The survival element game has been really hot enough in recent years.
First the battle royale, then the SOC, and then the survival evacuation of "Escape from Tarkov", whether it is players or manufacturers, everyone's enthusiasm for the "survival + X" gameplay has never waned.
At first glance, this type of product seems to be based on shooting gameplay, which is difficult to learn from other gameplay. But in fact, action RPGs are also being affected by this trend, giving birth to a series of new products. For example, the battle royale category includes "Naraka: Bladepoint", and the survival and evacuation gameplay has also run out of products like "Dark and Darker".
Recently, one product has caught the attention of Grape King, and it is "Dungeonborne". The game was once a dark horse, and at the Steam Next Product Festival in February this year, it won the first place in the "Hot Coming Soon" and "Daily Active Trial Players" rankings.
How popular is this kind of "Western-style fantasy + survival evacuation" theme game now? Not only can they easily get hundreds of millions of views on overseas live broadcast platforms such as Twitch, but even in China, related videos can also get more than one million views on station B.
Dungeonborne, on the other hand, is even stronger than other products in the genre – not only in terms of improved graphics quality and excellent and sophisticated map design, but also in the fact that it combines ACT combat, RPG elements, and a hardcore in-game experience to create a unique first-person tactical gaming experience.
We could even say that Dungeonborne may be one of the key products for fantasy survival to leave this new track, from experimental nature to real maturity.
01 Survival and evacuation are not just for shooting
Dungeonborne, as its name suggests, is a Dungeon-themed first-person PVPVE game. In the game, players can work in teams of three to explore Diablo-style dungeons, acquire equipment, and fight monsters or other teams in the dungeon until they reach the extraction point and leave the dungeon.
So, what is the difference between this kind of fantasy theme survival evacuation and shooting survival evacuation? I think the first is that they fuse more attributes.
For example, in my opinion, the biggest difference between them lies in the RPG attributes of the products.
In this type of game, players can usually choose from 7 common classes in Western fantasy games, such as the Warrior in the front row, the Rogue in charge of sneak attacks, the Mage in charge of ranged attacks, and so on.
This kind of MMO-like clear class differentiation makes the game more cooperative, and the player experience is more interesting, which is relatively difficult to achieve in the shooter category.
Secondly, it lies in the action attributes of this type of game.
Because the player is in a world of swords and sorcery, cold weapon melee combat is the player's main mode of combat. Even a long-range mage will inevitably encounter a sneak attack by thieves. Because of the existence of PVP, many games will emphasize action competition and increase TTK, so that players can feel more interesting in the game.
At the same time, melee PVP requires completely different maps and skills than shooters, which will bring a completely different experience to fantasy survival evacuation.
And with the foreshadowing of the first two, fantasy survival evacuation usually has a third attribute, which is the characteristic BOSS of the MMO-like.
Different from the powerful monsters in the survival evacuation category, Western fantasy, as an enduring theme in the MMO category, provides a lot of inspiration for this type of survival evacuation game. In these games, we can all see the design of the boss room similar to the MMO dungeon.
For example, in Dungeonborne, players will encounter a kind of sheep-headed demon boss "Wendigo". It can release a variety of different summons to attack the player, and players need to work as a team, such as letting one wet nurse character attract the boss's hatred, and the other two output characters destroying the summons and attacking the boss, and repeating the rounds to complete the level.
The overall experience is very similar to the difficult dungeons in many MMOs, which makes the game more objective and strategic fun, and also makes the game's multiplayer co-op gameplay more valuable.
Therefore, on the whole, the fantasy survival evacuation is not just a "Escape from Tarkov" with a different theme, but a separate track with its own characteristics. In addition, because of the many integration attributes, long TTK, and emphasis on cooperation, I think the audience size of this type of product is likely to be no smaller than that of the shooting category, and it is easier for the average player to get started.
02 The most vivid embodiment of the gameplay
On the premise of this category, let's take a look at the performance of "Dungeonborne" itself. I can say that it is the most vivid embodiment of most of the advantages and traits that fantasy survival should have in this category.
The game gives people the most intuitive feeling, which is more exquisite art and a smoother operation experience. While other products in the same category tend to feel more "experimental", with simple and rough graphics and stiff and sluggish movements, Dungeonborne is clearly more of a commercial product.
Moreover, their better graphics and actions are not just packaging, but also play a greater role.
First of all, with this foundation, their experience in action attributes can be better. Whether it is the sense of attack in the visual experience or the flexibility of operation when playing with enemies, it makes the game's combat more replayable.
It's also worth mentioning the game's block mechanic, which isn't that difficult to play and has a higher tolerance for error, which makes it easier for players to pick up and more flexible to play. At the same time, the existence of this blocking mechanism also means that players need to predict the opponent's actions in addition to brainless hammers in battle, which also has a stronger ACT feeling.
