scheme, where every aspect of your character aside from aiming abilities is handled by the WASD cluster of keys. The minute-to-minute gameplay where you’re just going on a rampage, slaughtering enemies by the dozens, is definitely quite fun.

"However, the Ancestral Grid does take a fair bit of time to actually start being fun."

There is also a great amount of customization allowed through the game’s Ancestral Grid system, which is also one of the core methods of progression in the game. Skills aren’t innate to your character, and are instead obtained through finding specific hexes, which can then be equipped into the Ancestral Grid. Skill hexes are available in different shapes and sizes, taking up varying amounts of space on the grid, and you are encouraged to mix and match various skills to find your ideal way to kill enemies.

Skill hexes come in two varieties: active skills, which are what you use to attack your enemies, and passive skills, which can buff up nearby active skills on the grid in interesting ways. For example, if Chain Lightning is an example of an active skill, a passive skill could improve its damage, reduce its costs, or even increase its area of effect. While it’s possible to find individual hexes for these skills, you will also eventually start finding combination hexes that can take up two, three, or even six spots on the grid. And while these combinations are always fun to find and try out, mixing and matching your own sets of actives and passives tends to be a lot more interesting and fun.

However, the Ancestral Grid does take a fair bit of time to actually start being fun. You don’t have access to the whole grid when you start out, and more parts of it open up as you level up. While this is fine in the long run, it definitely causes more frustration with the whole system in the earlier parts of the game since you don’t really have the room to equip the hexes you get early on. Considering the nature of the game, this isn’t too much of a problem; you can simply level up far enough to stop feeling those unnecessary early constraints.

"All things considered, Dragonkin: The Banished’s early access feels like a great first step."

Another unique aspect of Dragonkin: The Banished is that, along with your character’s abilities and gear, you also get to level up a city. Dubbed Montescail, the city has several spots where you can get new buildings built and upgraded. While an interesting concept, the city upgrading aspects unfortunately don’t do much to affect gameplay. Just about every building you erect or upgrade tends to offer at best minor buffs to things like your stats or how much experience you can get from killing things. Since it is an Early Access title and more city features are slated for future updates in the roadmap, however, this feels like an issue that will get ironed out over time.

There’s also a small baby dragon you get that can occasionally help your fight against draconic enemies, and as adorable as it may sound, when it comes to gameplay, your dragon companion doesn’t contribute much in these battles. You can get skill hexes that improve your dragon’s attacks, but unfortunately, all of these skills are surprisingly dull, doing little more than giving the dragon a chance to deal damage every time you do.

All things considered, Dragonkin: The Banished’s early access feels like a great first step. There are plenty of interesting ideas in the game, and its core combat is certainly fun enough to warrant at least one playthrough through its early access offerings. It’s too early to judge how the story will pan out, but the prologue feels appropriately epic and sets the stage quite well for what you can expect later in the game.

This game was reviewed on PC.

We got to have a chat with production director Jean-Georges Levieux about various aspects of the game, as well as the studio’s thoughts on new technologies like the PS5 Pro.

To what extent can we expect Dragonkin: The Banished to be complete at its Early Access launch?

The Early Access launch is really just the beginning. The core mechanics are already there – the city, the ancestral grid, the gameplay – but we will be adding a lot of content during Early Access. Most importantly, we want to take advantage of player feedback to improve the game in the right direction.

What are some of the ideas for additions to Dragonkin: The Banished along its Early Access journey?

When you develop a game for years, it can sometimes be difficult to step back and see the bigger picture. You create tons of mechanics, graphics, sounds, story elements… and there’s a moment when everything starts to come together – right at the end of the project. Playtests, betas, or Early Access help gain that perspective.

We want to use Early Access to listen to our players and adjust development if needed. The demo’s release has already taught us a lot, and we are already working on integrating player feedback.

That being said, we already have things in production and a roadmap that we’ve shared with our players. This includes new game modes, additional city features, a new playable character, new zones, multiplayer, and more.

"When you develop a game for years, it can sometimes be difficult to step back and see the bigger picture."

How many hours worth of content will be available in Dragonkin: The Banished in Early Access? How will this compare to the full release?

At launch, you will be able to play Act 1 (out of 5 total), which should take around 4 to 6
hours to complete.

After that, you’ll reach the End Game, particularly what we call the Hunting Board. Completing this board should take around 15 to 20 hours.

