Someone’s jammed a base-builder in my action role-playing game and somehow, I ended up liking it a lot! Welcome to Hypergryph’s coming free-to-play 3D adventure slash ARPG slash base-builder ‘Arknights: Endfield’, a game that is likely bound for a release this year after being on the backburner however many yonks ago. This is a sequel of sorts to the ongoing mobile tower defence title ‘Arknights’, it too is available as a free-to-play title on PC via Google Play Games, Android via the Play Store, and iOS device.
I’m familiar with Arknights, having played the game to an extent (all though in all honesty, I wasn’t really expecting to play a mobile game that would challenge me). I’ve read up on the game’s main story, however! Whose narrative is so smeared with darkness and sadness that you’d likely feel happier running your hand down a paper shredder.
The good news is that Arknights: Endfield keeps a lot of what makes Arknights Arknights. From the series’ rich lore to a visual style that crosses semi-realism with cartoon aesthetics just like with the original game. Endfield is gorgeous as it is surprisingly fun, as I found out during my time with the game’s closed beta, which ran for about a whole month. Now that the testing is done and all my thirty or so hours have gone down the drain (I knew this would happen, of course), all I feel is a small void that must be filled by Endfield once more.
Oh, small heads up before you go any further—this was a closed beta of Arknights: Endfield and as such, these are opinions on a slice of gameplay that could significantly differ by release. Reader discretion is advised!
Sound Sleep Amidst Chaos
When players first begin their journey into Endfield, they’ll be presented with a gender choice for the main playable character: the Endministrator, a person with direct responsibilities for the Endfield company that inhabits and investigates the new world of Talos II. Well, that’s how things should be anyhow, but apparently, you’ve been fast asleep for several years now and right as you’re about to be roused from your slumber, you’re greeted to a number of images atop a frozen land. Grave markers, aggressive creatures dubbed the “Aggeloi”, and “Originium”—a material that builds civilisations and destroys them just as quick. That’s about as much as I remember anyway, because shortly afterwards we wake up to the face of a young lady by the name of Perlica to the news that we’ve been conked out for at least ten years or so.
Maybe she wasn’t made aware of how most people react to news like that, but lucky for her the Endmin didn’t so much as bat an eye to his lengthy slumber. But there’s not much time to really think things over as we’ve got to get boots on the ground and fend off a motley party of scum known only as LandBreakers (“LBs”). LBs permeate the area of Talos II known as Valley IV, the area that the Endfield company is stationed in and is working to assist the people and other companies such as the UWST in researching the planet and improving quality of life for all. Endfield themselves have been working on implementing “AIC” technology, something I’ll get to covering shortly as that’s basically the other half of the game.
But before I really dig into Endfield’s core mechanics, I just want to point out just how bloody gorgeous this game is. Valley IV is a land of splintered cliffs and plateaus scattered about with lush foliage toned down by the game’s lighting system, placing the player in a state of oppression and struggle despite the cartooney aesthetic. Character models are heavily emphasised in their placement against the environment and coupled with incredibly attractive animations makes you want to stare at just about every fur and lizard creature in your character compendium.
About the only problem with the game’s visuals at the time of this writing is that the beta seemed to exhibit incredibly aggressive variable rate shading, making any distance beyond your party a blurry mess. Not much you can do about it, being a beta and all, there weren’t any graphics options I could muck with. Hopefully by launch time, Endfield will have a nice array of upscalers (DLSS, XeSS, FSR) for players to use.
Now, Endfield is an action RPG title and so action we must do! At its core, players will either play as a melee or ranged unit and will hold down the attack button while firing off skills and combos as they appear. You’ve a limited number of dashes that includes a back dash if you’re not moving, but otherwise as soon as a baddy’s attack lands on you, simply press the Shift key to bounce out of the way and get back right to attacking so long as you’re in the clear. The game’s combat system is as flashy as can be, particle effects abound and enemies that attack in no particular order—keeping you on your toes as battles can be filled to the brim with a large number of attackers.
Another part to all the chaos is the fact that your entire party will back you up as they fight on the playing field. Yes, unlike basically every other mobile-centric game, Endfield has your party present in the overworld at all times. In combat, these characters will do their best to support you by attacking of their own free will and can provide heals and other forms of support as criteria are met. And while it is very nice to have playable characters on the field, I’ve found my allies’ attack patterns to be rather confusing. Many times, they’d stop engaging in combat and simply walk around, stalling for time. Other times I’ve found them outright ignoring enemies and simply choosing to wait in the sidelines. There’s also no true tactics menu to adjust their behaviours, unlike standard console RPG titles.
