Shadowbound Review

Shadowbound is a free to play browser-based MMORPG with some interesting features such as:

• puzzle dungeons
• NPC companions
• epic PvP arenas, war plots, and battlegrounds

Guild Wars 2 Review
by Toni

R2 games have created a whole bunch of browser based games and Shadowbound is no different, but what makes it different is the interesting visual style and the story. In this game, you will have to save the world from some ancient powers that require you to focus on getting some specific powers. It’s a wonderful title that allows you to truly explore your skills and improve them as time goes by.

Gameplay – Starting Out

They have 3 different classes in the game, and you can consider these as being the classic, fun ones. You can be a warrior, hunter or mage. The developers weren’t that creative here, but at least the visual design does make these classes distinct and that’s what matters the most in a browser MMORPG. You will have to recruit your own band of mercenaries (NPC companions) if you want to stay alive in this game because on your own it can be close to impossible to get the results you want.

Exploring the initial city can be boring, but thankfully the game world is quite large and you do have a ton of stuff to do which is indeed a major plus. You will be amazed at how fun the entire experience really is. Each time you play, the gameplay will improve exponentially. All of the classes are fun and they add replay value to Shadowbound. For me, the hunters were indeed my favorites as they do have quite an intricate and unique set of skills, but playing as a mage and warrior is also fun, it all comes down to what you like the most.

Recruiting mercenaries is nice. As you play you will find more and more mercenaries that want to join you. Opponents can get quite tough as time passes and even if you level up very fast in this game, which is a little odd, you will still need some help at all times. This means that the mercenaries aren’t there just for the fun of it, instead they will help you complete quests and explore the dungeons or solve the puzzles included in them. I’’s a cohesive thing that does manage to help you a lot in the long run and at the same time you will have the unique opportunity to dominate the battlefield and outwit the enemies thanks to them.

Turn Based Combat

The combat is turn based, but just like in the case of most games in this genre, it’s quite automatic because of the way it’s built. It’s not a bad thing though, in fact it helps you a lot if you are tired of clicking and clicking tirelessly without end.

The fact that the combat is automatic doesn’t really manage to let you take complete control over the way you play so that is a downside of playing Shadowbound.

Unique Puzzles

Solving puzzles isn’t really something that I imagined doing in Shadowbound, but to be honest it’s a cool thing to encounter. The puzzles are created in an interested manner, because each of the bosses can be found at the end of a tile maze, and you are free to choose any path in order to acquire victory. It’s definitely interesting to see how this improves as time passes, with the puzzles getting more and more complicated and you being at the center of it all.

Epic PvP

Shadowbound does have something that many other similar titles do not have, and that is a very large PVP battle that will pit your team of 40 against 40 other players. You can play this with friends, which does offer quite a lot of interesting gameplay options, but at the same time you can also mash things up with some of the random players and opponents that can be found online. This is great fun if you love PvP.

Graphics

Shadowbound looks stunning, plus it works without any performance problems on just about any computer from the past 7-8 years or so. The visuals are amazing considering the fact that this game runs in a browser. Everything from the character design to animations and the game world as a whole is very nicely designed.

Conclusion

Shadowbound is a good choice if you want to casually play a browser MMORPG with good graphics and gameplay. It works and runs smoothly even on laptops or older computers, which is a nice plus. There is a mini client, too. Shadowbound has the usual turn-based combat but it does have some unique gameplay elements such as the tile-based dungeon/boss challenges, which is worth trying out. Since the game is free to play, there’s no reason not to give this a shot.