Eternium Loot, levels and demon castles

You play a Mage, Warrior or Bounty Hunter, and each one fights differently: a sword or axe up close, a staff or gun at range. Combat is fast and responsive, with special effects, damage numbers that pop with every hit and an atmospheric score behind it all. Each class has around 20 abilities to learn as you level, and your three companions bring four more each. The game starts simple, but at high levels it turns into a flurry of tactical choices: which skills to slot, when to shield up, when to dual-wield. One moment you are clearing a cave of skeletons, the next you are deciding whether that spiked shoulder pad is worth the gemstones. It usually is.

The campaign starts as classic fantasy and refuses to stay there. You fight through dark caves, forests, villages and graveyards, lay siege to demon-held castles and climb snowy peaks. Then the map keeps going: craters and canyons on the moon, strange creatures among the rocks, and beyond that the deserts, pyramids and jungles of a red planet. The settings shift keeps the run fresh, and there is plenty to find along the way: treasure chests with gold, gemstones and gear, from mysterious cloaks to menacing helmets. A full pass through the story with side quests takes roughly a day of play, and the story itself is more of an excuse for the fighting than the point of it.