Eslabong

Like crack crafted specifically for my 'tism

cool game, fun game,

Eslabong is one of those games that looks simple at first but has a surprising amount of depth. Between recruiting mercenaries, building your team, experimenting with different classes and abilities, and managing your way through the leagues, there's always something to keep you engaged. The combat is genuinely exciting, and some matches will have you on the edge of your seat waiting for that one ability to come off cooldown. I especially enjoy how every fighter feels unique, and finding the right combination of skills and teammates can turn an average squad into champions. There's a great sense of accomplishment when your strategies finally pay off. For an Early Access game, there's already an impressive amount of content here. It's incredibly addictive, rewarding, and easily one of those hidden gems that deserves more attention.

TLDR - Cool game and one of the very few true gladiator club games. Most things are poorly explained and the UI is pretty terrible. The battles make it all tolerable though. The diversity given, even in early access, is pretty great. It really makes you wanna cheer for your team when you set it to autobattle. Each ability looks good and is identifiable through the clamor of numbers and fighters poking each other. You get to watch your menu-crawling payoff as your gladiators and tactics function halfway decent. Actually the best part of the game. I cannot overstate how much you need to learn yourself. The tutorial is lackluster at best and at other times its a text box with esoteric jargon the game just assumes you understand. This compounds onto the poorly formatted menus, buttons hidden in odd places that are essential for gameplay. The game never explains what the "academy" is, but you will get that warning to set it up almost constantly. All the side-modes and pvp are moshed into the same section of the ui as the buttons you need to use for single player. The sound design is passable in combat, but the victory sound is so incredibly out of place I'm not surprised I've seen ot…

From the beginning, there are so many options to develop your characters. The cherry on top is actually being able to control one of your characters in battle. Games like this are typically just fun to watch after you finish up your managerial tasks for the week, but getting to actually control a character in battle provides an extra level of immersion. I'm still early on, but it feels like there's so much variety everywhere. Classes, rules, equipment, etc. The fact that this is still in early access despite being so jam packed with content is incredible and I can't wait to see how the game continues to evolve. Simply put, it's cool, fun, and got some depth to it. This is a game I've always wanted, and I'm glad it's finally out in the world and even better than I could have ever hoped.

So far, I'm amazed at the number of settings you can adjust to make your team's AI act a certain way and even better, individually.