Once the Hunt Board is completed, you can continue playing and create your own custom Hunts with all the unlocked settings. At that point, it will be up to you to decide how much time you want to invest in the game.

Are there any plans to add multiplayer to the game?

Yes, it’s one of our major updates planned during Early Access.

How will build experimentation be encouraged?

A lot!

We have removed any costs for changing attribute points, passives, or even your hatchling (which can be seen as your character’s specialization). We’re also working on adding the Arsenal, which will allow you to save entire builds and test new ones without losing existing ones.

Of course, to perfect your builds, you’ll need to find the right equipment, the right fragments for your grid, and craft wisely.

How big of a role will the city-building mechanics play in Dragonkin: The Banished overall?

The city is your hub, and once multiplayer is added, it can be your friends’ hub as well if you choose. You will be able to develop it together – every activity (story, endgame hunts) will earn prosperity points that you can spend on your city.

You’ll be able to unlock services, merchants, artisans, bonuses for your characters, and various improvements for theorycrafting.

"Of course, to perfect your builds, you’ll need to find the right equipment, the right fragments for your grid, and craft wisely."

Are there already plans for endgame high-difficulty content?

We have designed a very broad difficulty system. From the start of Early Access, there will be 11 difficulty levels. Some thresholds will unlock access to certain types of rewards, allowing you to further enhance your character.

Whether you’re a beginner looking to enjoy the story on an easier setting or an expert in the genre, you’ll be able to experience the game however you like.

When are you expecting to be done with the Early Access period?

An Early Access period is determined based on player feedback. So, it’s still a bit too early to answer this question.

As a developer, what are your thoughts on the PS5 Pro? How does boost in GPU help in developing your game compared to the base PS5?

We are currently focusing on the PC version with the game’s release in Early Access. However, we have already run the game on consoles, particularly on the PS5, but not yet on the Pro.

The PS5 is a very important platform, and we will make every effort to ensure the game runs properly on it. As for the PS5 Pro, which comes with great improvements, we will take advantage of them to boost FPS and resolution.

What are your thoughts on PSSR? What kind of opportunities will this open for the game?

Almost all modern games use upscalers. On PC, depending on your GPU, we have several available.

On consoles, with Unreal Engine 5, we primarily use TSR, which is the engine’s native solution.

On PS5 Pro, we would definitely like to add support for PSSR. It should help us achieve better FPS while maintaining higher image quality.

"The PS5 is a very important platform, and we will make every effort to ensure the game runs properly on it."

What resolution and frame rates will the game target on PS5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5 Pro?

As I mentioned, we are focusing on the PC version for Early Access. The game will only be
released on consoles once it’s fully finished.

That being said, we have been and continue to be mindful of performance to ensure the game runs well on consoles.

At this stage of development, I wouldn’t commit to specific numbers for consoles. Ideally, we will offer different rendering modes to prioritize either FPS or image quality.

Do you have plans to launch the game on Nintendo Switch 2?

Not for the moment.

"It’s a passable rugby experience whose gameplay holds up the fundamentals of the sport, but whose barebones surroundings and lacking presentation limit the extent of its appeal."

On the pitch, Rugby 20 translates the core tenets of the sport to create a mostly successful rugby simulator. It matches the basic mechanics of the sport to create exciting minute-to-minute gameplay that can be fun for experts in the sport or newcomers alike. It does a good job of making important moments like tries and turnovers feel important, including the impact of hard hits and the impressiveness of long or difficult kicks. The controls can take a while to get used to, as passes are mapped to the shoulder buttons and primary actions between rucks and defense containing confusingly similar button combinations, but once you get the hang of it, it will eventually become second nature. When things on screen become more chaotic, though, there is a tendency for the game to cause more questions than answers in what you’re supposed to do. These make for frequent moments of button mashing that you can only hope work out in your favor, especially in the early going.

There are a few different ways of running strategies both within a match and from the sidelines, though they make very little impact on the matches themselves. Set plays can be called from within the game, and defensive formations can be changed or adjusted with the click of a button. These allow for consideration of more intricate details for your team and for better control of the game. Unfortunately, there are many moments where these kinds of strategies are unnecessary, as it’s often just as successful to run with default settings or strategies, especially on defense. Even on higher difficulties and playing as a weaker team, I had frequent strings of matches where I would give up few or no points without having to micromanage the defense. While this is a good touch for newcomers to not be bogged down in the details, it’s disappointing to know that supposedly harder matches can be won without having to utilize much strategic knowledge of the sport.

