Arknights Endfield is the kind of spin-off that dares to take risks and completely swap genres without looking back. It may keep some of the characters and lore from the original tower defense RPG, but the new approach is definitely a very different type of beast. Now playing more as a 3D RPG with base-building mechanics, it is infinitely more ambitious, but could also divide the player-base given the new approach to combat and crafting.
Calling All Operators
This is not Arknights, but it isn’t entirely Genshin Impact as well, despite the various similarities with the latter that are impossible to ignore. Arknights Endfield is a concoction that tries to mix anime and sci-fi, combat and factories, but our time with the technical test version didn’t entirely sell us on the potential of either. There are foundations of a gacha game – which wasn’t present in this technical test but likely to be in the final release – and your characters, or Operators as they are called, evolve in the exact way you’d expect them to: by using upgrade materials, recycling inferior resources, and promoting to break the level cap at certain points. This is a tried and tested system and you’ll know what you’re getting into from the very first time you see the Operators screen.
Exploration is more confined to a rigid map layout, no way for you to grab onto ledges and climb, or go on free roam like you would do in Genshin Impact; this is a much more restrictive overworld, sprinkled with the occasional hidden collectibles, but mostly one that isn’t letting go of its hand.
The beginning of Arknights Endfield is slow-paced, somewhat heavy on the dialogues and the descriptions, without really feeling like the kind of game that needed such exposition. As far as first impressions go, it shows signs of a solid and polished game, but one that takes its time to get going, several hours in and still feeling like a tutorial. When you finally reach the factory tutorial start, connecting electricity cables via Electric Pylons and Relay Towers, you get a guided look into the inner workings of factory building.
This is one of the main features of the game, a time-consuming one for sure, but potentially engaging and fostering your creativity, as you assign Operators to structures, refine and shred materials to create new resources, use conveyor belts to shift resources around, and unlock new possibilities via the tech tree, which is another way of acquiring more advanced structures and gear, among other things. It’s a promising loop, one where you suddenly forget about the overworld and only care about moving your structures around, creating a neat layout where everything is functional and optimized.
On the other hand, there are aspects here that could be honed before release, as the system is already a bit daunting and could do without some convoluted design decisions. For example, when pulling an electric cable between towers, which is of limited width, it should take point A to point B into consideration as a straight line whenever possible, instead of the twists and turns that your character takes while walking to the destination. Being forced to drag the result of a refining or shredding process into your inventory is another extra step that could be streamlined, whenever we are accessing the machine itself.
The factory is your gateway to unlock the tech tree, another manner of acquiring more advanced structures and gear, among other things. Connecting cables through different areas of the world will give you access to building in faraway regions and more possibilities open in front of you. It’s easy to see the loop of gathering resources, transforming them into other materials, and creating new end products and processes being one that is time-consuming but also rewarding in the long run, if you are a fan of this type of factory-building gameplay.
No Factories Without Fights
With the appeal of recruiting various Operators, their skills will naturally be put to good use during the many fights. Each one comes with a special skill and an ultimate, and you can switch between the units in a team of four at your will. Attacking someone before they notice you is a so-called ambush where you stun the enemy, giving you an edge right from the start. Activating a skill instantly switches control to that character and moves it to the body of the one you were controlling, with AI leading the rest of the team in a quite frankly not very astute fashion – think of your AI-controlled partners as cannon fodder, teammates that seemingly attack at random instead of focusing on a single threat.
Due to that and a couple of other reasons, combat didn’t feel quite satisfactory during this test. A big motive of concern is the lack of a dodge action, an odd choice considering that we have timings to evade enemy attacks. So, the alternative to not dodging is either to move away while you can, something that is wildly annoying, or to use a skill to break their offensive.
The other issue is the way the game uses the same input for regular skills and ultimate, forcing you to immediately use the latter before you can activate the skill again. It’s restrictive and gets in the way of saving your ultimate for an ulterior moment in the battle, something that is bound to frustrate players.
Apart from each Operator’s unique skills, the remaining part of combat did feel a little tame and lacking direction, almost as if trying to offer a different approach from other RPGs but making some odd choices in the process. Hopefully there will be an overhaul to the combat system before release, as it does seem to be lacking in a few departments.
With leveling up material playing a big role in the game, one would expect some type of event where this can be regularly claimed. Spatial Rifts are these places where you can enter a succession of fights for good rewards, and this is one of the places where the familiar energy system comes into the spotlight. Called Sanity here, it has a daily limit and can be replenished using Sanity Syrup items.
The Beginning of the Endfield
Arknights Endfield has the potential to be a huge game with an interesting balance between combat and base-building, tempered by a hefty dose of resource gathering and narrative. The starting hours do feel somewhat tedious, with a lot of guidance and dialogues that make for slow-paced first impressions. It doesn’t help that combat seems to fall short of expectations, leaving the factory segment with most of the weight on its shoulders.
Evidence seems to point to a game that isn’t as easy to love as the original tower defense chapter, requiring more devotion and eventually the ability to overlook some issues, which hopefully will be fixed in the meantime. For now, Arknights Endfield leaves a bittersweet taste, and while it’s undeniable that it is an ambitious and bold sequel, it needs significant work to stand proud among the likes of Genshin Impact and Tower of Fantasy.
MP1st was given access to a preview build of Arknights Endfield for our hands-on session. Arknights Endfield is launching for PC, PS5, Android, and iOS, but a release date is yet to be announced.