Online game "Honkai: Star Rail"

As we have already told you, today Genshin Impact is one of the most popular games in the world and hardly the most popular among conditionally free MMOs with gacha mechanics. Recently, the authors of Genshin Impact from the Chinese company HoYoverse released their new game Honkai: Star Rail, which in many ways claims the laurels of "Genshin" and even stole part of its popularity by collecting more than 30 million pre-orders (and on the first day after its release it was downloaded by 20 million people). We tell you more about this next Chinese phenomenon.

In fact, Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail are like siblings or brother and sister: similar in many ways, although the characters are different, and there are other differences as well. Like the previous HoYoverse game, Honkai: Star Rail (or "Star Express") is a free-to-play, very beautiful, anime RPG with online elements, which is largely based on the ability of players to draw random characters and items (called "gachai") in the local casino.

But in terms of its setting and story, it's closer not to Genshin Impact, but to Honkai Impact 3rd, another popular gacha game from HoYoverse - the action takes place in the same universe, only in a parallel version of it, where some familiar characters have changed in one way or another. If in Genshin we see fantasy, and in Honkai Impact 3rd - something close to cyberpunk, then in Star Rail we already have science fiction about space (though not only about it).

We play as members of the titular Star Express, who are fighting some mysterious evil force called Stellaron (or "The Cancer of All Worlds"), its minions and the consequences. This "cancer" has somehow spread to many worlds and threatens global catastrophes, and our heroes fly from planet to planet and try to fix everything. So, at the very beginning we will visit the planet Yarilo-6, largely written off from snowy Russia - and soon have to flee from the local authorities. In general, the maelstrom of events spins dashingly.

And immediately we are introduced to bright interesting characters, on which everything is built here. So, the guide in "Star Express" is...a hare named Pom-Pom - in any case, this funny creature looks like a hare. The owner of the space station, where we appear in the game, is a little girl named Gerta (although it is actually a puppet of the mistress). And one of our first allies is named... "March 7" - that's the day she was found frozen into ice on one of the asteroids. And just about every character has some twist or mystery in their past.

But all the passengers of Star Express are united in their desire to stop Stellaron, who in essence here is the analog of the apocalyptic force of Honkai from Honkai Impact 3rd. And there it was connected with a very dramatic collision: the conductors of this evil are Hirschers, people with special abilities, and fighting them are Valkyries, some of whom also awaken the power of Hirschers, which becomes the cause of their depression and mental disorders. So, in "Star Express" our main heroine or hero (as usual, we choose the gender at the start) carries the power of... Stellaron, thanks to which they were born. But this does not prevent them from being part of the team that fights Stellaron.

All in all, things are pretty complicated, but interesting - and certainly more complicated than in Genshin Impact. This manifests itself in the abundance of moral dilemmas, when we, for example, decide whether to kill a reflexive android or not, whether to tell the bitter truth to a lover or to spare his feelings. And basically, as in the best RPGs, there is a choice of different lines in almost every situation and dialog.

The consequences of our decisions, as a rule, are of a local nature and practically do not affect the global plot. But even this illusion of choice is important for immersion in the role-playing game - and it is all the more pleasant to meet the girl you saved and hear her words of gratitude.

Honkai: Star Rail is set not in an open world, as in Genshin Impact, but in a semi-open world, where there are more closed locations and very often you have to use teleporters. But it allowed to saturate these locations with interesting characters, encounters, adventures and additional quests. There is a lot of all this in "Genshin", but in "Star Express" the concentration is higher.

There are both serious dramatic tasks, when we, for example, solve the above-mentioned moral dilemmas, and quests for attention and logic (in one of them, for example, you need to correctly rearrange the carriages). Plus plenty of funny, humorous situations - for this purpose the authors even introduced an analog of a social network, where we often communicate and build relationships with other characters. In addition, there are special missions of partners and companions.

