I think everyone has at least heard about asynchronous multiplayer games like Dead by Daylight. The bandai Namco comrades decided to do something similar, but in the Dragon Ball universe. I note right away that this is not a copy-paste, and also that I did not like what I saw (I also don’t like Dead by Daylight). Dragon Ball: The Breakers stands out slightly from its peers in the genre due to some game mechanics (not necessarily good ones), which I will discuss later, as well as due to respect for the universe in which the action takes place.
To begin with, like many Bandai Namco projects, the new product will be fully translated into Russian. Localization was also in the assembly of the game for the game test, in which I participated. For me, this does not matter much, but I know that it is important for many.
The essence of the game, as in the case of Dead by Daylight, boils down to the fact that several survivors participate in the match, as well as one raider who hunts them and from time to time arranges big explosions, evolving at the same time into a more powerful and faster version of himself …
On the good side of the game, I want to include the authenticity of the game locations, which are also quite large in size, which makes it a little easier for survivors to hide from the gaze of the raider.
There were also no problems with the performance of the game on the GTX 1060 and online. The matches were played without lags, connection breaks and other “delights” of modern game development.
But the rest, unfortunately, did not please at all. There is literally no balance between the raider and the survivors, which leads to the total helplessness of the latter and an oppressive sense of hopelessness. I understand that in theory this was the idea, but the desire to play for the survivors discourages it. And here it should be borne in mind that they are allegedly under the protectorate of the “Time Patrol” from the Dragon Ball: Xenoverse series (fans know what this is about), which, it would seem, should give them some way to defend themselves, but no.
In a little over two hours of the game, the survivors (among whom was myself) could not win even once, I could not play for the raider, and there was no particular desire. The goal of the survivors is to activate the time machine, but it is simply impossible to deal with it and at the same time try to fight off the raider, if the latter has already managed to send most of the players to the next world. Another obstacle on the way to victory was the sooooo long resurrection of fallen allies who are still able to crawl around the map.
As a result, it turns out that at first it is more or less interesting to play and there is a desire to recoup the raider, but after a couple of matches in such hopelessness, this desire disappears without a trace. It is likely that the raider is more fun to play.
Another problem of the game in its current form is the wild congestion of the user interface with information. I understand that they want to provide us with as much information as possible, but not all at the same time. This makes it much more difficult to understand the current situation.
However, it should be noted that it is still possible to resist the raider, albeit difficult. To do this, players collect transformation energy on the map, which will allow for a short period of time afterward to borrow power from, for example, Goku, and hit the raider in the face during his attempt to absorb your fallen ally. It doesn’t do much damage, but overall it’s funny.
All in all, Dragon Ball: The Breakers can be a good game, but for this the developers will have to seriously improve the balance, make the location of the time machine random, hide its controls from the eyes of the raider, and refine the user interface. From the point of view of the villain from Dragon Ball, however, the game looks pretty damn authentic, because ordinary people shouldn’t have any chance of survival when meeting him.
Dragon Ball: The Breakers is expected to release in 2023 on personal computers, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X / S and Xbox One.
