One of the surprises during the Game Awards 2020 was Century: Age of Ashes, a multiplayer PvP arena game. In this game, players will play the role of dragon riders and then battle against each other. The game was scheduled to be released in 2021 and developers did deliver on the promise. But instead of completely releasing the game, the developer, Playwing, made it Early Access. The developers wanted to make sure the game is great, which is why they’re not fully releasing it yet.
But despite being in early access only, the game is still very playable. So, has the game delivered on the awesome-looking trailer presented during the Game Awards? Or was the trailer the only good thing? Let’s find out in this first impression review of Century: Age of Ashes.
The Century: Age of Ashes Gameplay
The main focus of Century: Age of Ashes will be its multiplayer gameplay. It’s where you ride dragons and then battle against other dragon riders. The goal in this game is to get as many kills as possible before the round ends. The team who achieves that will win the round. And since it’s a dragon rider battle, expect it to have fast and explosive action. Fortunately, Playing seems to have delivered a great game that was able to properly deliver on how dragon-riding should be.
A Great Dragon Riding & Combat Experience
One of the great things about this game is how smooth the gameplay is. There have been many games before that attempted dragon-riding, but it’s not easy to pull off. But Century: Age of Ashes, seems to have hit the right spots when it comes to the dragon-flying gameplay. The developer was able to mimic what it likely feels like to ride a dragon. It’s fast, and very agile, with a bit of roughness but still smooth and intuitive dynamics.
It might take some practice to get used to, but it won’t be a long learning curve. How the dragon moves is easy enough to learn and figure out, but some things still require skills. This is especially evident when you’re in combat. You need to know the proper timing of speeding and braking while also using your dragon’s fire breath attacks. The combat gameplay is also fun and exciting, providing both long-range and mid-range action.
The dragon has two main ways to attack, mid-range fire breath and long-range fireball. Using both attacks will require getting used to them, especially the fireball. This is because of the travel time of the attack, which you have to consider when firing. There are also other useful abilities that can make the game action-packed. The combat is not as smooth as the dragon-riding experience, but it’s still great.
The Game is Free-To-Play
Though this is a PC game, it’s not going to be a paid game. It’s going to be free-to-play for everyone. To make money, the developers will instead rely on paid cosmetics and unlockable rewards. This method is a tried and tested way for games to last longer, as this is what many mobile games do. So, for Century: Age of Ashes to go this route, it’s not surprising and it will likely be a good route to go to.
You Can See It’s Still Not A Finished Game
As great as the game looks in early access, you can see that it’s not yet a finished game. There are still some things that seem to be missing. One example is the lack of variety when it comes to classes since there are only 3 available. Another example of something that’s missing will be the lack of depth in the game. It seems there’s only the multiplayer mode and people will likely get bored playing just that. But once the game’s fully released, many of these things might become available.
Final Thoughts
Looking at what Century: Age of Ashes is offering, it has a promising start. The dragon rider and combat gameplay are spot-on and the developers have delivered a great game. But you can see that the game is still in early access. There are still some things that the game is missing. But for now, it’s already a fun game that’s worth trying out.