And, of course, the game has many different analogs of dungeons and raids to complete daily/weekly errands, collect materials and pump up characters. For example, there are the so-called "Bowls" - a set of trials in which we fight waves of increasingly stronger enemies. These trials are divided into different types - depending on the rewards we end up getting. In the event "Kamnegrad High League" we fight in the arena as part of the local "Fight Club".

And in the "Hall of Oblivion", divided into three stages, rewards are given only to those who defeat enemies in the allotted time. Finally, almost the most interesting thing is the "Virtual Universe", where we move around the locations, fight and occasionally meet aeons - local gods. This experience is organized on the principle of "roguelike" - there is a pumping system, we gradually unlock common upgrades and improvements (blessings") for the whole squad, as well as buy useful items. And, of course, we gradually open new levels of the "Virtual Universe", where stronger enemies and better rewards are waiting for us.

But there is no full-fledged multiplayer in Honkai: Star Rail yet - at most you can use characters of other players and call them as support fighters in your squad.

As in Genshin Impact, there are many different challenges, events, types of currencies and materials, as well as mechanics and opportunities to develop and level up. But the key is the level of mastery - the higher it is, the more opportunities, challenges and story missions open up. In addition, of course, you need to level up specific characters - just like in Genshin Impact, after reaching the threshold of 40 levels, characters need to be "elevated" with the help of rare resources for further upgrading.

Naturally, all of them belong to different classes - they are called "paths" here. Characters of the "path of Destruction" are analogs of warriors who deal a lot of damage and are strong in health. Those who follow the "Path of the Hunt" are much like marksmen and assassins - they can deal a lot of damage to a single target, which makes them very effective against elite enemies and bosses. The "Path of Erudition" skill, on the other hand, allows you to hit multiple targets hard. "Path of Harmony" strengthens allies, while "Path of Nonexistence" weakens enemies.

Characters following the Path of Abundance are similar to medics and clerics - they are able to heal allies. Finally, the "Path of Preservation" gives powerful defensive abilities to protect allies. In addition, each fighter uses different types of elemental and other damage (there is even "imaginary" and "quantum") - all our characters and enemies have different resistance and vulnerabilities to them.

By the way, the battles in Honkai: Star Rail are not real-time, but are divided into turns and are similar to typical turn-based fights from Japanese RPGs - along with the setting and plot, this is one of the key differences from Genshin Impact. The scheme is familiar - characters can use offensive or defensive skills on their turn, and to use the most powerful abilities you need to accumulate a certain amount of energy. We fight in squads of four people, and it is better to diversify the composition as much as possible, so that there were both attacking fighters and support classes. It is also important to take into account the types of damage and vulnerability to them. However, you are free to experiment with the squad composition at any time and create several variants to use in different situations.

To win battles, you need to pump not only the characters themselves, but also their equipment (relics), as well as light cones, "traces" and "eidolons" - these are different types of passive skills, differing in the fact that the cones are analogs of items for equipment, which give passive bonuses only to characters of a certain "path". All equipment, as well as the characters themselves, are initially characterized by a degree of rarity, where the coolest is 5 stars. Therefore, knocking out five-star plushies through gacha mechanics is one of the main driving and motivating forces in Honkai: Star Rail.

However, just like in Genshin Impact, it's up to you to decide whether to invest your blood in gacha mechanics and premium battle passes. Basically, there are so many challenges, quests, achievements, daily and weekly errands and other mechanics that you'll still get regular rewards - it's enough to get through the story campaign and have a lot of fun with the game anyway.

Honkai: Star Rail was released in the spring of this year, and by the end of the summer it received version 1.3 and a powerful update that adds new characters and locations and moves the plot forward. In other words, the game is actively evolving. No wonder it has so many fans now. Moreover, besides beautiful graphics and cute, colorful characters, there are serious moral dilemmas, various non-trivial tasks and thoughtful turn-based battles.

Zarium. September 2023