Friends Help Friends Kill Shadows: Warlocks
Sadly not some kind of thief-styled Warface sequel
A good boss theme sells a game more than all the marketing, CGI trailers and press conferences in the world. This is a Game Fact, with which there can be no disagreeing. Final Fantasy VII, one of the most popular and well-known games in history: great boss theme. Advance Wars, the best game on the GBA: godlike boss theme. Warlocks, a co-op wave defense action-platformer which you can play in the demo right now? Excellent boss theme. The demo was released as part of Polish studio One More Level's attempt to secure $25k (~£15k) in crowdfunding on Kickstarter.
Having had a little solo play, it's definitely designed with multiple players and a couch in mind. Don't get me wrong, it's not boring on your own, but it lacks a certain chaotic charm. There's a LoL-like synergy between a character's skills, applying debuffs or marks to targets that other abilities trigger off or use up. Each clearly improves in a party: slowing down enemies so they will sit in another player's AoEs or healing the glass cannon damage-dealers when they're swamped by foes.
The characters themselves are caricatured coolness, a giant angel wielding a sword twice their size or a pyromanic small boy with a pet phoenix. They're only a little undermined by having some of the worst voiceovers in history--both the dialogue and performance--though part of the Kickstarter money would go to hiring professional voice actors.
If the demo's to your taste, pledging at least $12 (£7.39) will get you Warlocks when it arrives on Steam Early Access in November. One More Level are looking to finish the game for April. As a homework assignment, what's your favourite boss theme ever?