Available now digitally on next-gen, and on disc soon, Warhammer: Chaosbane Slayer Edition brings an updated version of Chaosbane that was originally released eighteen months ago. The Slayer Edition contains the original game, all DLC (12 packs, though some are small cosmetic updates, like emotes, but there is also the expansive Tomb Kings), other new content as well as a new playable character (the Witch Hunter) and now runs in 4K at 60fps. With support for four players locally or online, there’s a lot of content here for dungeon crawlers looking to fight back against Chaos.
Chaosbane has, clearly, a ton of content to explore. This story-driven dungeon crawler features a deep RPG system with a heavy focus on realtime combat. Players are always outnumbered thanks to Chaos’ hordes swarming them, making it not only more feasible but also a lot more fun to play this game co-op. In fact, I wouldn’t really suggest playing it otherwise, not because it’s too hard, but it just isn’t as fun; this game is ideal for co-op. Four players is awesome, but two is still way better than one. Anyway, Chaosbane gives me fond memories of the old D&D Heroes game on original Xbox, as well as other dark fantasy co-op dungeon crawlers from the past like Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, and more recently with Diablo III. On next-gen, this is the only game out right now in the genre. While it doesn’t stray from a proven formula, and it can get a little repetitive, Chaosbane is still a great way to co-op game with some friends and family.
Though moderately challenging, Chaosbane is accessible in that it’s easy to jump into and neither its combat or RPG elements are overwhelming, though I do wish the menus were larger. Bringing up your character menu in the dungeon only fills up a relatively small portion of the screen, making the text quite small and there is a significant amount of text, though color-coding at least makes it obvious at a glance which items in your inventory are superior to others, etc.
Anyway, while the story mode is interesting and long enough, you can also go on Expeditions and replay dungeons and take on a boss rush mode. I spent most of my time thus far just enjoying the story mode, which has you and your optional party fighting endless hordes from the army of Chaos. I have ever played a dungeon crawler with this much frenetic action, even in co-op I was surprised at how many enemies were attacking us at once (at times, multiple dozens), but the balance is pretty good — thought it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the numbers, players are regularly earning new abilities and levels that keep a fair balance between what Chaos is bringing and what you can repel. I used the wizard character, the High Elf, and within an hour of player I had a super handy teleport ability that allowed me to teleport to the far side of a swarming horde to attack them from behind while my co-op buddies used the melee proficient Dwarf and gun-toting Witch Hunter. The assortment of characters and their skills leads to a lot of options for co-op synergy.
Though I never played Chaosbane on other systems, it looks and runs great on Xbox Series X. Load times are very brief, meaning you’ll travel back and forth between completing quests rapidly and when you’re playing on a tight time budget, especially with visiting friends or family, that’s all the better. Graphics and sound are nicely done. The ‘wow’ factor isn’t really here compared to other games built for next-gen from the ground up, but, it looks great in 4K and runs at a smooth 60fps, which is quite nice, especially when seeing the amount of action on screen at once with you and your teammates unleashing specials against dozens (literally) of bad guys.
Though the characters, locales, and general lore of Warhammer were lost on me not having ever played any Warhammer before (tabletop or otherwise), this didn’t stop me from getting into the game and enjoying it. The story, characters, quest and dungeon design, and general gameplay are all pretty straight-forward and familiar, and I don’t mean that in a disparaging way. This is a good case of ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.’ If you’re looking for an expansive and fun co-op loot-gathering, combat-heavy dungeon crawler, this is a good choice, and your only choice right now for the new consoles.
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