In a world full of magic, humans are at war with monsters. The Demon Lord acquired a magical crown that grants immense power. He nearly managed to conquer the entire world, but at the last moment, a hero saved the day. Time has passed, and the vile Lord has seized the crown once more. Now, the player must take control of a new hero to save the world again.
You will have to save the world in one of the available modes. The “New King” mode allows you to build up strength to face a rival knight equipped with a specific set of artifacts. But this mode is boring, as fighting monsters is much more exciting!
Battles with monsters take place across biomes. The first biome is the forest, where the primary adversaries are animals:
- Bears: deal extra damage to armor;
- Wolves: attack wounded opponents more fiercely;
- Spiders: deal damage if the hero is slower than them;
- Bats: drink blood;
- Hedgehogs: generate thorns that damage the attacker;
- Ravens: steal gold when attacking.
Defeating these creatures rewards you with gold, which is needed to buy items from the merchant. Otherwise, it is worth thinking twice before picking a fight with the forest dwellers – a battle with them can wear you down significantly before tougher challenges.
The player has only a few days before the boss arrives. During the day, it is convenient to scout the territory and collect items from chests. At night, the field of view narrows, map markers turn into question marks, and animals begin stalking the hero. On the bright side, campfires activate at night, allowing you to restore health.
Items found in chests increase the hero’s stats. Two identical items can be turned into a golden one at a golem, which helps free up limited inventory space. A new rarity tier has been added: diamond. Essentially, it consists of two merged golden items, and combining them frees up inventory space even further.
The problem is that golems are rare, and searching for them takes precious time. If you get lucky, a golem will be located near a fast travel point. But that happens rarely, and fast travel points are scarce and placed in the most inconvenient ways!
There are also more specialized items:
- Blood items: responsible for lifesteal and restoring health;
- Water items: freeze the hero or enemy – temporarily lowering maximum attack;
- Thorn items: grant thorns that damage enemies attacking the hero;
- Bombs: deal damage before the turn begins.
If you gather special items, it makes sense to visit merchants. They sell items that increase the effectiveness of bombs or thorns. Or weapons that synergize great with special items.
New points of interest have been added:
- Well: provides a random item for money;
- Beehive: provides honey, but it is surrounded by very tough bears;
- Fairy Queen exchanges all items for random ones. She gave me useless junk.
The heavily randomized nature of item drops significantly spoils the playthrough experience. If you start gathering items for a specific build, there is no guarantee you will find anything useful in chests. One would wish the game encouraged creativity more, and that the drop rates of needed items were refined for the release version.
Bosses pose a serious challenge, each possessing unique traits. Defeating a boss increases the maximum inventory capacity, but it also makes standard enemies stronger. New bosses have also been added. The most interesting one is the Frost Druid, who weakens the hero’s attack.
The final trial in the forest is the battle with the Leshy. Ever since the demo – it caused a ton of trouble. If you manage to overcome the first phase, the second boasts an insane amount of health and an ever-increasing attack stat. It does not care about unique builds or the player’s speed advantage – you will have to take turns attacking each other regardless. As a result, you have to forget about creativity and stack items for raw attack and defense. Because of the Leshy, I nearly gave up, but on the eighth hour, I defeated it – out of sheer stubbornness!
If you manage to defeat the Leshy, the next biome is the swamp, where everything turns upside down. The swamp is home to new enemies and bosses who prefer to cause trouble rather than deal direct damage.
Item properties have changed significantly. Many of them inflict poison and acid, which deal damage over time. Some grow stronger after defeating a boss, but it is worth looking for them right from the start.
The swamp is divided into islands. You can travel between them with the help of a ferryman. Moreover, each island is unique thanks to the upgrades located there or a settled golem. If you are lucky, you can find a passageway underground. Gold lies right under your feet there, but the guards do not fool around either!
Diagnosis
He Is Coming is one of the most exciting and captivating games I have ever played. The huge variety of items and builds makes every run unique, and the new biome completely changes the playthrough experience.
However, the game desperately needs balance tweaks, adjustments to item drop rates, and improvements to map navigation. Without them, starting new runs quickly gets tedious! And even though the situation has not improved much since the demo – one can hope that such a good game will be polished to perfection!
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All image rights belong to Chronocle and Hooded Horse. The preview image is taken from SteamDB