Among the features that make defensive battles so common are the wonky physics and player hitboxes in various phases that pop up frequently. Most notably, players will often teleport significant distances to tackle a ball-carrier despite being a long distance away from them. Kicking and lateral passing can be unpredictable, too, as many kicks and passes will get off despite players being seemingly in the grasp of an opponent, which makes it difficult to prepare for future moves with the inconsistency of where the ball will go.

"Even on higher difficulties and playing as a weaker team, I had frequent strings of matches where I would give up few or no points without having to micromanage the defense. While this is a good touch for newcomers to not be bogged down in the details, it’s disappointing to know that supposedly harder matches can be won without having to utilize much strategic knowledge of the sport."

What disappoints about Rugby 20, though, is not its gameplay, but how barebones the modes surrounding the sport itself are. Apart from the quick online or offline matches and minimal training and challenge modes, there are two major methods to play any kind of long-form rugby season or tournament. The League mode sees you taking control of one of the established teams within the game, which include national teams and other professional teams from around the world, and running through a season of their league. While this mode does what it’s trying to do well, it can never come out from under the impression that a Franchise mode that is so common in other sports games would have been a welcome improvement to keep you hooked over time. There’s very little team management here, and it becomes repetitive after just a few seasons.

The other major mode is My Squad, an Ultimate Team style team creator that works through collecting player cards to improve your team. While this is the game mode with the most promise, it too falls into the trap of being too lacking in content to entice long-term play. Even as you bring it into the manager mode, there’s very little to impact how you play the game. The financial management aspect can be almost entirely forgotten about outside of paying for a player to recover from injury, and the movement up a division within either league, an occasion that should feel like a big step forward in your development as a team, is minimally celebrated. Ultimately, each mode is a thinly veiled method of playing slight variations on the same rugby match over and over. This is a game itching to have a mode to create a player and bring them up the ranks or a much more in-depth multi-year team management mode. Other sports games have found success year after year not only because they have been able to translate their respective sports to gaming, but because they’ve been able to successfully create different ways of playing the game in each of their modes.

Rugby 20 falls short on performance and presentation as well, both with frustrating bugs and a lack of diversity both in the in-game broadcast and the visuals. There are frequent performance issues, including framerate drops that make the game all but unplayable and only end when a match ends, as well as the occasional crash. Within the presentation, the introduction and broadcasters are passable but never feel like they’ve gone above and beyond. The broadcasters’ audio often clips within the match, and the overall broadcast package is worth seeing once and skipping thereafter. The distinctly low number of stadiums is disappointing, especially given how similar many of them look, and, while the mid-match visuals can be pretty, especially with specific lighting and weather settings, the character models and animations leave a lot to be desired.

"Rugby 20 falls short on performance and presentation as well, both with frustrating bugs and a lack of diversity both in the in-game broadcast and the visuals."

One of the qualities of a successful sports game is its ability to take a successful translation of its  sport to gaming and pair it with many different, interesting ways of playing the game in a variety of modes. Despite rugby’s historical failures in gaming, Rugby 20’s gameplay is frequently fun, with flashes of greatness in certain moments. Surrounding that, though, is a list of modes that make very little effort in changing how you play the game or adding any variety to the core gameplay. This, along with a slew of performance and presentation issues, make for a game that really only appeals to long-time rugby fans itching for another taste of the sport. There are many other sports games that do much more to create engaging experiences, and, while there is a hint of potential in Rugby 20 for future rugby experiences, there’s very little here to recommend to those who aren’t already strongly in tune with the world of the sport and who don’t mind playing it with minimal changes for hours on end.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

The private beta for Warhammer: Chaosbane, Eko Software’s action RPG take on the Old World universe, is now available. This is actually the second private beta for the game thus far and unlocks two new characters – Bragi and Elessa – for play. The beta will last until April 24th.

Along with access to Act 2, the private beta has new environments in Act 1 and some more missions in Nuln. Improvements have been made to balance the enemies, loot, skill, and XP awards, while a percentage comparison was provided between gear. This allows players to better understand what’s better.

Other features include more sound effects, improved combat feedback through visual and sound changes, and additional languages supported. Those annoyed with the inventory management can take heart – dragging and dropping items with the mouse and keyboard is smoother. Filters are also in place to allow for better item sorting.

