When rumors of Towerborne began circulating years ago, I was excited. As a fan of Stoic Studio’s The Banner Saga, the thought of side-scrolling beat ’em up where players embarked on excursions to battle monsters with a gorgeous 2D art style was an exciting prospect. Vanillaware titles like Dragon’s Crown were brought up as points of comparison, making things even more enticing.

With the reveal and eventual announcement of early access and free-to-play, that excitement transformed into cautious optimism. The gorgeous 2D backgrounds, fluid animations, and an excellent soundtrack by Austin Wintory (who also scored The Banner Saga) helped ease me in. The words “seasons,” “evolving experience” and “supported for years to come” still hung heavy, though.

"Some characters may appear in some missions, but they won’t fight alongside you or play any role beyond some exposition. Interactions at the Belfry rely on static dialogue trees, culminating in little more than assigning your next task."

After spending over 21 hours on a pre-early access build, completing all the Venture missions and clearing much of the map, it feels like Towerborne has all the parts in hand. They combine into this significant, discernible whole but vary in quality and polish. The current product is about improving and taking feedback from players when it enters early access, and while navigating all the usual pitfalls is key, is it worth jumping into right out of the gate?

If you enjoyed The Banner Saga and felt excited by Towerborne’s story-telling potential, temper those expectations. Set in a fantasy realm following the destruction of the City of Numbers, you control an Ace. Recently brought back from the dead, you’re an amnesiac warrior who calls the Belfry, a distinctly tower-based structure, their home. The Destiny 1 similarities hit a little too close for my liking, but compared to Stoic’s previous outings, the overall disposition is more hopeful and less doom-mongering.

As you learn the ropes and focus on one of the four classes – Rockbreaker, Pyroclast, Sentinel, and Shadowstriker – the various denizens of the Belfry offer tasks, Aspects, and other interactions. The tried and true set-up is this way for a reason – players learn about the world alongside their character, simultaneously building connections and pushing the narrative forward. You take on tasks from people like Krafft and Courage, learn more about the Umbra from the Spirit Realm and how they help players, the various species in the world and the threats they possess.

However, you’re very much the designated problem solver. Some characters may appear in some missions, but they won’t fight alongside you or play any role beyond some exposition. Interactions at the Belfry rely on static dialogue trees, culminating in little more than assigning your next task. There is some intrigue, especially when learning about potential Merk sympathizers at home, but the current antagonists – like the mysterious Seamstress – are as enigmatically cliché as they come.

Towerborne’s core gameplay consists of three elements – exploration, combat, and loot. It follows the age-old adage of “kill stuff, get better gear, kill more stuff, repeat.” When you embark from the Belfry for the first time, you’ll notice the map is shrouded in a fog of war. Go to the nearest hex tile, clear it out, and a little bit of the map is revealed.

"It’s your average live service blueprint, but the Venture missions offer some twists. For instance, Broken Mystech Pylon involves an NPC calling out pillars to activate in a specific order while enemies continuously swarm in."

Some tiles hold Venture missions, the essential dungeons necessary for progressing through the story (and opening up higher Danger Levels and tougher missions). Others can have chests, loot, Discovery missions to recruit new Umbra, and more varied objectives, like escorting a wagon and protecting it from waves of enemies.

However, blank tiles are randomly generated, containing unique enemies and hazards depending on the biome. For instance, the Grasslands play host to Gobos, who strike with spiked tails, shields and spears, and explosives, but you may also have to deal with thorny bushes that inflict Bleed. Fungi Forest biomes contain deadly sentient mushrooms, which inflict Poison but can also puff up and explode, knocking you back. Other unique threats emerge, each with unique attacks and tactics that keep things interesting.

Lower Danger Level tiles are pretty straightforward – left to right, beat up everything, and claim the loot chest – to the point where it can feel dull. Thankfully, as more of the map opens up and the difficulty increases, you encounter challenges like protecting a wagon from waves of enemies, destroying an enemy camp within the time limit, taking out enemies within the time limit, etc.

It’s your average live service blueprint, but the Venture missions offer some twists. For instance, Broken Mystech Pylon involves an NPC calling out pillars to activate in a specific order while enemies continuously swarm in. One random challenge tasked me with protecting barrels – only one enemy would spawn at a time, but the barrels could only take one hit, mixing things up slightly.

