Spellbreak

I still read Kotaku. I can't help it. They told me about Demon's Souls!

Anyway, that was the first place I saw anything about Spellbreak. Today. It's been out for a week, free to play, battle royale where you play as a wizard. Kotaku were comparing it to The Last Airbender and there were screens and it has a sort of Breath of the Wild style so is super enticing.

Initially it's underwhelming. The tutorial is fine and then (once you figure out how to get out of the tutorial and into a game if you're a dummy like me) the first match is fairly satisfying because it's against bots and you should win if you know this. But then the first solo game was not fun. Nor the 2nd or 3rd. Squads, that was the secret. Playing with others and sticking together, tracking teams and taking them down. Moving through levels and becoming more powerful together. These games were chaotic and fun. Late game battles are exciting and drawn out. Nothing like the head shots or close quarters shotgun blast of Call of Duty or Fortnite. This is something else.
You get a starting gauntlet of some element or another and can pick up another. These can be swapped for more powerful variants, you get a rune which gives a boost or a power (I had a great game with an invisibility perk) and there's gear – boots, belts etc. – to boost stats. You can combine the elements in you gauntlets which is exploding head and it controls and looks great.

Solo is, as far as I can tell, really dull but decipher the location of your team's proposed drop on the unfathomable map screen in squads and you'll have a good time… I think.