Champions Enviornment, a free-to-play, turn-based role-playing recreation (RPG) with optionally available NFTs, launched to the general public on cellular and PC this week, providing gamers a enjoyable and mobile-first expertise with a colourful solid of characters.
Developed by OneUniverse/Uniflow and revealed by Gala Video games, Champions Arena is now absolutely launched for iOS on the App Retailer, for Android on the Google Play Retailer, and for PC customers by way of Gala Video games’ launcher on its website.
Champions Enviornment is addictive, with a strong core gameplay loop that had me hooked for hours. And as a PC gamer, that is really one of many few cellular video games I’d gladly play in my free time. Right here’s my tackle Champions Enviornment.
Watch our video evaluation—or proceed studying under.
Into the Enviornment
Champions Enviornment presents two main recreation modes: Enviornment and Marketing campaign. Whereas each energetic play modes contain the identical turn-based RPG motion, Enviornment is the real-time player-versus-player (PvP) mode, and Marketing campaign is a player-versus-computer mode that slowly strikes gamers throughout a world map after successful a sure variety of video games. Ranked Enviornment matches are the one recreation sort the place gamers can earn a decided quantity of GALA tokens for wins.
Enjoying Champions Enviornment on iOS. Picture: Decrypt.
In a Marketing campaign or Enviornment match, gamers can have as much as 4 characters, or Champions, on their aspect. Matches play out in a 4v4 format, with one gamer’s crew preventing one other. There are tanks, damage-dealers, and healers—it’s good to have one in all every in each match. 4v4 feels proper—if this recreation had been a 5v5, matches would possibly turn out to be too lengthy or complicated for extra informal gamers.
There are additionally three alliances to pay attention to: crimson, yellow, and blue, often known as Destruction, Concord, and Prosperity, respectively. Each character belongs to 1 shade or alliance, and enjoying playing cards that match that character’s alliance when it’s their flip is mostly a good suggestion, as a result of it usually will increase injury or unlocks an additional impact.
Close to the tip of a Marketing campaign match on iOS. Picture: Decrypt.
Video games in Champions Enviornment are sometimes fast-paced and brief. Every of the eight characters in battle will get a flip to behave, whether or not it’s by dealing injury or aiding teammates.
At every character’s flip, the participant can mix playing cards to stage them up as soon as or transfer playing cards round to strategize. Combining two one-star playing cards creates a single, extra highly effective two-star card, for instance. The extra stars, the extra highly effective the cardboard. Apart from that, the playing cards themselves aren’t overly complicated, as an alternative providing a couple of stats and particulars like that of a Pokemon recreation.
So whereas some superior buying and selling card recreation (TCG) gamers might discover the cardboard mechanics a bit simplistic, RPG followers and seasoned cellular avid gamers will be capable of choose up on the cardboard mechanics shortly.
Enjoying by the Marketing campaign mode on iOS. Picture: Decrypt.
Mini cinematics will happen throughout a match when a personality offers larger ranges of harm. Fortunately, these cinematics are very brief and the animations are typically interesting. Whereas they’re good to have, they’re repetitive—as characters solely say the identical handful of voice traces and execute the identical mini-cinematic each match—and never as graphically sharp as the remainder of the sport.
The “Mayhem” mode is an idle recreation mode that may give you tons of rewards. Picture: Decrypt.
A solid of Champions
General, there’s all kinds of interesting characters, from sultry vampires to monsters, robots, elves, animals, and muscular gunmen. I beloved the look of the Concord-allied Champions like Sophia and Feraella, in addition to among the Destruction alliance’s characters like Kage and Violet, to call a couple of. A number of the characters really feel closely impressed by current video games or films (i.e. Sophia carefully resembles Nintendo’s Zelda), however that doesn’t actually hassle me or take away from my enjoyment of the sport total.
The sport presents 68 whole Champions at time of writing, however most gamers might want to unlock them by way of shopping for gems, which may then be used to summon a random character. You would theoretically unlock many characters without cost (I unlocked six without cost in only a few hours), however it could take some time.
Characters may also be minted as NFTs, which might be traded and also will maximize your GALA earnings in Enviornment matches. Gamers will need to have at the least one NFT character on their aspect in an Enviornment match to be able to be eligible to win GALA token rewards.
An iOS screenshot of Sophia, who appears to be like so much like Zelda. Picture: Decrypt.