The Discovery missions present more varied challenges, like petting animals in a sequence or opening a bunch of empty loot chests to find that one locked chest (and then searching for a key). Not every objective is a winner, like the mission that throws waves of enemies and then – wait for it – repeats the process. At least the payoff is parodying the live service genre’s annoying penchant for threes.

"While Stoic has nailed the “one more tile” hook of exploration, things can get monotonous when trying to get closer to a designated Venture mission. Many of them aren’t marked on the map, which means you’ll be scrounging through the fog of war…"

Unfortunately, the random tile generation can be very uneven. You can jump into a tile and face two of an intensely annoying mini-boss type, who throws projectiles, teleports, summons and enchants minions for more damage and dishes out an insta-kill attack with a wide range. Redo the tile and marvel at receiving an easier boss, that too only one. Since dying means redoing a panel from the very start, failing to RNG feels disheartening, especially when the next go-around is significantly less punishing with little variance in rewards.

Also, while Stoic has nailed the “one more tile” hook of exploration, things can get monotonous when trying to get closer to a designated Venture mission. Many of them aren’t marked on the map, which means you’ll be scrounging through the fog of war, clearing tiles left and right, only to meet a blocker specifying a Danger Level License that isn’t even in the game.

You may even find a completely different Venture that can’t be accessed because you didn’t complete the one you’re actually looking for. I wouldn’t mind if the Venture missions had waypoints, but the actual route remained shrouded – let me bumble around, looking for the best route. It would still be miles better than trying to clear every hex tile, relying on the process of elimination.

The next core pillar, and arguably the most intriguing, is combat. Each class has unique weapons and actions. You have the standard Light and Heavy Strikes – alternating between them creates different combos while holding them down executes a launcher or a ground bounce.

I opted for the Shadowstriker, which uses Dual Blades and a teleport strike to close the distance. Alongside a weapon meter for pulling off the latter, there’s also the Focus gauge for executing powerful techniques tied to a weapon. Deathrattle, for example, dashes through enemies in a straight line, inflicting them with Poison and granting haste for a brief period.

"Getting knocked out of combos by the most minuscule hits while your enemies sometimes shrug off your Light Strikes (especially when glowing yellow or red) can be annoying."

As straightforward as it seems, combat can be pretty addictive. The various enemy types introduce some fighting game-lite nuance into your combos. Instead of holding down Light Strike for a launcher, you could launch enemies with a Light-Heavy-Heavy-Light combo. It could be beneficial when facing enemies with quick initial strikes.

However, it won’t be effective against shielded foes, who become vulnerable with a regular Heavy combo or a teleport strike. It only takes a single hit to knock you out of a combo, and you can’t animation cancel long-press Strike combos. You also need to consider Break damage, which stuns bosses and enemies briefly when their Break meter depletes.

Umbras also mix things up in exciting ways, from a stationary orb that continually damages and suspends enemies to dishing out a poisoning area of effect blast all around you, even if you’re stunned. One Umbra grants Haste and Aegis to allies, providing some much-needed protection at opportune moments. Combining all this results in some pretty satisfying clears as you juggle a few enemies into the air, land with a Heavy Strike bounce, teleport across the screen to strike a ranged foe, and so on.

Unfortunately, combat has its share of issues. Getting knocked out of combos by the most minuscule hits while your enemies sometimes shrug off your Light Strikes (especially when glowing yellow or red) can be annoying. However, it’s even worse getting juggled, as enemies can ping-pong you back and forth. Occasionally, some rubber-banding and latency issues occurred, causing dodge rolling to feel unreliable.

It even introduced some unwanted RNG into the Shadowstriker’s teleport strike, placing me in front of an enemy, even though it appeared I went behind them. Perhaps the most irritating consequence of this is using a Focus Skill or Umbra, only to have it cancelled and the resource consumed or cooldown initiated.

"Loot drops are based on the Danger Level of a tile or Venture mission. You must pass license exams to qualify for higher Danger Level missions, similar to Monster Hunter."

Couple this with Elite enemies who can power out of your attacks for surprise follow-ups or become enraged, inflicting Vulnerability while dealing more damage, and it’s a recipe for frustration as your character’s health whittles down in seconds with almost no way to fight back.

Then you have the boss battles. A fair number of them are fun, with interesting mechanics, like the boss digging underground and emitting shockwaves to jump over. However, some of them, like the Monkey King and the Merk Marauder, offer very few windows of opportunity to attack, exacerbating the existing issues. It’s worth noting that balancing is still a work in progress, especially at the higher Danger Levels, so there could be changes to some of the more annoying bosses.

