Blue Byte's Champions Of Anteria Is Out, Has A Demo
Conquer at your leisure
Here's a little something you might want to try this weekend if you're looking to sink your time into a new game. Champions of Anteria [official site] launched this week, and it has a free two-hour demo so you can try it out before you buy. Champions of Anteria is what became of Ubisoft Blue Byte's The Settlers: Kingdoms of Anteria, reborn as an RTS-RPG with a touch of city-building on the side.
Champions of Anteria will you build a team of three heroes from a pool of five before heading out to save the world from warring clans and monsters. Each champion has an elemental affinity, so you'll want to match those to your enemies' weaknesses. To spice things up a bit, you can place elemental artillery like flame throwing turrets and mechanical turtles that spit water, or use an attack to alter your opponent's element to your advantage. Once you tire of that, you can head to your castle for a change of pace to upgrade your gear, tend to villagers, and beef up your kingdom's resources.
It sounds a bit like RTS-lite, which is good, because I have no patience for strategy nonsense unless the game's name starts with Fire and ends with Emblem, but that's not even a PC game, so I digress. This might actually be a strategy game I could get behind, is what I'm trying to say. If things get too heated you can pause to line up your next attack, putting an emphasis more on carefully thought out strategy rather than raw reaction, so that's nice. Really takes the edge off if that's your thing.
You can buy Champions of Anteria on Steam and Uplay for £24.99/€29.99/$29.99. The demo's available through both of those platforms too.