Winterborn might be a new name for you but the people who founded this video game development company are certainly not new in the industry. Formed back in 2019, Winterborn comprises of former AAA developers who worked previously at Infinity Ward. Their very first project is Externus: Path of the Solari which is a character-driven tactical RPG. This genre might be classic, but the game is certainly not and features modern gaming mechanics while maintaining that same feel of the classic games. This is our preview of Externus: Path of the Solari based on the game’s pre-alpha demo given to us by the developer. The game is based on the original tabletop game of the same name.
Right from the beginning of the demo, I was certain that Externus: Path of the Solari is not a game that will spoon feed you. And when I say that, I really mean there is no spoon-feeding because the demo threw me right in the middle of a fight without any introduction to the mechanics or controls of the game. You must figure out everything yourself as you start playing the game. This might be different in the full game, but the pre-demo build does not offer you any sort of guidance and for me, this was a pleasant surprise. RPGs these days are getting too easier.
Right after the introductory video where I was introduced to the world of Externus: Path of the Solari and how evil has taken over the world and 2 of the gods are dead. In such times, a special ancient order comes into play called Soldat Solari who is responsible for maintaining the balance in the world. However things have not been really good for this order lately and now with not many new recruits, the order is low on ranks and thus it makes things much more difficult for the order to bring back the balance to the world.
Your first battle in Externus: Path of the Solari is more of a learning battle. With just 2 archer enemies, there is enough space for you to explore your options, try out different strategies, and play around with the buttons of the game. However, I will say here that the game is not very lenient when it comes to death. On your path, you will meet many people that will join your party or you will hire more people however death is permanent in the game unless the characters are critical to the story of the game. That too, if all of them die in a single battle, it is game over for you. The health pool of units depends on what type of units they are. Melee and tank units come with bigger health pools while your ranged units will come with very little health pools.
This encourages you to formulate strategies and play your cards right for every battle. You cannot just blindly assign commands and expect your units to emerge victorious in the battle. The enemy AI is extremely smart and will quickly react to your every move. Archers will move away from your melee units; melee units will ensure that they stick close to your units and so on. There is a bit of luck involved in the game as well because having your unit right next to an enemy unit does not guarantee a confirmed hit. During a certain mission in my playthrough, I missed three melee hits on an archer even when my character was standing on the tile right next to it. This makes thinking ahead even more important because the game can turn for the worse at any second.
To support you, each of the characters come with unique skills. These skills are vital for survival in the game and without the careful use of these skills, you cannot survive for long in the game. These skills use MP so this makes their use another gamble because MP is not easily recovered back, and you might not know when you need the most of these skills in the battle. Apart from these skills, you can also use different items that restore your health or MP in the game on-demand. The items in your inventory are shared by the whole team so you must manage them properly because once you run out of them, all your party members run out of the items. The combat plays out pretty much similar to any other turn-based RPG you might have played. Characters get a move based on the sequence bar at the top-left of the screen.
This allows you to focus on enemies that are getting their moves next. If you can eliminate an enemy character whose move is coming up, you will deny the enemy their move and you will get control of your characters as well. However, you only get a limited allocation for every move. You can move or attack once but once you are out of action points, you cannot use items, attack, or move so you have to manage whether you want to move or attack or want to use an item and move. Movement is allowed in every turn however only one action is allowed such as taking an item, attacking, or using a skill. The game also has friendly fire on, so you need to watch out before using skills as I found it out the hard way.
Externus: Path of the Solari is a narrative-driven game. Right from the first cutscene to the last cutscene, you are constantly being filled in with chunks of the story and lore of the game and its world. Apart from the text-bases cutscenes, you will often lay down and rest at campfires where your characters will indulge in meaningful conversation giving you more insights about the world and what has happened to it. Future strategies are also shared with each other during these camping sessions. I loved this little bit of the mechanic added to the game by the developers as it makes the character feel more alive rather than just random characters you control in a video game. Sometimes, you will also get to choose how to make your approach. For example, the game might ask you if you want to proceed for an attack during the daytime or wait until the nighttime when the enemies are low. The choices are yours to make and live with them.
Battles are fought on 3D battlefields where you have complete control over the camera. You can tilt, rotate, and even zoom in or out to suit your playing style. However, during my playthrough, I found it to be extremely beneficial to have a camera angle that is clearly depicting the current scenario happening in the game. Lucky for you, the game gives you complete freedom of how you want to move the camera around and how you want to look at the battlefield. The battlefield designs are amazing in the game and the soundtrack is yet another pretty strong positive point for the game. At the end of the level, you gain experience, gold, and sometimes spoils of war which include useful items such are healing items. You can replay already completed levels as well if you want to farm some XP or items giving you a stronger start to the next level.
The pre-alpha demo that I played for this preview was still a pretty early release build for the game and it was missing a lot of features and mechanics that will be present in the full game. With that said, I still enjoyed my time spent in the game although I was not particularly good at it. I saw the game over screen numerous times, but every failure was a learning experience and made me a little better at the game. I am really looking forward to the full release of Externus: Path of the Solari because I really like the concept and the solid combat of the game. It is brutal and complex yet easy to understand. If you are a fan of the classic PRG games where character-development plays a vital role, you should really look forward to the release of Externus: Path of the Solari. You can add it to your wishlist over at Steam to follow the development of the game or you can check back at GamesHedge because we certainly would be covering the development of the game here.
