Stick War 3 BETA Review: Armory overhaul eludes to the most impressive customization in mobile gaming yet, reminiscent of its PC-platformed predecessor: Stick Empires!
Free-to-play players rejoice, gems can now be spent on individual pieces of armory items! Those who already owned entire skin sets will now have every piece of equipment unlocked seamlessly!
As a long-time Stick War veteran, I couldn't be happier to see this armory system returning after much anticipation. The fully customizable armory system that originated in the 2015 Multiplayer sequel, Stick Empires, has finally made its way to Stick War 3. After reverting back to full skin sets in the mobile reimagination, Stick War: Legacy, it's a breath of fresh air to get back to the tried and true classic formula. In this blog post, we will take a look at what's to expect from this new system and some... interesting hidden implications it might have for the future!
First Impressions
In order to change a piece of a Unit's armor in Stick War 3, one must navigate to the Unit's individual card to change them. From there, a new screen will display the Unit and all available armor they can buy or equip. There is currently no way to view the entire team's look while making these adjustments.
In Stick Empires, armory items were assigned to units in their respective Empire tab. However, unlike in Stick Empires, Stick War 3 has many more units planned for each empire than the typical single-digit number.
Players were able to mix and match each Unit's weapon, hat, and sometimes miscellaneous items (such as the quiver on Archidons) when available. These items would be purchased by empire coins, the currency of Stick Empires.
Testing
After my initial testing of the armory system, I was pleasantly surprised by most of what I saw: a fairly simple and straightforward selection screen. There are quite a few minor bugs present, and it is fairly bare bones at the moment. However, this scaffolding, in my opinion, shows great promise for the future of the Armory!
I did find myself desiring the ability to peep the entire team's fit without flipping back and forth between different screens, and I hope there is a way to do this again soon. There is also currently no way to preview how the armory item would look on the Unit before purchase. Although these features are not necessary to make the armory function, they definitely would make it feel a lot more alive.
Pros and Cons
With this new system, players will be able to focus purchases towards their all-time favorite units, such as the Juggerknight and Bomber!
No matter how many armory items you have, we can all agree that an option to randomize all of your skins at the start of a fight would be a very welcome feature indeed.
I would also really enjoy a feature where you pick a certain "aesthetic" and the game tries to theme your army & Statue with the available items! For example:
“Dark” or “Moody”
“Bright”
“Powerful”
“Matching”
While the old Stick War Legacy skin system is gone, it certainly shouldn't be forgotten either. There is absolutely potential for important Units (such as generals) to have more expensive and epic full skin sets that cannot be modified. Sufficient to say, the future of the Armory looks bright!
However, with the promise of many cool and unique Armory items to come, it would be awesome if there was a way to sell items for a decent profit, or trade them with others in the community. This will let players get closer to the armory items they actually WANT to use, which will be necessary for reasons I will explain now.
While the new customization system has unlimited potential, we as players do not have unlimited gems.
Players will be very restricted in what they can customize with prices like these, especially as more units get skins over time. Despite only having 6 units with skins so far, the grand total price tag to acquire every skin set in Stick War 3 is over a whopping 12,000+ gems!
For reference, there are currently 18 units in the game, with many more on the way! We even have an entire third empire coming at some point! With this in mind, there is no reason to doubt that Stick War 3's roster may even surpass 50 units one day! Will this leave free-to-play players in the dust?
While we can't know for certain how the developers at MaxGames will address the grind of gems in the future, I have come up with a few ways it can be done:
Cheaper armory items like clubs and sticks
Chance to be gifted skin piece/set
Choice of skin piece/set as reward
Ability to sell skin pieces
Ability to buy certain skin pieces at a discount on a black market
Make first skin for each unit cheaper
While not all of these should be implemented at the same time, I feel a certain concoction of these various solutions can provide players with fun and helpful results!
Final Thoughts
My Stick War Expert opinion on the armory system is filled to the brim with excitement, but peppered with patience. It is going to take a long time for the Armory to reach its full potential, mostly because it requires an unholy amount of artwork! It will be interesting to see how the developers at MaxGames tackle the looming issue of scalability that the Armory system is bound to experience eventually as well.
I don’t see any mobile games out there giving Players this sheer degree of customization, and for good reason: it is hard to do. While most games will let you equip one outfit for $7.99 or something ridiculous, (looking at you Clash of Clans), Stick War 3 is prepared to offer you near unlimited customization for in-game currency and pure grind! Now THAT'S an excellent price!
With all this in mind, the new Armory system gets a total of 4.5 out of 5 Ase Points.
What is your opinion on the new Armory system in Stick War 3? Let me know what you think in the comments below!
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