Big Ben’s “Warhammer: Chaosbane” is another Warhammer game, in a long line of them – some of which are good, and some aren’t. So, In which camp will this demo of “Chaosbane” find itself?
Well, let’s find out shall we!

This picture right here is a part of a cut scene, and each character has a different introduction scene in “Chaosbane”.
Playing as one of four classes, each of which has a different starting story (before all of them converge into more or less one), you’re objective is to rid a curse from Magnus (the current leader against Chaos) and to bring glory to yourself (which varies depending on who you play).

You get skills to level up, upgrade weapons and so on. In other words, it’s the standard RPG formula.
The game’s cut scenes are 2D animations. However, unlike the usual 3D FMV usually used. So they certainly fit in well with the game.
Playing as a third-person game makes a change from something like “Vermintide”, and even in beta, it does, for the most part, play well. Character movement is smooth when using a joypad – mouse control works, although is a bit cumbersome.
Being an RPG game does mean your character needs to be levelled up, inventory sorted out and skills upgraded, and this game provides a decent enough system to do so.
As it’s just a matter of dragging and dropping bits around, resulting in a pretty easy-to-use system that has all the required stats to make any “Warhammer” nerd giggle with glee.

The combat is on point in “Chaosbane”, as the combat is non-complex, and you have plenty of fun while killing off everything that comes in your way.
Graphically, even at this time, “Chaosbane” is very nice. You see, animations both of yourself, weaponry and the Chaos enemies are very nice and smooth and are fairly detailed.
So, what about foes, monsters and whatnot then? Well, Enemies are highlighted when spotted. So they’re easy to spot even in the dark and gloomy recesses of sewers (of which you may spend a while).
There is a fairly good range of baddies, and that includes everything from the simple and easy to kill rats to bigger rats or whatever they are supposed to be…

The movement is very good in the game. However, for some strange reason, it seems like you can’t run in “Warhammer: Chaosbane”. Well, at least for now.
At the center of the castle from where you start the game, it looks like there is going to be three modes of play – the standard story mode, and two others being “Expedition” and “Boss Rush“.
As awesome as that might sound though, both of these are currently locked. Whether they will be enough for people to keep playing (once the main campaign is finished), will be interesting to see.

“Warhammer: Chaosbane” is the world’s very first Warhammer themed hack-and-slash game, and make no mistake, there are plenty of foes for you to slay. Furthermore, you will have tons of fun while doing so.
As you would expect of a “Warhammer game”, there are both single and multi-player modes, with the ability of being able to join a multiplayer game (when one is found) when you are playing a single-player game.
Unfortunately, it appears that the multiplayer mode isn’t working properly yet – either it won’t find a game or when it does, it just displays a black screen…

As much as I enjoyed playing “Warhammer: Chaosbane”, the game does suffer from a handful of downsides. For example, the game is pretty generic, there are crash bugs and network play doesn’t seem to work at the moment…
Even so, the main problem with “Chaosbane” at the moment is that there isn’t really anything that makes it stand out.
I mean, so far it’s just another RPG game among the crowd (the whole situation with “Chaosbane” reminds me a lot of “Noahmund”, although without turn-based fighting aspect).

It’s going to be very interesting to see what the complete version of “Warhammer: Chaosbane” will be like on release. Well, we will know for sure once the game launches on June 4th this Summer.
Now, don’t get me wrong, because “Chaosbane” is with no doubt a really good and fun action RPG. However, just like I said previously, the game needs to stand out more from the crowd than it already does in-order to become a hit among gamers.
So only time will tell if Big Ben will be able to sort all of that out before “Chaosbane” launches to PC on the 4th of June this summer. So I wish them the best of luck with everything.
Pros:
+ Very nice graphics
+ Music is good
+ Movement is good, but you can’t run
+ Topnotch hack-and-slash action (Warhammer + hack-and-slash = true!)
+ Tons of different weapons, items and powers that you can use
– There are plenty of things for you to slay
Cons:
– Network play doesn’t seem to work at the moment
– The game suffers from some game crashes
– It’s pretty generic
Gameplay: 4/5
Graphics: 4/5
Sound and music: 3/5
Controls: 4/5
Replay value: 3/5
Story: 4/5

Verdict: 4/5
Whilst “Chaosbane” plays well, and could provide enough entertainment for those who like these sorts of games, there isn’t much to make it really stand out.
Furthermore, currently, the only way of knowing that it’s a Warhammer game is by the fact that it’s got “Warhammer” in the title. So only time will tell if “Chaosbane” will have what it takes to become a hit among gamers.
Title: Warhammer: Chaosbane
Developer: Big Ben
Format: PC Download
Genre: Third person action adventure/RPG
Resolution:
Release date: 2019-06-04
Difficulty: User-defined
Spent time: + 2 hours
Average grade internationally: N/AGamerankings.com
PEGI age rating: 16+
Price: From around £39.99 upwards
Store URL: Warhammer: Chaosbane via Steam
Credit:
Robin Ek – Editor
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Nicholas Kingsley
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @sku_te
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Tags: Action games, Big Ben, Chaosbane, PC games, PC preview, RPG, Warhammer, Warhammer: Chaosbane