Secondly, this kind of survival game that includes the gameplay of "looting equipment" often faces a balance: is it more focused on the numerical advantage of equipment, or more on the player's operational advantage? Dungeonborne is clearly leaning towards the latter.
In my opinion, this is also a more correct choice. After all, we have just mentioned when talking about the characteristics of the category, action attributes and RPG attributes are important characteristics of fantasy survival withdrawal, and paying attention to operation can maximize the advantages and interesting points of this unique category.
In addition, because the resource richness of different locations on the map is often different in survival gameplay, if the equipment value is the main one, it will often lead to the loss of uncertainty in the game. If the player can take down the opponent with three or two numerical clicks, it will actually lose the charm of fantasy survival evacuation as a melee action genre.
As a result, Dungeonborne's gear clearly shows a greater bias towards providing "more abilities" rather than just more stats. And these abilities can also be used to match the skills carried by characters and weapons, and evolve more in-game positioning of players.
Some players who have participated in the test also said that compared to similar games such as "Dark and Darker", in "Dungeonborne", players can rely on the control of operation and combat timing, use relatively basic equipment to kill a fully loaded team, and get rich in one game, this excitement is the core reason why they like to play survival and evacuation games.
And since Dungeonborne retains the longer TTK of the action genre, the pacing of the game needs to be optimized in a few ways. In contrast to Dark and Darker's more hardcore orbital aiming attacks, their choice is a more MOBA experience of restrained game loops and class-specific skills.
For example, the game provides players with skills such as stealth and petrification for classes such as Thieves, through which players can complete raid tactics faster. At the same time, the game also provides control skills for some classes, allowing players to output more saturated enemies, adjust TTK, and enhance the coolness of cooperative combat.
In addition, the game also offers a more spatial map in its category. In this way, players can also get a richer strategic confrontation experience through positional tactics. For example, you can use some special points to position yin people, or use easy to defend and difficult to attack positions to form a confrontation advantage. In the official Discord, the new ability of the Mage to charge up and take off was also recently revealed, and in this kind of map with elevation differences, it is clear that there will be more combat styles and strategic depth.
It's also worth mentioning that Dungeonborne doesn't focus on excitement at the expense of other player needs. And this is also one of their biggest highlights compared to many survival evacuation products.
For example, for many survival evacuation players, because the equipment can be taken out of the game, they often save a good set of equipment in the late game. However, considering that once they die in the game, these equipment are likely to be taken away by other players, so many players do not dare to enter the game with full load and become a big fat sheep in the eyes of their opponents.
So, how can players verify the combat power of equipment without risk? Dungeonborne offers a 3v3 arena gameplay similar to an MMO, or MOBA.
This gameplay is faster-paced, and the player's goal is pure versus; If you die in this way, you will not drop your equipment. In my opinion, this is the final piece of the puzzle for the survival evacuation gameplay - the player's entire experience loop has become a gameplay cycle of collecting equipment in the survival evacuation gameplay, completing cultivation and matching outside the game, and verifying the effect of the loadout in 3v3. Along the way, players can use the arena to validate their loadouts and practice their battles.
03 The mature form of this category is about to appear
Of course, we can't say that Dungeonborne will be the ultimate winner in this new genre. After all, it's still in beta, and at 11 p.m. on July 3, it will also start its final tests.
But on the whole, I think that this product has shown a lot of competitiveness in this category through a high degree of completion and highlighting the strengths of the category. And the product form it shows is likely to be close to the mature form of fantasy survival withdrawal in the future of the category.
And through this product, we can see that although fantasy survival evacuation is usually considered to be born out of "Escape from Tarkov", "Dungeonborne" has taken a unique path to this track and has gained so much attention. And many of its own innovative designs have also made up for some of the shortcomings of the current survival and evacuation category. Therefore, although category integration is the main way to give birth to a new track, if you want to truly create a new track and gain a firm foothold in it, perhaps finding the biggest difference between yourself and the category being integrated is the real key.
Even if you don't mention the Western fantasy theme, even if it is the category of survival and evacuation, at present, almost only Tencent and NetEase are following up, and have launched products such as "Dark Zone Breakout", "Delta Force", "Firefly Assault" and other products, on the whole, it is still not too hot in China. But perhaps in the future, with more and more attempts to change the genre of "Dungeonborne", it is likely that this category will go a more popular and popular path through other packaging.
At present, the new gameplay cycle created by "Dungeonborne" still needs to wait until it is officially launched and undergo more verification, but we can still see a lot of possibilities for future products: for example, since the Western-style fantasy backed by MMO can go through, is it theoretically possible for the Chinese-style fantasy/martial arts theme to run through the survival and evacuation gameplay? And this category itself contains the characteristics of 3v3 team battles, and it may even bring more new inspiration to traditional MMOs and even MOBA categories.