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WanderBerg (developed by Randwerk and published by Sidekick Publishing) is touted as a casual action RPG, whatever that really means. What you actually get is a strange Wacky Races-esque version of Age of Empires II, if you were just the Castle and were also on wheels. Mortal Engines, but a bit more medieval. Basically, it’s a game about piloting an upgradeable castle which you drive about the map crushing foot soldiers and blasting other buildings and enemy fortifications.
The gameplay is akin to the likes of Vampire Survivors or Brotato, you have special abilities, but most of your offensive capabilities are automatic, and your primary concern is movement (and damage avoidance). You collect coins and level up in the same away as those games too, and some enemies will yield an exciting treasure chest containing some variety of upgrades for you. Levelling up gets you these upgrades too, and they are the usual fare - more powerful attacks, more coins, faster cooldowns etcetera. What’s on offer in this regard seems a little basic, but that may be a limitation of the demo.
When starting out, you have a choice of locations from which to start… although all but one of these are locked in the demo, and I can only guess that different levels of challenge and enemy types differentiate these. Anyway, after you’ve picked your hex tile starting map, you are given the option to customise your starting character (castle). You can choose your vehicle type, your captain, your crew, a module (starting weapon), and an artefact. These each have different abilities and effects, as well as stat changes, and can drastically alter your prospects, making the game more challenging or ludicrous.
Once you’ve chosen your setup, it’s into the arena, which is a large circular map containing small farmsteads, flocks of sheep and farmers, armies of archers and pikemen, and a broad variety of moving castles to combat. The variety of these is quite impressive, with a swath of attack types. Some have rams, some have cannons, some fire rockets, and others shoot arrows, and each have an amusing and fun design. Kill enough of these and the boss what shows up, and after killing the big bad you’ll be able to upgrade your castle, choosing from speed or health, and you’ll substantially increase in size too, making your former enemies easier and giving your the brawn to face bigger foes which will subsequently come forth to face you… and on it goes until you explode.
The loop here is fun, like the aforementioned games of a similar design, and best played in short bursts of a few runs. What makes this one stand out for me is the aesthetics, with some nods to the likes of Fat Princess or Totally Accurate Battle Simulator. The castle warfare is fun, and the bright graphics only add to this.
I can’t say for sure how the game feels to play after having unlocked all the expensive upgrades, but it’s immediately fun, and the demo offers good insight into the way things are likely to go as you progress. It suffers (in a good way) from one-more-go-itis, and now that I’ve finished this, I’m going to do another run. Wish my castle good fortune.
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