E3 2014: Lichdom: Battlemage Exclusive Interview And Hands-On Impressions

E3 is home to a wide variety of games ranging from blockbuster AAA titles, to smaller Indie games. Rpg’s hold their own amongst the various genres, but the stand-out game is one that doesn’t have a huge presence on the show floor.Check out the interview below for an exclusive, in-depth interview with Xaviant Games.

Earlier today, I was able to sit-down with the guys over at Xaviant games and learn all about their soon to be officially released title (currently an Early Access game on Steam) Lichdom: Battlemage. Lichdom: Battlemage is most easily described as a Dual-Caster. You play as a Mage either male or female, and when I say mage, I am talking about one bad ass mage. As you will hear in the interview posted below, Xaviant’s goal was to make you a powerful mage, not one made of glass and that is forced to kite through levels. Gone are the mana bars and cool-downs as well, you will finally be able to keep track of what’s going down on-screen and have that evil grin when obliterating enemies versus staring at a bar. The game also has an intriguing loot system in the sense that your potential for better and more rare loot is dependent on how many times you die throughout a level. If you make it to a boss without dying, your loot will be way better than it would be with deaths along the way. But, if you do die often, you have the chance to get more loot, which in turn can be used to attain more useful skills to help you along the way. This system seems to do a great job in rewarding skilful players, while also encouraging those less fortunate.

At the end of the meeting I was able to play through a good 10 minutes of the game, and man does it feel tight. It’s most common comparison will be Skyrim and that’s truly unfortunate for Xaviant games. Skyrim is an outstanding game, but its mage is so different from that of Lichdom: Battlemage. The comparisons stop at the fact that they are both first-person games where you are a mage (or can be in Skyrim). The depth of combat in Battlemage is so interestingly extensive and tactical. When playing for the first time, actually my first PC game in ages, I picked up the abilities and skills with relative ease, but there is an immense about of depth I didn’t even touch. I was freezing enemies with my ice bolt and demolishing them with an AOE ice spell minutes into my session. It’s safe to say that there’s finally a game that gives you an immense amount of power and doesn’t buff you, while still presenting a challenge. Through my demo time I came across a story bit and learned that there’s some powerhouse talent for the voice-acting and that there are very few cut-scenes throughout the game. Most story bits are presented through in-game scenes, which helps keep the player engaged. Be sure to check out the trailer and interview to find out why Lichdom: Battlemage will be an outstanding game once it officially releases.