Prior to its full release on Steam, Xbox Series X & S, and PlayStation 5, I was allowed access to Warlander by Toylogic and Plaion. It had been a bit since I had dived into a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game, but this seemed to be interesting enough to warrant a return to the genre. After playing it and having some time to think about my experience, I can say that Warlander is certainly a fun time to have by yourself or with friends.

However, there are a few things about the game that seem to be poorly designed. These few poorly designed elements made my experience rather confusing. They also hindered the amount of joy I could squeeze out of Warlander.

For those who don’t know, Warlander is a MOBA where magic and science seem to have blended together with a medieval aesthetic. You can play three different class types; Warriors, Clerics, and Mages. Each of these classes has its own unique types of weapons, special abilities, and tactics that favor various situations that will come up as you make your way across the battlefield.

Similar to most MOBAs, Warlander requires you to capture spawn points and destroy enemy fortifications in order to make your way to the enemy’s core. From these primary parts of the MOBA experience, Warlander does an excellent job of making the gameplay seem smooth and seamless.

The classes (while seemingly limited) allow just enough flavor that players can enjoy a bit of variety in their gameplay. The Warrior class is essentially the tank of the game with a good chunk of health and abilities that favor close encounters. The Cleric class is the closest thing to a support class that Warlander has. It attempts to be a mid-ranged attacker since a lot of the melee abilities will miss an enemy when at close range.

The Mage class, which was my personal favorite, is the long-range class that focuses on abilities that will either soften up or distract enemies. Mages are useful so that the other classes can swoop in for the kill. If you have an attack force that has all three classes, there will be very little that can stop them easily. Except for the robot, but we will get to it in a bit.

As for maps, there doesn’t appear to be any sort of variety for the map, since the game decides which side of it you spawn on. While this is something that could easily be changed later on, it does prove to be a bit boring after playing a few matches. Luckily, the game’s strategy selection that happens right before the match helps to keep the same map fresh from time to time. However, this system is not always a surefire guarantee. Of the three strategies, only two were ever used in the matches I played; balanced and aggressive.

The defensive formation was never adopted during any of my matches, so it would be interesting to see how that turns out. Another thing that came around randomly that truly changed the dynamic of the map was various events that would happen. The two that I saw were one which spawned a tornado that went down a designated path and a robot that could almost one-shot any enemy within range. The robot was by far my favorite thing about the game, despite the fact that it was somewhat limited due to its size compared to the map.

While there were not too many problems or bugs that I saw during my time playing Warlander, there was one glaring thing that stuck out as an issue with the party that you bring with you. When going into each match, the party of characters that you create requires one that has no special title attached to it. Furthermore, you cannot select any other character besides that basic build of one until you have earned a certain amount of points.

Even after this, every upgraded character has a cooldown so that you are forced to use different characters. Initially, I understand how this could be a way for the developers to balance the game and allow people to try out all of the classes. However, there were no upgrades that I found that would make a significant difference compared to someone who is just starting out with base gear. These game limitations seem to be rather fruitless and serve no practical purpose.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience with Warlander, but I can definitely see that it has a few issues that hindered my overall experience. Despite all of these problems, the game is free, which definitely makes it worth the risk when trying out new games. If you have any questions or comments about the game, feel free to leave them down below. If you want to read about other MOBAs, make sure to check out Samuel Moreno’s recent article on Pokemon Unite here.

A PC Review Copy of Warlander was provided by PLAION for this review.

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Warlander

0.00

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Simple Gameplay Mechanics
• Fun, but Rare Mech Combat
• Room to Grow

Cons

• A few bugs
• Some gameplay hinderences
• Little Variety