More Than Meets The Eye: A Champion Shift Review

By Manuel

Players: 1-4 (Online)
Platforms: PC

What's this? An action roguelike game that brings something new to the table? I didn't think it was possible, but Champion Shift does exactly that. I've actually been following the development of Champion Shift since it was first announced a year ago, and I'm glad to finally have the chance to play it. Having released into Early Access earlier this year, it recently got its full release back in June. We're only a little late to the party, as we're going to be taking a look at it today. There's a lot to cover in this one, so let's get right into it!

Champion Shift initially puts you in the role of King Arthur who is awakened by a mysterious figure who saves him from the labs of an evil corporation known as The Dominion. Who exactly is behind this escape is unclear early on, but Arthur soon realizes that other legendary heroes are being held captive by The Dominion. It seems The Dominion is trying to extract power from these heroes, as well as from their equally legendary weapons, like the sword Excalibur. Big evil corporations need big evil CEOs, and The Dominion's Boss is exactly that. After the game's initial cutscene, the story pretty much falls by the wayside. I was surprised by this as it seemed so promising in that opening tutorial mission. You do get a bit more regarding the plot if you successfully complete a run, but it really isn't worth mentioning, even if spoilers weren't an issue. Missed opportunities with the narrative aside, I found that I appreciated the mix of legendary heroes the game offers. Arthur is joined by Sun Wukong, Athena, Jesse James, Tomoe Gozen, and many more. It's quite the eclectic bunch, and it's unfortunate there aren't any significant plot reasons as to why they're all together. While this game isn't going to win any awards for its narrative, roguelike games are more about the gameplay, and that's exactly what we're going to cover next.

The action in Champion Shift is fast, neverending, but somehow surprisingly simple. While you can shift your attacks to be done manually, the game operates similar to a survivors-type where you constantly attack within the limits of a standard cooldown mechanic. The only thing you really have to be aware of is constant movement, and the occasional dodging roll that'll get you out of immediate danger. You start out with just your main weapon for offense, but you can gain more attacks as you level up. Each level gives you three upgrades to choose from, and each upgrade has two sub-upgrades as well. Upgrades can be additional attacks or buffs, and they can be further upgraded by picking the same one on subsequent level ups. The three upgrades you get for each of the level ups are apparently chosen at random, though there are some that are specific to the Hero you're currently playing. For example Sun Wukong will have some specific to his staff and magic powers, as will Arthur to his sword and strength. These character-specific skills are probably the most obvious difference between them, though they also each have their own stats and base attack range too. Speaking of stats, those go up with level too, with your HP and car energy being most important. We'll get to the latter stat in just a bit, but a run can end quickly if your HP reaches zero. There are permanent upgrades that give you a revive option, but 0 HP usually results in a game over. From there you keep all the in-game upgrade currencies you've collected, and attempt the run again.

Even though it seems I covered most of the basic gameplay just now, there is one aspect of the game I've been choosing to not mention until now, and that's the car shifting ability that each Hero has. One of the biggest things that drew me to Champion Shift, besides the fact that Sun Wukong was in it, was the fact that your character had the ability to change into a car. There is no real in-universe reason as to why the Heroes have this ability, but that doesn't change the fact that it's amazing. Shifting into your car form can be done at any time, but is limited to the car energy you have on hand. Enemies drop more energy, but it constantly goes down while in the form. You slowly recover it when not shifted, but that can take a very long time. Damage taken while in your car form actually goes to car energy meter first, so changing forms can potentially save your life if you're near death. Attacking while being a car is initially done by simply running into or ramming enemies, but you eventually gain additional attacks, weapons, and buffs via level upgrades as well. I'm not exactly sure what determines if a level up will give you upgrades for your base form or your car form, but you only get one or the other. Eventually your car form will hold your most powerful attacks, but it can be quite a chore waiting for the meter to fill up so you can get back into it. Seeing Jesse James or Joan of Arc turn into a car may be the strangest thing in gaming ever, but it makes for some truly unique gameplay.

Each run in Champion Shift sees you take on one of the game's fifteen stages, and completing them requires defeating a boss. Bosses don't just appear of course, as players need to complete three mission in order to summon them. Similarly, missions don't automatically appear either, and they too much be summoned by defeating a pre-determined number of enemies. Thus the gameplay loop for each level is defeat enemies, take on a mission, defeat more enemies, take on another mission, defeat even more enemies, take on the final mission, and then beat the boss that is summoned from all your previous work. Enemies constantly spawn in waves, so they'll never be a quiet moment. Missions can be extermination quests, a timed survival challenge, or even fetch quests. Most missions will have you destroy specific sub-bosses, spy drones, antenna towers, etc., but the fetch quests are probably the most annoying and/or interesting part of the game. These missions task you with bringing back "artifacts" from random enemies while in your car form. I found these to be the most fun as they were a nice excuse to drive around the entire stage, but they can also drag out very long if the artifacts are located far from the drop off location. After you complete all your missions, a boss is summoned. Depending on the difficulty, you can face one, two, or three bosses, with them often repeating between stages. After completing a stage, you can challenge the boss, or continue on the stage loop. Each stage gets progressively more difficult, and you can actually do an endless run if you so desire by simply moving from one stage to the next, ignoring the final boss. I say "endless", but death catches up to all, even our heroes.

