Psyonix is currently riding high on the success of Rocket League with its recent release on Xbox One and continual support on Playstation 4 and PC. But did you know that that’s not all that Psyonix has been working on?
Nosgoth is a free-to-play, team-based PvP action game that is a spin-off of the Legacy of Kain series. Developed by Psyonix and published by Square Enix for Microsft Windows PC, Nosgoth is a beautiful and fun game to play that’s marred by a few niggling flaws.
If you’re more of a visual type of person, you can check out Miri’s video review of Nosgoth embedded below:
Bringing back the rich vampire mythology, Nosgoth acts as a side story following the events of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Kain, after executing Raziel, abandoned his empire and advanced time in order to quicken his awakening, by using a time-streaming device called the Chronoplast. The gap in power leads to internal conflict between vampire clans and allowed for the rise of humans.
If you’ve never played Legacy of Kain, all of that might just sound like nonsense to you but for those that have played it before, it’s a nice little nod to the series.
Ultimately, the story does not impact the gameplay at all, which is rather disappointing given how deep of a mythology the Legacy of Kain has. Sufficed to say, humans versus vampire in an all-out brawl are all you need to know in order to enjoy Nosgoth‘s gameplay.
And enjoy the gameplay you will because Psyonix brought their mechanical know-how from Rocket League into Nosgoth, making combat feel fun and exciting to play. Controls are straight forward (WASD for movements, mouse to view, left click to attack, etc.) with differences between characters are based on abilities and classes.
Speaking of characters, there are only two races available in Nosgoth. Humans and vampires. When you first begin, only two classes will be available for each race (Hunters and Alchemists for humans / Reavers and Tyrants for vampires). As you play more, more characters, more abilities, and more items will be unlocked. You can opt to purchase the unlockables if you want, as is with most free-to-plays. Unfortunately, there is no character customization so you are stuck with what Nosgoth has to offer.
While the classes are pretty much a straightforward affair, there are some parts in the tutorials that didn’t clearly explain their abilities. Particularly the Tyrant’s, whereby the lack of clear information makes it hard to complete the tutorial. Nevertheless, get past the tutorials and jump into the meat-and-potatoes of Nosgoth, PvP.
PvP is a team-based deathmatch affair where you will be randomly selected as either humans or vampires. Choose your class and you will be placed in an arena where the objective is to get more kills than the opposing team. The simple objective adds to the very fluid gameplay mechanic by allowing you to focus entirely on combat. It also helps that Nosgoth is nice to look at.
Built on Unreal Engine 3, Nosgoth boasts some pretty good graphics for a free-to-play game. Environment design fits the overall tone of the game and character model looks detailed and different. But good graphics and gameplay can only hold a player for so long. Which leads to one of Nosgoth‘s glaring issues, lack of content.
Despite having a solid foundation for gameplay, Nosgoth still lacks content to keep players engaged in the long run. With only three different game modes (with two modes only being slight variation) and a handful of maps, it’s hard to justify sinking hours into Nosgoth. Psyonix promised a new map and a new female vampire character in the coming weeks but if they want to keep players coming back, they need to put in more content.
Given that it’s a free-to-play game and that it’s still a beta (though Square Enix did state that the beta constitutes as launch), it’s hard to fault Nosgoth for trying to find its legs. The fun gameplay and excellent art direction make Nosgoth a great game to play but more features are needed for the game if it wants to survive in the long run.
Nosgoth is available to download for free. Head over here to start playing!