Warhammer: Chaosbane is out on June 4th for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Check out the private beta trailer below.

A new Warhammer game is on the horizon, and this one is an action RPG published by Bigben Interactive. Eko Software’s Warhammer: Chaosbane is set in the olden times, as players fight against the hordes of chaos in a Diablo-style, isometric hack-and-slash fashion. It’s out on June 4th for Xbox One, PS4, and PC, with two beta phases planned.

Those who pre-order the game can take part in the upcoming beta phases, the first starting in March and the second in April. Players can try out the starting sections of the game, while choosing from four classes. Solo and co-op player will both be available.

Pre-order customers will also receive an XP bonus for their character, along with four legendary helmets (which seem to be just cosmetic). If you pre-order the Digital Deluxe and Magnus Edition, then you’ll receive four days of early access to the game, effectively playing it on May 31st. Stay tuned for more information on the beta phases and their overall content.

Games Workshop’s farming out of the bits and pieces of their massive Warhammer universe has let to a lot of games, some pretty forgettable, and some like Total Warhammer which just fit together like they were made for each other. The next one up to try their hand at the IP is French studio Eko Software, with publisher Bigben, to create the first action RPG set in the Warhammer fantasy world, Warhammer: Chaosbane.

Putting the player into the middle of a world devastated by long and hard fought wars against Chaos, and left to themselves to survive as a Human, High Elf, Wood Elf or Dwarf, this adaption will leverage the studio’s experience with hack ’n slash to hopefully, come out the other side as one of the remembered Warhammer games.

The game is currently under development for unspecified consoles (no word on if that includes Switch) and PC.

Eko Software, Bigben Interactive, and Maximum Games will be bringing us a brand new rugby game- simply titled Rugby 18. So now, fans of the sport have a title they can hope does at least some of the kind of justice that FIFA, PES, NHL, NBA, MLB, and many more, sports games do to their respective sports.

The three companies released a brand new video for the game today- it’s a development diary, which shows us the making of the title. It’s a fascinating insight into how the three small companies approached the making of a new title in such a competitive and crowded section of the market. Authenticity was the name of the game, and that was something the developers emphasized a lot during the development of the title.

You can check out the developer diary for yourself below. Rugby 18 is due out for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 27.

GamingBolt spoke to Eko Software head Jules-Benjamin Lalisse about the sequel, releasing it for consoles, the struggle to compete in a market swarming with survival titles and so on. You may even learn a thing or two about the game’s overall balance.

"In the game, you need to build your own surviving camp alone or with your friends or with survivors all over the world."

What are your thoughts on the overall positive consumer reception to the series?

We are happy as we are making games for players, if consumer reception would not have been positive, we would have failed. Zombie game competition is not easy, there are many games, our goal was to refresh a bit the genre, to propose something fun and different. If consumers have fun, it means that we reached, at least, a part of the objective.

What’s changed in How to Survive 2? For those looking to get into the series for the time, how does it differ most from the previous game?

HTS1 and HTS2 are very different, HTS2 is more multiplayer and community oriented. In the game, you need to build your own surviving camp alone or with your friends or with survivors all over the world. You can share resources and help your surviving community at your own pace. You can play sometimes with your friends and sometimes alone with all the progression of the community saved on a dedicated server.

Some players have complained about the game’s balance and difficulty in later levels. What are your thoughts on this and how is it being addressed?

We have seen players ask and suggest different things regarding difficulty levels. Some find it easier and some find it more difficult. We entered Early Access 18 months ago and we have tweaked many aspects many times following player feedback. Even after we released the full game. Something that we believe can help players find a level of difficulty that suits them is the possibility of adjusting the level of the missions before you enter them.

Other complaints include the overall grind and having to replay certain missions again and again for upgrades. Could you talk a bit about this and what’s being done to fix it?

It all depends greatly on how users play. It is different if you play multiplayer and cooperate or if you go solo where all the heavy duty falls on your shoulders. Also, if you just want to create basic structures and survive or of you want to have every single available item on your chest. Yeas, completest will have to gather lots of material.

"There are still so many things to do, many features to develop in order to refresh the genre."

What motivated you to release the game on PS4 and Xbox One, especially since most successful survival titles have been in first person (like ARK: Survival Evolved)?

We released the original HtS on PC and consoles and we followed a similar path for HtS2.

