Disclaimer
I was sent a free copy of Skygard Arena to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. This will be my honest review.
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What is Skygard Arena?
Skygard Arena is a unique strategy indie PVP game out now on Steam (Currently 35% off until October 2nd).
Skygard has been split into five unique factions, each with their own flavor and abilities. To avoid long and drawn out wars, the five factions come together to compete in the Arena. Each faction sends their collection of their best champions to duke it out in the ultimate show of power and wit. Choose your champion as you face off against other people through epic PVP matches, or see your favorite faction rise to the top in the campaign mode. Can you master your abilities and come out on top?
Gameplay
Players take turns controlling their team of three champions as they try to capture objectives and pick up resources. Players take turns controlling each of their champions as they strategize their victory. Turns are based on the character’s priority. Each character can move, use a main action and a fast action. Each character has a movement action for a bit of added mystery. Players must balance fighting off the enemy and taking objectives. The first team to take all the objectives wins. It is a game that has a bit of learning curve learned through experience. While the tutorial and the story do a good job at on-boarding players to the fundamentals of the game, there are a few nuances (like the combo system) that the player will need to pick up through experimentation and additional research.
Review
Skygard Arena is a solid PVP strategy game that ill fill its niche nicely. The game has a cool artstyle with a decent amount of flavor (I love the distinct styles of the different factions) and sound mechanics. Those who are looking for a unique strategy experience should definitely look into this game. The game runs well and it will earn its $15.
My biggest issue with the game is that the campaign isn’t very good. The voice acting is bad and the writing doesn’t do enough to capture my attention. I shouldn’t really be expecting much for a game with the focus on PvP, but that is where I would spend most of my time. I tried PvP and got wrecked, but that is more of a skill issue. The game ran fine, I am just bad. Even so, the game does need a bigger community. Make sure you join the official Discord. The people seem friendly towards beginners and casuals, and it is a great place to keep up with news and events.
The game does give players the option to play AI matches. For the most part, these are a great feature to explore different faction, combos, and strategies, but the turns can be a little long. The campaign is still a better way to learn the game, but this option is a great for casuals who aren’t ready for PvP, or those who want to explore something new without the pressure.
Honestly, the game is fine and deserves a bigger audience. I appreciate that the game tries new things in the space. Having to balance positioning, objectives, and enemy units creates enough complexity and depth to keep things engaging. I love that there aren’t 1000 different macro/micro actions to manage. Everything is pretty contained within the arena while still allowing for a good amount of strategy. The biggest barrier will be learning each character’s abilities and how they interact with others to build your team. Whether you have time for that will be up to you, but I am sure there are people in the community currently solving the meta.
Skygard Arena is going to do well in its niche if it can build its community. It needs and deserves more players. If you like strategy games and don’t mind the PvP, Skygard has a unique twist that is worth trying once.
You can buy Skygard Arena on Steam.