Wardens Rising, a PvE co-op action that has us defending bases against gargantuan assaults, MOBA-style, is heading to Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC.

In Wardens Rising you will play as heroes in an elite fighting force assembled to save humanity from massive invasions by interdimensional enemies. An action-packed coop PvE MOBA-like experience of sorts, Wardens Rising gameplay is a mix of action hero shooter and base defense, where player heroes must protect energy cores across the realm from 100’s enemies in a single battle by using their special abilities, building and upgrading defense towers, and deploying tactical items on-the-fly. Between invasions heroes can upgrade their abilities and stats as well as unlock and upgrade new content to equip in their technology loadout. The isometric perspective helps you see what’s happening in battle with the invading enemy forces as well as to plan the best location to build defense towers and deploy tactical items liketraps, walls, healing, teleporters and more!

Let's take a look at the official trailer!

Hero Classes

Each Warden hero class has a set of special abilities, core ranged attack and an “ultimate” + their customizable loadout of technology that includes towers, items, and a SPEC companion – all of which can be upgraded. Currently 6 classes are planned for initial release including a Soldier, Elemental Master, Shinobi, Engineer, Hunter, and one that is TBA. You can upgrade your hero's core statistics and abilities overtime with victory points that you earn through success in defeating invasions. The game encourages experimentation with various combinations of SPEC, towers, and items configured in your loadout based on the map, invasion, game mode, or your personal preference. In addition to special abilities, all Wardens can dodge, sprint, jump and glide through the air with their personal energy reserve. The jump + glide feature is unique for a game with an isometric camera view, gives heroes a tactical advantage, and is loads of fun to do while blasting enemies from the air!

Protect the Core

Protecting the Synthesis Energy Core is the primary goal of most game modes. Each of the 25+ maps have a Core that needs protecting which also give heroes the energy needed to build and upgrade defense towers as well as to deploy their tactical items. If the Synthesis Core is destroyed, the players are defeated. Power-nodes around each map boost Core energy production; however, if disabled by enemy invaders players lose this boost; so they should watch power-node heath carefully and repair whenever possible.

Defense Towers

Building and upgrading defense towers on-the-fly is a simple but a highly strategic element of Wardens Rising. Which defense towers you build, where to build towers, and how you upgrade towers can be the difference between victory and defeat. Each defense tower has a unique attack ability and 3 upgrade paths. At any time during battle, provided you have the resources, you can upgrade a tower’s range, armor, or special attack ability. Enemy invaders will attack your precious towers, so it is best to keep a close eye on how their doing and repair them with your SPEC before they are destroyed.

Enemy Invaders

Invasions are comprised of a wide variety of interdimensional baddies. There are common less powerful enemies as well as elites, commanders, and special enemies, each presenting unique challenges to the heroes. Instead of the relatively mindless minions found in MOBAs or tower defense games, enemy invaders in Wardens Rising have unique attacks and AI. They fight back and damage towers plus some enemies have multiple attacks, can use stealth, chase down heroes, avoid attacks and more. Other enemies have a specialized purpose like smashing towers, disabling power-nodes, or even knocking out the radar near the core which powers the mini-map and invasion intel system. Commanders are the most dangerous, behaving almost like enemy heroes on the battlefield. While alive, Commanders give a unique buff to all active enemies, have multiple abilities and can spawn more enemies to the battlefield.

SPEC Companions

These tech-energy hybrid lifeforms are hero companions, each with their own unique stats. SPECs provide critical support functions to Wardens so between battles, player must choose the right SPEC to suit their playstyle or the invasion they will face. As you fight, you’ll need to decide how and when to command your SPEC based on three roles. There is a unique but simple risk vs. reward mechanic with SPEC command, but your decisions can have a big impact on the battle’s outcome. While at your side, SPECs provide a unique buff to the hero, help with supporting attacks, and gather the interdimensional energy used to unlock new items and upgrade those items. You can also command your SPEC to boost the resource output at the core OR to repair defense towers and power-nodes. The key trade-off is that when you do either of these things, your Warden hero loses the buff, supporting fire, and ability to collect interdimensional energy from dead enemies – so you must choose the timing of boost and follow commands as well as when to repair carefully. Since each SPEC has unique stats to determine effectiveness at various tasks and a unique buff, players can experiment with the best combination of Hero and SPEC (as well as tower and items) for each situation, game mode, or their personal preference.

Progression

As you successfully defeat invasions, you will earn victory points for upgrading your hero as well as unlocking new regions and cores to defend. SPEC stats are also upgradable; while in battle your SPEC can collect interdimensional energy used on The Forge to unlock new technology, upgrade existing tech, upgrade SPECs, and to “charge” interdimensional artifacts that sometimes drop after a successfully defeating an invasion. Collect all the artifacts and decide which ones to bring with you before each battle.

Game Modes and Replay-ability

Wardens Rising developers are aiming to provide tons of extended gameplay and replay-ability with collectible items, achievements, and alternative game modes as well as the variety of options offered to customize your hero’s loadout configuration. Aside from the core campaign-mode invasions across 25+ maps, the game modes currently planned include procedurally generated invasions, endless mode, liberate mode and create mode - which will allow players to create their own invasions! The are no plans for PvP currently, but the Big Moxi team is considering this for future expansions. Developers plan to allow public or private hosted multiplayer sessions; so if your friends aren’t online you can meet new ones by joining or hosting public sessions. Big Moxi Games is still seeking investment partners to accelerate creation of the expanded game modes and hope to finalize this soon.

Wardens Rising will be available on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. The release date is yet to be announced.

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