My Weekend with Spellcasters Chronicles

Imagine summoning your minions to march onto war, and later on, summon a titan the size of a sky scraper to help demolish the enemy base. Spellcasters Chronicles has been on my radar for a long while now, and I was lucky enough to get into the Closed Beta Playtest this weekend. Having played a number of matches solo and with friends, here are findings so far. 

Spellcasters Chronicles, in my humble opinion, is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena that has a lot of new things going for it that changes the usual third-person MOBA experience. Right off the bat, walking is almost non-existent in this game as everyone can fly. Flying feels nice, as it's not that difficult to navigate through the air space. 

Another thing that makes the game unique is that you get to summon the minions in your lane. You get to summon them, after some chanting, at any of your towers. Minions vary from the very basic skeleton warriors and golems, to the more giant ogres and juggernauts. 

So far, there are six different Spellcasters Chronicles characters, each with their very own style and theme (from left to right):

• Iron Sorcerer - has midrange attacks and a reflective rune shield 
• Fire Elementalist - deals fire damage and heals himself by damaging the burning enemies
• Mystic Scribe - melee support/healer that raises the max life of minions and can also heal
• Astral Monk - uses large hands that pierce through enemies, and can also stop time in an area
• Stone Shaman - heavy melee character that erect walls that can stop titans 
• Swamp Witch - deals poison damage and specializes in necromancy 

While all of the characters have their own unique basic attack, mobility, and ultimate abilities, you get to further customize what creatures you can summon, spells you can cast, buildings you can raise, and titans you can call upon. You get total control of whatever it is you want to put in your arsenal, whether it be a full set of summons or a combination of spells and creatures. 

The game does a great job in terms of pacing, in my opinion, allowing you to level up and gain access to higher tier abilities you have equipped. Skirmishes feel great and very busy as you summon, cast spells, fly around, fire off your basic attacks, and dodge incoming missiles. Later in the match, once you get to summon higher tier creatures, your lanes will be full of gigantic rampaging beasts. And once you are able to summon your titan, the battle becomes even more epic, if not alarming. 

As much as I love this game and all of the outstanding mechanics they bring to the MOBA table, the game needs improvement. While I enjoyed playing the game, frames kept on dropping making it an ordeal to target enemies who are flying about. Frame drops became even worse when there are minions, beasts, and titans facing head on. Apart from that, some of my inputs were not even recognized, which resulted in me tapping the keys multiple times until my character executes the ability. 

Like I said, I LOVE this game and will put in more hours into it. I recognize that it is in closed beta, which means they have a lot of opportunity to work on things. Closing the game even prompts an Exit Survey, which I encourage everyone to accomplish. All things said, I look forward to what Spellcasters Chronicles brews up in the future, as I shall be eagerly awaiting the next time I play the game.