Champions should be manually leveled up by way of the menu screens. Character gear might be bought in-game or obtained as a reward by one in all Champions Enviornment’s many free reward options. There’s no scarcity of store gadgets gamers can spend actual cash on by way of gems, nevertheless, to provide their characters varied boosts.
Changing a personality into an NFT on iOS. Picture: Decrypt.
Character abilities can’t be custom-made, nor can their bodily look be modified. That lack of customization and present lack of various “skins” could also be disappointing to some gamers, notably these used to hit video games like League of Legends and Fortnite that provide a number of premium beauty choices.
All of the characters I’ve unlocked without cost to this point on iOS. Picture: Decrypt.
Gamers can even “hyperlink” characters to one another, permitting one Champion’s stage to routinely match the opposite’s larger stage—for a worth. It prices 100 gems to hyperlink two characters, which is roughly $0.97 price of GALA at time of writing, or about $0.73 on the iOS app.
Gacha? Gotcha
The first approach to unlock new characters in Champions Enviornment is by way of the “summoning” characteristic, which is a gacha mechanic. Gacha video games work like toy merchandising machines, giving gamers a random probability of getting any given character, thus eliminating participant alternative from the equation.
That is unlucky, and it might frustrate gamers who solely need to pay to unlock a handful of particular characters with out spending a whole bunch or hundreds of {dollars}.
Gacha mechanics in Champions Enviornment on iOS. Picture: Decrypt.
That stated, if a participant unlocks a reproduction of a personality they already personal, the duplicate might be dissolved and used to “promote” or enhance the star stage of the opposite character.
Gamers can even attempt shopping for a personality NFT on a secondary marketplace, however these costs might differ. As of this writing, Champions Enviornment character NFTs begin at 0.1 ETH (about $165) on the OpenSea market.
I used a reproduction Lucia to advertise our current Lucia to star stage 3. Picture: Decrypt.
On Champions Enviornment’s cellular iOS model, a chest of three,000 “paid gems” prices about $29. On Gala Video games’ web site, a chest of three,000 paid gems is listed at 0.019 ETH, or $31. Proper now, it seems that shopping for gems by Gala instantly doesn’t give gamers decrease costs.
Contemplating that it prices between 200 and 1,000 gems (about $2 to $10.60) to summon one Champion, it may very well be a greater deal to take your probabilities with the gacha mechanic than to purchase an NFT of a particular Champion on secondary.
Champion-caliber?
Champions Enviornment’s graphics are nice total. The character fashions are detailed and colourful, animations are easy, and the sport property are sharp on iOS. The sport masses shortly and is just about freed from performance-related points. The PC model of Champions Enviornment feels prefer it was ported from the cellular model, so it may gain advantage from a graphics improve. I strongly suggest enjoying this recreation on cellular over PC—it simply seems like a greater match, together with from a UI perspective.
In the meantime, the audio in Champions Enviornment can really feel a bit repetitive after even simply 10 matches. Every character solely has one or two major voice traces, so that you’ll doubtless get uninterested in listening to your characters say the identical factor each time they struggle. You’ll be able to, nevertheless, simply play the sport with out sound—there are not any cues that will require a participant to hearken to the sport.
The sport is awash with free idle rewards, in addition to outlets the place tickets, scrolls, chests, gems, battle passes, and extra might be bought with fiat foreign money or crypto, which is then transformed into the sport’s artificial gems foreign money.
The sheer variety of idle achievements within the recreation that grant gamers “gold,” one other artificial recreation foreign money, could also be a bit overwhelming to these unfamiliar with cellular video games. Nevertheless it feels nice and is part of what makes the sport addictive—you will get tens of hundreds of gold in-game with only a few clicks between matches.
Some gamers could also be turned off by the quantity of things and content material that has been paywalled, but it surely’s just about par for the course for contemporary cellular video games. Additionally, a number of gadgets might be earned without cost—it simply takes extra time and a little bit of luck.
General, Champions Enviornment is a enjoyable, strong cellular recreation for RPG and TCG followers on the lookout for a brand new fantasy recreation with low stakes to spend some crypto on. It’s casual-friendly for these in search of a cellular distraction, but additionally has a built-in ranked aggressive system for grinders seeking to earn GALA tokens—and presumably win again among the cash spent turning their characters into NFTs.
Whereas it doesn’t stand out from the group with regards to wealthy lore or a particular recreation world, there’s loads of charming characters to unlock, buttons to click on, and matches to win in Champions Enviornment.