How difficult was it to translate the experience to consoles?

HTS is a PC and consoles game, even if we released it on PC first. Our experience is more console than PC, we always had consoles in mind. HTS has a dual stick gameplay which is good for consoles!

What are your thoughts on the overall survival genre of games? Do you think it’s become outplayed or is the experience still fresh for fans?

There are a lot of survival games, but possibilities are infinite and most of the game is trying to propose something unique. There are still so many things to do, many features to develop in order to refresh the genre. Fans should not been worried there should be new fresh and good games to come.

What kind of post-launch updates are in the works for How to Survive 2? Will you be releasing any expansions or additional content in the coming months?

We have been working on the HtS franchise around 6 years now!! We have shipped games in many platforms, DLCs and free updates (last one just some days ago!)…We think we have reached a moment where we need to take some time to analyze where we are and what our next steps could be.

"There is no specific improvements made just for PS4 or X1. PC version got updates to reflect latest work made for console."

Assuming How to Survive 3 eventually happens, what would you do differently in the sequel?

We couldn’t really tell you right now. Something we do is we look at player experience while playing the game. Try to keep what they enjoy the most and improve on things they would like to see. On top of that we always try to look for original novelties and surprises. Would you like to have a HtS3? How would you like it to be?

With the Nintendo Switch finally out of the bag, why aren’t you developing the game for the system?

Developing for any system is not something you can jump into carelessly it needs to be given a lot of thought: it’s a new platform you are not familiar with, you need to acquire the development kits, you need to assign resources for the project… We consider all opportunities but we take our time.

What kind of improvements have you made visually, resolution and frame rate on the base PS4 and X1 versions? Have you achieved a rock solid 60fps/1080p on both?

There is no specific improvements made just for PS4 or X1. PC version got updates to reflect latest work made for console. Game is displayed in 1080p but the full 60 fps is not guarantee on all situations.

Microsoft have finally revealed the specs of Xbox One X so from a development perspective do you think it has enough power to deliver 4k/60fps in AAA games?

We are not in AAA business, and honestly the 4k resolution is not our main target, if we can do it we’ll do, but we see it as a bonus, we are more focusing on content, fun, art instead the number of pixels.

Xbox One X also supports FreeSync and next-gen HDMI 2.1. What are the advantages of this from a development perspective?

It will probably remove some artefacts or screen tearing in some games, but as it’s not supported by X1, it may not be supported by all games.

Is there anything else you want to tell us before we let you go?

Thanks you, thank you, and thank you again, HTS adventure is nice for the development team and looks also nice for players, we have a lot of fans that enjoyed the game. We’ll do our best to continue it, stay tuned!

The Xbox Scorpio is looking to be the most powerful and advanced console ever made, and not just in terms of hardware power. It also supports some incredibly high end technology standards, such as FreeSync and HDMI 2.1.

In an interview with Jules-Benjamin Lalisse, head of Eko Software, who are currently working on How To Survive 2, we asked him what support for these standards might mean for the Scorpio, and for the games running on it. “It will probably remove some artefacts or screen tearing in some games, but as it’s not supported by [the base] Xbox One, it may not be supported by all games,” he said.

He also said that the console and PC versions should have the same level of visual quality, since the PC version has been updated to reflect the work done on the console versions. “There are no specific improvements made just for PS4 or Xbox One,” he said. “The PC version got updates to reflect the latest work done for the console versions. The game is displayed in 1080p, but a full 60 fps [framerate] is not guarantee in all situations.”

And are there any plans on supporting the Xbox Scorpio? “We are not a big company, we are listing all potential improvements and then we decide where to put our efforts and energy. Currently no final decision has been taken, sorry!” he said, apologetically.

How To Survive 2 is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Eko Software and 505 Games announced today that How To Survive 2, the underground hit survival horror zombie apocalypse crafting game from PC, will be launching on consoles soon- to be specific, that the game will be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One some time in February.

Apparently, if you preorder the game through the PSN Store or Xbox Live, you will receive two free pieces of DLC, which will include pets, headgear, and upgradable weapons- so hey, there’s an incentive to do that, if you’re into this kind of game at all.

The game has been fairly successful on PC, and has managed to garner a pretty active and vibrant community- it will be interesting to see if it can replicate that kind of success on consoles. I do see it doing well on Xbox, where games of its ilk have managed to find success in the past. You can check out the announcement trailer for the console versions below.