Gameplay is simple. Kill everything and release the Nexus Cores. In solo gameplay, that means clearing a room before releasing a core if direct player intervention is require, of in multiplayer, your friends can hold off the hoards of monsters while you click and hold to release the trapped core. You get a taste of multiplayer in your very first map with an NPC joining in to help your weak starter character
Combat is rather simple for the experienced ARPG player. All attack and skills are area-effect although for some, more damage is done in the direction your character faces. All bosses have tells and you learn to use your dodge skill to good effect. Finally, Paragon’s Might charges up and carries over to the next map – so if you have having a little difficulty with one, you can clear a couple of lower level maps to charge up the power and add a few phials to give yourself a boost.
It’s actually rather hard to die in this game unless you get cocky and take on a map that is several levels higher that your character and you head in without boosts, and try to take all the bosses at the same time. There isn’t a health meter. The screen glows red at the edges, but all you have to do is dodge away, run around a bit for the red to clear – you can run faster than the critters and much faster than the bosses. That said, I only managed to get to level 15 before the beta ended and accounts were wiped. I am sure the higher levels can be more difficult.
I was unable to try the multi-player games as I did not find any other players in the public rooms and only had one device capable of handling the game. So the above screenshot is a publicity shot from Frima and not a screenshot I took.
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Innovation – 6/10
The maps get repetitive as you kill your way through this game. There is nothing innovative in terms of features or new gameplay type. However, a game does not require innovation to be good fun and well balanced.
Polish – 7/10
I played the game for a few days in their beta period and found that it ran pretty well once I got it running on an iPad3 and in an environment with strong and fast (cable) Wifi. If you are running on a slow or busy connection situation, expect to get stutters. You are encouraged to synch your game to Facebook. When you do and your friends playing the game are online, you can see their profile photo on the map, and can join their games.
I would recommend you log in with Facebook right from the start so you don’t have the “WTF” moment I had when I did the “Sync with Facebook” after a couple of days and a few levels. Let’s just say it involved a lot of cussing, deleting the app from my Facebook account, playing through the first map so I could get to options and log out, saying a little prayer and re-synching to get back to my saved game. Apart from that 20 minutes of steam coming out of my ears, I had no issues.
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Longevity – 8/10
From just this short time with it, I’ve enjoyed it and believe that fans of the genre will too. Replay value is low however, as you would have played the lower levels ad nauseum by the time you are level 20 or so. The weapon types are not different enough to give you a different experience. I would say that much like Diablo, after you were done with the solo game, it will be tremendous fun to play with a friend. I would have liked to have done it with my niece and nephew, but sadly, between their family and me, with five iOS devices, only one would run the game.
Value – 8.5/10
This game is free to download and play. The gating feature is energy required to play a map and this increases as the maps increase in difficulty, but as your character levels, you increase your energy level as well. Unless you enjoy playing several hours at a time and need to purchase energy, the casual player can play in short bursts and be satisfied with his progress and rewards. I would expect to grind a bit if I want enough drops to do the orb upgrades for my skills and armor, but that is when time equals money and you might decide to make sure the Devs survive to make more games and give them some money by buying items or diamonds in the shop.
Conclusion – 7.5
Lightbringers is a fast paced RPG that is fun and balanced, with a multi-player element to extend the fun. You are however, tied to your WiFi even if you are playing the solo game, unless you don’t mind the degraded play experience and running up your mobile data usage.
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Carolyn Koh / Carolyn has been writing for MMORPG.com since 2004 and about the MMO genre since 1999. These days she plays mobile RTS games more, but MMOs will always remain near and dear to her heart.
