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A Dwarf, Mech and Dragon Unite in Base Building Action RPG First Dwarf | PAX 2023

Stop Me If You've Heard This One

Steven Weber Posted:
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Editorials 0

A vast open world, base building, and Dwarven ingenuity await you in Polish developer Star Drifters’ action RPG First Dwarf. During PAX West, I was lucky enough to score some ample time with the base-builder, and this multi-faceted game has a lot to offer both single and co-op players – but don’t call it a survival game!

Star Drifters upcoming title First Dwarf is new game set in the universe of their popular Driftland series of games.  Unlike those games, however, First Dwarf departs into a more action-adventure RPG style of gameplay with a heavy emphasis on building bases, and unlocking story elements as you go. I met with Maciej Sosnowski, head of PR and marketing for Star Drifters and had him walk me through the game.

First Dwarf is an action-rpg with base-building mechanics, tower defense elements, and a mystery to solve.” He explained. You start your journey as a dwarf that has crash landed on one of many floating islands. After several games built around Driftland already, the game has been building some concrete lore elements that new players will eventually uncover, given that they follow along in the story. Fortunately for me, the lore didn’t prohibit me from enjoying what I was playing, and within moments, I repaired my mech and began pulling apart my crashed airship to build a workshop.

I was struck with the first unique gameplay mechanic from the jump. You essentially have three different characters from the start, and each of those “characters” can level up. What’s even more interesting here is that your dragon companion, which you can swap to at will, can also be controlled by your co-op player. It’s possible for you to play with two dwarves, but in the event, you just want a friend to drop in and join you, the dragon companion is a great way to do that.

The Dragon is just a baby, but it’s a powerful force that can fly around and scout the areas you inhabit. If you happen to get overwhelmed by the dark creatures that roam the floating islands, your dragon can help you defeat them with its dragon breath, or you can battle it out with a time-based attack pattern as a dwarf or while riding inside your mech.

Just Say No To Button Mashing

Instead of simply mashing buttons to kill enemies, you’ll need to pay attention to the combo meter, and time your button presses to match within a white bar in your field of view. If you don’t time your hits correctly, your attacks won’t flow, and it will give your opponents room to attack you instead. While this sounds almost like it’s turn-based, it isn’t. This all happens in real time, so you’ll also have to navigate your positioning and watch your back if you’re adventuring alone. You also have special attacks, and utilizing them while inside your mech will consume mana, meaning you’ll eventually need to recharge your mech if you want to continue using it.

Spread throughout the floating islands are mana reservoirs and finding them is your main priority. After finding my first mana reservoir and harnessing its energy, I started to build my first settlement, which quickly alerted the surrounding monsters, and I had to beat them back or they would destroy everything I had just built.

This is where the tower defense portion of the game fits in. With each settlement you’ll also need to setup turrets and make your buildings mostly autonomous, so that you can adventure and explore without having to rush back every time a monster attack descends on your happy home. Your first settlement is just one of many, and you’ll need to find a way to manage them all, so building a settlement with defense in mind will greatly speed up your progress.

In order to do that, I spent a lot of time swinging my pickaxe to obtain resources. Unlike survival games, you’re not going to spend any time worrying about your inventory, hunger, or thirst. Star Drifters streamlined this process to maximize the fun with things you want to do and get rid of the mechanics that hinder the game. Once I obtained enough materials, I was able to increase the variety of items I could build, and shortly thereafter I was off and running.

Dwarven Secrets to Explore

First Dwarf weaves in a lot of gameplay elements, from puzzles, to building, and a unique combat system, with an undercurrent of storytelling that will unveil some of the secrets of Driftland. “A strategy game is really bad for telling a story,” Maciej began. “We did a good job with that, but this is a more approachable way of telling a story in this whole universe we created.” While playing, it was clear that the reception for First Dwarf had been very positive, with a line forming to play. I was told that there was a consistent stream of players throughout the entirety of PAX, and judging by my guided play session, it’s very clear why.

Star Drifters has determined that they’re hoping players will complete the story in about 15 hours of play time. Luckily for dwarves that love to build, you will be able to continue building and creating new bases for as long as you want, which Star Drifters believe will bring players back, as building settlements and tower defense are fun experiences on their own. In addition to replaying the game just for the building aspects, the possibility to expand the content is on the docket to bring players back after they’ve completed First Dwarf. The game is also strictly split-screen co-op at the time of our demo, but I was told that they were looking into an online co-op too.  

With the demo complete and plenty of dwarven crafting, mech driving, fire breathing experience under my belt, I left the encounter hopeful that I’d get to craft more in First Dwarf when the game releases next year. Unfortunately, there is no confirmed release date as of yet, but First Dwarf is available to Wishlist on Steam along with its RTS precursor’s Driftland.


StevenWeber

Steven Weber

Steven has been a writer at MMORPG.COM since 2017. A lover of many different genres, he finds he spends most of his game time in action RPGs, and talking about himself in 3rd person on his biography page.