Epic have launched a whole new game, Battle Breakers
This is their follow-up to Fortnite?
Epic Games have only gone and launched a new game, Battle Breakers. It's a turn-based "hero collector RPG" thing about building and upgrading an army of heroes, a game with so very many numbers and resources and timers. Battle Breakers seem built for idle tapping on a pocket telephone on the bus, watching explosions and numbers popping off as you wind home through the dingy streets of Romford, but it is out on PC too. After Epic scrapped Paragon and gave up on the new Unreal Tournament, I'd half-assumed they had binned Battle Breakers too and gone all-in on Fortnite Battle Royale. Nope! Huh.
Right so, each mission along the path of an overworld map sends you through several screens of crystal tiles. Click the crystals and they'll likely burst in a coin, but sometimes baddies pop out. Heroes have regular attacks and spells and synergies and... oh, I don't care, it's not interesting. A few missions in, the main story path tells you to go replay earlier missions at higher difficulty levels to grind XP. Mate, just turn on the AI auto-play option and have the AI do the drudgery for you so you can just watch numbers go up. You can also have the game tell you which of the many heroes you collect would make a good team, and it can suggest how best to spend resources too.
Speaking of, the sheer number of currencies and resources gives a fair sense of the sort of game it is. These include: Gold, Hero XP, Gems, Lockpicks, Magic Tickets, Hammers, Power Sources, Cloudpuff Cookies, Dark Essences, Dungeon Keys, Proximity Locators, Strength Elixirs, Health Elixirs, Core Hero Traces, Legendary Hero Traces, Molten Foil, Ninja Stars, Ceremonial Swords, and Mysterious Goo.
Epic say Battle Breakers has been "a passion project by a small team" but I'm still surprised this is the game the company chose to back. This is the game they release after Fortnite? Well, maybe I'm not so surprised.
Battle Breakers is out now free-to-play on the Epic Games Store plus Android and Apple pocket telephones. Progress is shared between platforms. It sells a Battle Pass, some special hero unlocks, and other guff.