Online game "Dragonheir: Silent Gods"

Ask any fan of the role-playing genre what was the best game in 2023, and they will tell you: of course, Baldur's Gate 3. Not surprisingly, its ideas were taken on the pencil by many developers long before its release. Among them is SGRA team, which got the support of Wizards of the Coast company, which owns the rights to Dungeons & Dragons. It turned out to be an MMORPG with monsters from the popular universe, twenty-sided dice rolls in difficult situations, plenty of dialogues and camping mechanics during the journey. Dragonheir: Silent Gods is indeed similar to BG3, but it has some serious differences, and on top of that it's free-to-play. All in all, you haven't seen anything like it yet

To get started, you just need to find the game in the store and install it. It requires no registration, no subscription fee or any other tricks. You will be assigned a username automatically. Don't like it? Go through any social network and call yourself whatever you want. And then enjoy the beautiful introduction. Immediately it becomes clear that the developers did not skimp on music, actors' voices and story screensavers. We are shown the backstory of all the events that await the heroes during the single-player campaign. 1200 years ago, a rebel named Chaos Child challenged the Mother of Dragons, also known as Tiamat, but was defeated and sent into oblivion. Not forever, however.

After twelve centuries, fanatics and sorcerers, dreaming of bringing their leader back to life, have sacrificed several mortals and opened a portal between worlds. You are one of the poor souls on the altar. Since your hero is the last to be sacrificed, he doesn't turn into a ghost until the end and part with only a part of his soul, but gets a share of the powers that the Child of Chaos possesses. Not a bad combination to start with. And for other talents you get to choose the race of the hero. In the menu there is a normal human with bonuses on all fronts, except for strength and intelligence, as well as a half elf with outstanding charisma, dexterity and wisdom. A strong and self-confident dwarf and an ogre who has been endowed by nature with strength and charisma complete the set.

The editor allows you to customize skin color, choose clothes, jewelry and tattoos, but do not expect fine adjustments from this stage. But the further adventure is heartwarming - the story has not been so thoroughly developed in free-to-play MMOs since the release of Broken Ranks. At first you wander among the ghosts in the local hell, where you meet your first partners and get acquainted with the combat system. And each meeting is designed in the form of a small story, equipped with humor, if not plot intrigue. For example, you can come across a couple of characters arguing about the fate of the world. One of them says that all things will soon be dead, the other believes in salvation, and you are free to support one of the disputants and listen to the praise in your address.

In quests - a great variety of situations. You need to fix something, to rescue someone, to agree with a character on cooperation. And all this is accompanied by dialogs with a choice of lines. From time to time the game arranges your gang skills assessment (skillcheck), for example, when you need to have a certain level of wisdom, or tests your luck - with the help of a dice roll. It looks like this: your hero and your opponent roll a twenty-sided dice - and whoever has the most points gets the better deal in action, conversation or conflict. Casualty also affects stealing. In the open world of Dragonheir: Silent Gods, you not only trade with merchants, but you can also steal from them stealthily - if you're lucky, of course.

Fights are no less interesting. Before the fight begins, you're allowed to choose five fighters from the collection, based on the skills of your enemies and the situation. If you want - emphasize melee combat, and if not - recruit only healers and archers. There is also a division by elements (like fire, frost, poison) and level of development (who you pump, the more useful). Characters can be healed in advance with potions, if they were wounded in the previous battle, and arranged on a field consisting of squares, as in "Heroes of Sword and Magic". But further everything happens automatically. You only have to click on the hero when he fills the scale of a special skill, whether it's stones from the sky or healing a group of allies. There's no pause, so it's all about reaction - if you go to the kitchen to make tea during the battle, it won't take long to blow it.

The placement of heroes is also important. If the fight is "wall-to-wall", everything is clear: archers and mages are sent to the rear, and thugs in the front row. But during an ambush you have to move your brains to hide the most vulnerable members of the squad. It also happens that you are required to protect a character needed to complete the mission - you have to save him from death at any cost, even at the cost of the death of some of your fighters. In general, it is interesting how the authors of the game manage to diversify the usual for MMORPG situations. For example, treasure hunting on the map. One chest is just in the middle of the clearing - come and fill your pockets, and the other is guarded by a dog, which must be distracted.

