I haven’t been able to play all that much ofBattleJuice Alchemistyet –Gamescom Asiawasn’t the best place to play through two entire acts of a demo while undisturbed by other curious potential players – but I did manage to get through the tutorial and a few quests from the first act. While its eye-catching art style was enough to get me to stop by, the time I spent with it revealed that it’s undeniably dense and complex.
As an ARPG, BattleJuice Alchemist is a strange one, but I say that as a compliment. You play as Juice, an alchemist journeying through a “wilderness that once was New England”, according to the Steam description. The lands are full of demons and creatures you’ll have to kill, and the game leads you through its story and procedurally-generated world with quests, delivered through interacting with NPCs in a simple UI that feels almost retro.
While the landscapes are procedurally generated, all quest locations are still handcrafted to ensure compelling storytelling.
Visually, it has an isometric cel-shaded art style that feels like a mix between Don’t Starve and Borderlands, with an emphasis on gloomy atmosphere and tons of gore. The tutorial had me killing a bunch of enemies in a chapel, leaving the place absolutely dripping with blood, if that’s any indication of the kind of vibe to expect.
BattleJuice Alchemist stands out in its gameplay, as well. You pick up scrolls and flasks that allow you to use new abilities – you can use explosive flasks to blow up obstacles or enemies, health flasks to heal, smoke flasks to become invisible and avoid ranged attacks, and frog hop to jump over low walls in the environment. Each of these flasks require liquid to use, so you’ll also have a liquid flask that you can use to top up liquid.
You can also use ‘juice’ to ‘juicify’ flasks and make them more powerful. Juicing up an explosive flask will make it do more damage with a larger radius, juicing up a smoke flask creates a rift that pulls enemies towards it, juicing up a health flask cures debuffs while regenerating health, and so on.
You’ll have to customise your loadout to suit your playstyle, of course. You can keep two flasks at hand at all times so you can use them when required. I chose a Bold Alchemist class which drops flasks where I stand, meaning I have to get into the fray of combat to fight effectively, and so I kept the explosive flask and liquid flask on hand at all times. All the rest of your flasks will be kept in your cauldron. You’ll have three slots, filled at random from your cauldron flasks and replaced as they’re used. This way, there’s a bit of added tension because it forces you not to use the same combinations of skills throughout the game. It’s almost like deckbuilding.
Another interesting aspect of the gameplay is the close combat mechanic, which changes the camera perspective to a more traditional hand-to-hand combat situation. In this mode, you enter a sort of ‘bullet-time’, slowing down enemy attacks so you have time to react and evade attacks with hops or invisibility while dropping well-timed flasks. You’re always allowed to enter close combat instead of taking down mobs in typical Diablo style, which allows for a totally different way to approach combat depending on what you prefer and what specific enemy you’re facing. It’s a refreshing, strategically-minded take on the Diablo-like.
Beyond that, there are rituals you can perform to create long-term buffs to your character. Just follow the instructions correctly by throwing the right ingredients into a fire and saying the right runes, and reap the rewards. There’s also a crafting system that allows you to craft flasks and equipment with the resources you collect and altars you can activate to debuff your enemies.
You can try BattleJuice Alchemist’s demo for yourselfon Steam, and the game has also just launched in Early Access, which isvery exciting if you’re keen on contributing in any small wayto its development.
