Tollan Worlds

Overview

Tollan Worlds is the flagship game of the Tollan Universe, an expanding ecosystem built by Foretold Studios. As part of its evolution, the game recently transitioned to Xai, a move that aims to enhance its multiplayer and web3 capabilities.

At its core, Tollan Worlds is a 2D action RPG with dungeon-crawling elements. Players explore underground labyrinths, battling various monsters while completing quests or searching for an escape route. Along the way, they collect new weapons, consumables, and powerful spells to aid their journey, adding depth to the gameplay.

Gameplay

Before diving into the first two adventures currently available in Tollan Worlds, I'd like to discuss the game's art and aesthetics. Tollan Worlds excels at setting the scene in both adventures. Though each is underground and similar in ambiance, they're distinctly different, thanks to variations in lighting and a range of traps and puzzles. These differences create a refreshing change of pace and add depth to world interaction. The glimpses we've seen so far suggest a great deal of time and effort went into creating a detailed and visually appealing world for players to enjoy.

Upon reaching the last segment of your mine shaft journey, you'll explore a preset layout of corridors, chambers, and levels, each presenting unique challenges and enemies. Fortunately, you'll be equipped with a sword and a range of unlockable magical abilities discovered during your explorations.

Throughout your journey, you'll encounter a variety of foes. My critique is the limited enemy variety, which, while understandable given the current adventure setting, can become repetitive due to the lack of variation in encounters. However, the game adds a nice threat level with varied lighting, making it more challenging as the adventure progresses. Without revealing too much, the boss fight is enjoyable, introducing new attack styles and traps. Upon defeating the boss, you'll experience a satisfying sense of accomplishment, and it sets you up perfectly for the next part of the adventure.

As I mentioned, the game also includes traps along the way. You'll encounter slowing spider webs, fireball-shooting towers, and arrows aiming for your head. While these additions are fun, they can also feel a bit underwhelming, as they lack a real sense of danger. This could be improved by increasing the damage caused by these traps or by introducing longer-lasting effects, like semi-permanent debuffs or damage over time.

Another challenge in Tollan Worlds is its puzzles. While this element is well-integrated into the game, offering a fun change of pace, the puzzles themselves aren't overly challenging. However, solving them does provide a sense of success and satisfaction.

Review

Tollan Worlds is fun and has solid gameplay, but there's a lot of room for improvement. Fair, considering it’s still early in development. The art style and combat remind me of Dead Cells from Web2, and in Web3, it's got similarities to The Beacon. The concept isn’t exactly new, but there’s still plenty of space for Tollan Worlds to put its own spin on things before launch. The graphics look nice, though some collision issues and minor clunkiness can be annoying. At first glance, it might seem like a simple dungeon crawler, but like other games in the genre, its real depth will come later, especially when features like spell customization and crafting start kicking in.

The controls feel smooth, and with multiple active spells and consumables to manage, it gives off a bit of a MOBA vibe. That said, the current version doesn’t have a ton of boss fights or enemy variety yet, so it can start feeling repetitive after a while. I’d also love to see more puzzles, more immersive lore, and the use of the dim-light mechanic, where you can only see what’s near you. Right now, Tollan Worlds sits in the “decent but not amazing” category, but there’s potential. Once the devs add the race/class system and more content, it could turn into something really special.