Daedalic recovers the most classic real-time strategy, with a cooperative incentive.
War is the natural state in the universe of a real-time strategy game. From the imperialism of various civilizations in Age of Empires, the eternal confrontation between the Horde and the Alliance in Warcraft and the struggle for dominance of the galaxy in Starcraft. The fantasy of being able to gain an empire that we must maintain, defend and protect is tempting, and we rejoice at the satisfaction of the battles won with our ability as strategists.
Daedalic Entertainment seeks to revive the most classic aspect of the genre with A Year Of Rain, which on November 6 arrives for Windows PC as an early access through Steam, “so that the community is part of the continuous development of this game” , according to the German study. In FreeGameTips we have come to the presentation of the game, from which we bring you our first impressions.
Team strategy
A Year of Rain is founded on a convulsed kingdom, in which we can choose one of its three factions: the Rupah House, led by the ambitious Jaidee and his desire to civilize the earth; the Undead of Lady Llorona, composed of the souls of warriors to whom death has not quenched their thirst for blood; and the Pariahs, the nomadic and untamed tribes before the imperialist wishes of Rupah. On each side we will choose one of his heroes, with his own abilities that we will develop as the character becomes experienced in battlefield experience.
Daedelic wants to refresh the strategy in real time with an experience based on teamwork. Two players will cooperate to face their enemies, with which each one must choose a role that complements the teammate: attack, tank or support; which will lead us to choose between some heroes or others. In case of not having another player, artificial intelligence will be our ally or our rival, in case we lack humans who face us in multiplayer mode.
A complex and rich universe
A Year Of Rain has a Campaign Mode composed of 11 missions, two of which will serve as tutorials for a very intuitive game system for veteran players of the genre. With three difficulty modes, we will explore a plot that promises several amazing script twists. It will also allow us to know the universe of the game itself, full of diverse characters and races with their own culture and history. His cartoon aesthetic takes us to a world of colorful and friendly epic fantasy – despite the warlike and solemn context – with detailed maps and scenarios that puts us before a world of solid and rich fantasy.
In addition, A Year of Rain offers a versus 2 VS 2 mode, where the goal is to tear down the opposite alliance; if we eliminate the base of only one of the opponents, we will win the battle. Here we will start in our respective settlement, with a guide that will suggest the next steps when creating our strength. We must manufacture workers to collect natural resources such as wood and minerals, with which to manufacture new buildings in which to create and improve our troops. It is possible to chain successive tasks, so the games become very dynamic and easy to manage. And, when we have our army, we will launch into the conquest, without forgetting to protect our territory.
While we explore the land for new resources – since forests and mines are not inexhaustible – we can run into enemies outside our declared rivals, as well as bosses controlled by artificial intelligence. After defeating them, we will accumulate experience that can translate into new skills for our hero, who has his own tree of specialization. Of course, it is possible for our champion to perish in combat, after which he will be able to resurrect at the base we assign him.
As for the combat system, it is very comfortable for both veterans and novices: it is possible to select the entire army at once, as well as distribute different troops to different tasks. As for the hero, his abilities refresh in a few seconds, forcing us to stay active during battles.
At the end, we will access a statistic that will classify the players among the most active during the battle, the biggest gatherers and the ones that have received the most damage. Finally, we have available the Against All Forecast mode, based on survival, although we have not accessed it for the moment.
With an eye on esports
The esports are also an area that they contemplate in Daedelic, with which they have implemented a Spectator Mode, suggested during their previous test sessions, which allows the casters to see the game from the point of view of each player.
A Year of Rain has texts located in Spanish, whose translation has been a praiseworthy task, as well as the readability of the texts of the menus. As for the voices in English, we highlight in a theatrical interpretation that accentuates the epic tone of a vibrant war.
Daedalic has surprised us with a title that has happened quite discreetly in the media. Agile, with an elaborate lore, factions covering different player styles and a cooperative system that brings freshness to the genre, remains to plunge into the thrilling battle of A Year Of Rain.
