Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms

The gaming industry all around the world is now bigger than ever before. It's no longer just Japan and America making the biggest names out there. And even though the Italian video game industry is a step behind certain parts of Europe, there are green shoots, as is the case of Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms, a Gamera RPG that could stand out internationally. It is a complex game with its own identity, inspired by many of the most influential games in the modern-day. So, what is Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms all about? Well, let's talk about it.

About the game

Also known simply as Alaloth, Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms is an action role-playing game with an isometric view that has been developed by Gamera. In it, we will be able to choose among four different races: humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs. The title will take us through a world corrupted by darkness, full of dangers and conflicts between different plans, and our goal will be none other than to confront an ancient and powerful evil. The adventure can be enjoyed both solo and cooperatively with up to three other players.

The importance of combat is made clear by the somewhat limited player character creation options, which is always a classic warrior from one of the four playable races: humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs. There is a certain resemblance to Dungeons & Dragons-based games: you can choose only one specialization between weapon and shield, two-handed weapons and two weapons at a time. But the background matters, as it is not only a moral alignment but also a god to worship and a noble house among the many that dominate the world of Alaloth. During a campaign, we were able to customize our champion by choosing and mixing between different professions: things as defender, archer, Elementalist, and necromancer.

The entire campaign is about recovering certain artifacts to enter this area and defeat Alaloth once and for all. What is relatively new here, is the addition of a map with real-time strategy, which not only shows us your travels, but also the armies of the various houses, the enemies that are there, and the heroes of the other three races, controlled by the AI, or by humans, if you are playing in multiplayer mode.

Greatly inspired

Not only does this game have one of the scriptwriters of Fallout: New Vegas on board, but it is also deeply and visibly inspired by a lot of modern games that are critically acclaimed. It is pretty hard to get Alaloth in just one game genre, as it has so many mechanics and concepts we see through a lot of different games. The heart of Alaloth is its complex skill-based combat system: after pinning down an enemy you have to engage him in a duel, with dodges, parries, and counterattacks, with activatable powers. It's very similar to Dark Souls, with its hardcore accent included.

The quest and contracts mechanics are very similar to Skyrim and The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, and there are also plenty of elements from games like Baldur's Gate.

Review: 8.5/10

Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms guarantees a vibrant fantasy world with a careful narrative section where we can immerse ourselves in a dark game proposal full of blood and magic.

Pros:

• A vast world of exploration and combat
• Good graphics

Cons:

• Poor voice acting
• Gameplay is repetitive and lacks variety