Review: Alaloth: Champions Of The Four Kingdoms (Early Access)

pczone.co.uk:

Alaloth: Champions Of The Four Kingdoms is a cRPG by Gamera Interactive currently released in early access. 

We’ve all seen these retro aesthetics before, with Planescape: Torment and Pillars Of Eternity. So does the souls-like combat of Alaloth deliver, mark it out as one of the RPG greats? Let’s find out.

Now, I’m going to be honest. It was hard for me to find a recent reference point for Alaloth. The last fantasy RPGs I played were Divine Divinity and the original Neverwinter Nights way before the current online version existed. 

But Alaloth definitely brought me back to a time when looting, stabbing and story were the keys to fantasy titles.

Playing the game was very reminiscent of the environmental detail of Divine Divinity. Still, it had very different combat dynamics to the D&D dice system of Neverwinter Nights. 

But Alaloth definitely harks back authentically to older RPG games in a very positive way, so the nostalgia was real. So what about the story of Alaloth?

Alaloth is a god who has killed other gods to come to Planem, the land of mortal beings. As a champion it is your job to kill Alaloth. But you must hurry, as four other champions are also tasked with the same job, depending on your game mode.

The story is conveyed through dialogue with NPCs and the lore can be discovered in books. The story sounds like it is in epic proportions but it doesn’t always make you feel the centre of the universe like a game with champions in the title should. 

The detail, richness and engagement factor of the lore varies. One of the aspects of the dialogue used to express the lore is that it is often written in very modern English. Phrases like “pain in the ass” take you out of the moment and remind you you’re a boring human playing a