The entire story campaign in Dragonheir: Silent Gods is done this way. Where you could add a little variety, the developers have added some. Rare MMORPG is able to boast such an interesting part for single-player.

Between battles and missions, you are free to send your squad to a separate location called Camp to rest, regain strength and upgrade their equipment. This mechanic was, again, inspired by Baldur's Gate 3. In the middle of the camp is a hearth where potions are brewed, and there's also a forge, an inspiring horn, and other items to help strengthen characters. There's nothing stopping you from throwing a dice to summon a new hero in a moment of leisure - even if you don't invest currency in the game, you'll be able to replenish your troops once a day. In principle, summoning is available anywhere, but the most convenient way to do it is in the campground. A new recruit replenishes the collection, from which you recruit a squad before the battle.

Since there are over two hundred heroes in total, and five are needed for a fight, it is pointless to pump all of them at once. You need to focus on a select group of heroes, and keep the rest on the bench - you can't take them apart for resources like in other MMOs. There are two methods of development in the game: the level increase occurs for the experience gained in battle, and for vials with a mixture, which are given for the successful completion of tasks. These bottles are always in short supply, and you have to decide who will be stronger, and who will fall into the number of catching up. Items such as weapons, artifacts or armor can also help you raise your stats. Swords do give a solid boost to attack, but they are even rarer than experience vials. So there is a classic dilemma: either you buy everything for real money, or you have to spend a long time getting equipment on the battlefields. In general, there is nothing new here.

To be fair, the focus here is on "gacha" with character discovery and single-player battles, so the massiveness of classic MMORPGs is out of the question. But some horizontal connections still work. In addition to chat, interaction with other users consists of two components. On the one hand, the game offers you to compete by dueling in the arena and participating in the fight of clans. On the other hand, you can call your friends with you to fight particularly dangerous monsters, participate in temporary events and then share the reward with everyone. And in this case the prize will be even bigger than for PvP, as if the developers specially set the users on a peaceful mood.

Completing quests in co-op allows you to speed up the recruitment of characters, because for each invited friend you can roll the die once and get a new recruit to your collection. But you should keep in mind that multiplayer is very demanding to the quality and equipment of your fighters. This means that you need at least rare creatures, pumped to the limit, with equipment in all cells and a full set of bonuses. Otherwise, the duel will end very quickly, bringing you no pleasure. That is, you will probably need paid reinforcements to gain the necessary combat power. Well, this will be a good time to thank the SGRA staff for a job well done.

Traditionally for the genre, the game gives rewards for daily entry and invites you to take part in various activities, timed, if not for holidays, then for the release of the next patch. There are dungeons, battles with bosses in the form of "Demon Hunt" and "One Step Ahead" mode, when you have to slay one monster at each location - in Niteria, on the Old Highlands, in Southern Adentia and so on. Every now and then on the map there are mini-games with a test of luck or demonstration of originality. For example, when it is necessary to take part in the contest "Who can out-drink whom" (here dwarves have no equal) or demons in hell ask the hero why he got here. Answering "For sins" is too trite, such an answer will not earn any prizes.

Of course, there are enough events in the format of "Tower of Trials" - there are hundreds of these fights, but it is incredibly difficult (and, frankly, expensive) to get to the top of the rating. This entertainment is for those who have completed the story missions, gained the highest level and just don't know what else to do. But if you've made it to the Tower of Trials, then Dragonheir: Silent Gods has really hooked you. An additional argument is the fact that the game is multiplatform - it allows you to transfer your progress from Windows to Android and back. If, for example, you started the adventure in Steam-version, and then went on a business trip, you can continue on your smartphone or tablet. Say thank you to cloud technology.

Dragonheir: Silent Gods is both similar and different from other free-to-play MMOs. Yes, you can upgrade your heroes for money, and if you don't like this option, you'll have to take easier tasks and spend a long time doing what genre fans call "grind". But the game is tastefully designed, full of spectacular screensavers and voiced by professional actors. The art style is reminiscent of the Disciples series, the battles are inspired by "Heroes of Sword and Magic", and some solutions are inspired by the best RPG of 2023 - Baldur's Gate 3. It's worth getting involved in this work if only for the aesthetic pleasure, tightly knotted plot and collection of characters - fortunately, you get all this for free.

Zarium. December 2023