Honkai: Star Rail is a high-quality strategy RPG by the developers of Genshin Impact. It plays like a mix of a traditional team-based strategy game and a 3D RPG with NPCs, side-quests, and dungeons.
Running around a 3D sci-fi universe to complete quests, we can engage enemies to get thrown into a separate combat screen where we take turns to attack using our team of heroes.
Each hero comes with a normal, special, and ultimate attack, and the whole team shares a resource called skill points. During combat, our special skills cost points to trigger, while the normal attacks replenish them, adding a bit of strategic decision-making.
There are many more intricacies to the combat system, and while it isn’t groundbreaking by any means, I found it fun overall. We can also fight bosses, complete side-quests, or enter a roguelike mode where we get to pick one of three upgrades after every fight.
While the game isn’t entirely open world, we do get to explore a large and beautiful world where the typical “combat reward” and “level selection” screens have been removed to make the experience more immersive. The skill animations are also amazing, and I love how the game transitions in and out of combat almost without any load time.
Unfortunately, we eventually unlock auto-combat. And while the story isn’t bad, you have to be prepared for hours of lengthy conversations between your character and the NPCs.
Heroes are acquired through a gacha system and can be improved in various ways that are pretty standard for the genre.
Honkai: Star Rail monetizes via iAPs for a season pass, resources, and the gacha system. Thankfully, these purchases aren’t pushed heavily, and you can complete the entire game as a free player.
If I had to play a game in this genre, this would be my pick. There are games with more strategic depth, but as an overall experience, I found myself enjoying the polished gameplay of this one quite a lot.
Honkai: Star Rail
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- GAMEPLAY8
- GRAPHICS9
- CONTROLS8
- MONETIZATION7