I complain a lot about the roguelike genre being far too crowded these days, but there are many things about Champion Shift that I think make it stand out. Besides the obvious quirks of choosing legendary heroes to play as, and having them transform into cars for no reason whatsoever, there's plenty of little things that make progression feel like anything but a chore. Most of the game is locked initially, but opens up the more you play. Each additional Hero has requirements to unlock them, such as defeating a number of enemies or beating a specific stage, and the permanent upgrades make subsequent runs far easier to manage. You're also able to unlock the use of character specific upgrades to the rest of the roster the more you play as well. I went through countless runs for the purposes of this review, and I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface. Playing as Sun Wukong never felt so good! Also, even though I wasn't able to test it out too much for this review, Champion Shift features online multiplayer. Up to four players can play simultaneously, and that has the potential to really ramp up the fun. I personally had some connection issues while trying out the mode, but I'm not sure if it was simply due to the fact that my home internet isn't the best to begin with. It's rare that a game has me feeling that I just might get 100% completion, but that's exactly what I get from Champion Shift.

While there's a lot to love in Champion Shift, I have to admit that it isn't exactly the best-looking game out there. The character and enemy models are all fine, but the game looks best when it's focusing on its illustrations instead of its 3D gameplay. I hate to use the term since it's not an ugly game by any means, but the visuals have a very generic look and feel to them. Everything looks rather bland for the most part, and fighting the same enemies over and over again can be tiring. Even though there are fifteen stages, there really are only five "biomes" that have three similar-looking areas in them. The stages themselves don't offer a lot of variety, and I noticed that your car can very easily drive off parts of the road I don't think it was meant to. This probably was the cause for many game breaking issues I noticed in the Steam reviews, but I personally never encountered one. That said, I can at least say that the cars all look shiny and cool, and I am a big fan of the way the game's city areas look.

Visuals aside, I can pretty much say the exact same things about the game's sound too, as it too feels a bit lacking when compared to all the great stuff going on gameplay-wise. The music is upbeat enough, and it gets you through each level, but I'd be lying if I said I could recall a single track now that I'm not actively playing the game. The soundtrack pretty much exists only in the background, but at least it never gets stale or repetitive. Also, the lack of voice acting really hurts this one. Besides the fact that there are very few cutscenes that would need to be voiced, I think the game could've benefitted from each of the characters have a few one-liners or vocal quips during gameplay. Not only would it have given them a far more fleshed out feeling, but it also would've helped the game from being a mostly silent affair. As the game currently sits, all the characters are mute, and the only sounds you'll really hear are those that come from their attacks. Nothing about the sound design is game-breaking, it's just another place where the game drops the ball slightly.

I've already mentioned the sheer amount of content that Champion Shift has to offer, but I really can't stress enough how easy it is to sink hours and hours into this game without realizing it. Champion Shift has me addicted to its gameplay loop, and I'm not complaining at all. I will admit that I only got into the game recently, and I've heard that there were some issues with the game during its Early Access stage and at launch, but my gameplay experience has been completely positive since playing on the 1.1 version of the game. I actually accidentally chose the perfect time to start playing the game as not only did that update fix a lot of issues, it also introduced a new character. I didn't realize that the developers were still adding content to the game, but I hope it continues for a bit longer at least. Even without new content there's tons to see and unlock, 99 achievements to work towards, and the aforementioned multiplayer mode to mess around with. What amazes me most about the game has to be its price point. At just $6.99, Champion Shift is a steal. I know that its price point is comparable to other roguelike or survivors-like games, and it actually is a bit high at that, but I would easily pay twice that price for the amount of content one gets here.

I think it goes without saying that I give Champion Shift the highest of recommendations. It's probably the best roguelike game I've played so far, and no that's not just because it lets me play as Sun Wukong... Actually yes, that is part of it, but it really is a great game overall. Fans of the genre will want to check it out simply for the unique car shifting mechanic, and I think it's also a good entry point for casual gamers wanting to test out the roguelike waters. It's currently only available on Steam, but I hope a console release is in its future. Pick this one up now, and thank me later. See you in the next one!

Check Out Champion Shift on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2391900/Champion_Shift/

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Story: B+
Gameplay: A
Graphics: A-
Music/Sound: B
Value: A

Overall: A-

Pros:
+ A great roguelike game that actually brings something new to the table.
+ Both easy to get into, and challenging to beat.
+ Has a great cast of characters including my personal favorite, Sun Wukong!
+ You get to transform into a car, and it actually works really well gameplay-wise.
+ There's an insane amount of content to see and unlock, with the developers still actively working on the game.
+ Multiplayer mode lets your friends (or even online randos) get in on the fun.
+ Is a steal at just $6.99.

Cons:
- Isn't a whole lot to look at visually. Fighting the same enemies over and over again in similar looking areas can feel repetitive.
- The music is very memorable, and the lack of voice acting of any kind is unfortunate.
- Even though the opening cutscene implies there's a bigger story at play, you don't ever get much of that after that point.
- Those looking to jump in and play as every character right away might be put off by the fact that much of the game needs to be unlocked first.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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Time to head off to my next run!