Finally, we arrive at the loot, which breaks down into headgear, shoulder pads (or scarves and fur), chest armor, leggings, boots, and your weapon. You have stats like attack, defense, health regeneration, etc., but there’s also increased Bleed damage and duration, critical hit chance, Critical Damage, Affliction Duration, and so on. Aspects also introduce passive effects, increased damage to status-afflicted enemies, a percentage chance to inflict Vulnerability on Bleeding enemies, or Protection for damage reduction while an Umbra is active.

Both Aspects and equipment have rarities while contributing to your Gear Score. The former even has Tiers, presenting tough choices between an exceptional perk or something with better stats. There are also gear sets, where collecting three of a set unlocks a unique effect. Their drop rates leave something to be desired, especially at higher Danger Levels, and it would be nice to have additional avenues for obtaining them (like, say, an additional currency to spend for random gear set items from a vendor).

Loot drops are based on the Danger Level of a tile or Venture mission. You must pass license exams to qualify for higher Danger Level missions, similar to Monster Hunter. Taking on Danger Level 4 missions makes sense if you want 204 Gear Score loot, but once you get and upgrade it, it’s all about the Epics and BiS rolls.

"Amid all my concerns while playing solo, even nitpicks like not being able to cancel matchmaking when selecting a tile, I must admit: Group play feels much better."

Having Common and Uncommon items in the pool thus feels underwhelming, not just as a reward but also in terms of cluttering your inventory and necessitating trips back to the Belfry (and there’s no Postmaster either). The chase for that ideal build is ever-important, but less junk and more Epics, even if they won’t be top-tier rolls, is preferable.

Speaking of upgrades, the crafting system currently feels very limited. All the forge offers is a means to upgrade weapons and armor a couple of times to raise their Gear Score and Attack/Defense. How this will expand remains to be seen, but even the option to reroll select stats on Aspects and Gear would be something. I also wouldn’t mind an option to choose abilities for my weapon based on the situation.

Amid all my concerns while playing solo, even nitpicks like not being able to cancel matchmaking when selecting a tile, I must admit: Group play feels much better. The number of enemies scales up with players, increasing the chaos but keeping things manageable. It even helps mitigate some of the combat system’s issues since there are fewer risks of enemies ganging up on you. Things can still get dicey if your teammates go down and don’t have any lives remaining, but Towerborne’s overall vision for an action RPG/brawler is clearer when matching with other players.

The tile generation also results in more interesting scenarios, like more bee hives in Broken Mystech Pylon. Even things like build synergy begin to make more sense – eight percent damage on Bleeding enemies may not seem like much, but having an entire squad equipped with it while you’re stacking Bleed makes it ideal. I’d still like to see some changes to Aspects like reduced damage taken when inflicted with Bleed and Poison, or at least some buffs for the same.

While this is a pre-early access build, I should note the server performance when starting. It was initially fine, but post-Danger Level 3, far more disconnects occurred, sending me back to the main menu. Even the world map failed to load on multiple occasions. Things improved closer to the launch of early access, with little to no hiccups in multiplayer, but I’m still curious about launch day servers. With no offline mode, server performance will be crucial in the coming days.

"In its current state, the finer aspects of Towerborne’s systems – from combat and difficulty to tile generation and loot – still require a lot of work."

As for monetization, Towerborne follows the Helldivers 2 model very closely. There are Silver and Gold Founder’s Packs – one or the other is necessary for early access – and they contain keys for Curios, which are like Premium Warbonds. They contain Tiers of items, which you need currency to unlock (doled out through easy-to-complete daily missions), but there’s also a free Initiate’s Cache Curio. Overall, I approve – now if only the cosmetics menu were more intuitive, presenting a separate interface to have select pieces on at all times, regardless of changes to your equipment, rather than holding down a button and equipping them for each.

In its current state, the finer aspects of Towerborne’s systems – from combat and difficulty to tile generation and loot – still require a lot of work. However, its addictive gameplay loop, excellent aesthetic and soundtrack, and group play make for a mostly fun experience worth checking out despite lacking a compelling narrative. It’s always challenging to predict how a live-service title will pan out and I’m curious to see how early access will shape the title. There’s potential – here’s hoping it manifests into something truly special.

This game was reviewed on PC.