Fortunately, I was able to get by just fine even with their autonomy. Their skills can come incredibly handy, such as Snowshine’s guard skill, which allows players to block an enemy’s impending attack and immediately follow up with a damage-dealing finisher. Elemental Arts also provide a major boon to combat as staggering plays a big part in combat—by breaking an enemy’s stagger meter, they’ll be left open to attack for quite a while, giving you the best opportunity to wreak havoc through skills and ultimates.
Combat in this game is fun and frantic and, as far as I could tell, will give players plenty of ways to pursue different types of party set ups. I didn’t experiment with builds too much myself, as that was a level of investment I wasn’t really looking forward to lose by the end of the closed beta. The enemy variety in the beta was a bit limited, but there was enough to test my mettle against—notably, the flamethrower guys were a bit of a pest. But nothing stops them from being annihilated from a distance!
About the only issue I took with combat, besides ally AI, was that dodging wasn’t really as smooth as I’d have liked it to be. Even when you lock onto enemies, your only dodging movement really amounts to a backdash and a general dash—no sidestep is anywhere to be seen, which is something I fully expect from any modern action title.
All Your Base Are Belong to Endfield
An aspect that heavily intertwines between player exploration and combat is Endfield’s AIC system—your base building aspect that is required for you to make progression. No seriously, you can’t just wing your way out of this one as without it, crafting gear and medicinal equipment would be nothing less than a massive pain in the derriere. And why would you want to skip out on the best part of this game?
The AIC system is where players can build out a system of resource mining and autonomous crafting, which is then relayed to their depot and can be used freely across the game’s many sub-PAC (smaller base locations) areas, which lets you continue to build facilities to mine other resources and continue your colonisation development of Valley IV. But it doesn’t just end there: there are many broken down pieces of equipment littered about in the game that must be reactivated so that you can explore other parts of the map.
These can be done by placing Relay Points—towers that are connected to the AIC system, allowing players to activate these disconnected bits of machination as well as their own equipment for use on the battlefield (such as turrets!). Placing Relay Points across Valley IV is nothing short of a cathartic experience. Quite literally your own bit of flag planting, the right sort of thing that I’ve been looking for since Tower Activations took over open world gaming back in 2010. Forget gear crafting and all that for a bit, the AIC system encourages players to branch out and network each hub zone, building a habit for future hub explorations. My complaint with this system is that it wasn’t immediately clear what I could turn on with a Relay Point and a “Power Pylon” construct—but it never got in the way of gameplay besides a quick trek back to my last Relay.
Part of your management work doesn’t just deal with ground level stuff but also work with local outposts and your major base of operations that are posted way up in space aboard the Dijang. Aboard the Dijang, you’ll have access to rooms that allow you to synthesise resources, take on combat challenges, direct staff to work on specific projects, so on and so forth. The Dijang is also an incredibly lively little hub where you can find all the characters you’ve rolled for waltzing about, doing the work you’ve assigned them to, and ready to give (and receive) gifts. Other than that, the Endfield extras that run the ship (along with their funny looking facial hairs) will have their own things to say and trade with you provided you’ve brought the goods they want.
But of course, there will be resources that you won’t be able to just mine away. A lot of these resources are experience materials which are needed to level up your characters. You’ll usually find these in rifts that are scattered about the game world and once you’ve found one of ’em, you can always quickly jump into one to grind out whatever you need. A small nod to the original Arknights game, to take part in these rifts will require Sanity, which is a stamina system of sorts. Once you’re out of Sanity, it’ll regenerate over time unless you have items that refill Sanity or if you use Originium (a paid and rewarded resource) to do the refilling and Bob’s your uncle. I wouldn’t ever use Originium for anything beyond pulling for characters (see here for information on “gacha” games), but the option is there if need be.
Oh, and there are plenty of little puzzles scattered about the world. Lots of Tetris blocks that need filling! Sometimes you’ll have the right pieces on hand, other times you’ll need to explore and find them to continue fixing the bots that lay busted around the place. Do that and you’ll get valuable resources!
Now the part I’m a bit more cagey on regarding Endfield is its narrative. The original Arknights is a story heavy game, with incredibly lengthy visual novel segments that make you feel like life isn’t worth living at the end of nearly all of them. Endfield’s story in turn is actually much less depressing and without really spoiling—
Oh bugger, you know what? Kindly skip past this part (to the next picture!) if you’re ever going to play Arknights because SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Endfield is, from I can tell, much more lighthearted than Arknights ever was. Oripathy, a disease that has arisen as a direct result of the Originium resource, is still prevalent amongst the population but the Endfield company clearly has a better grasp at combating its deadly effects. Oripathy is why this world has so many furries by the way and, if left untreated, these people will eventually die and spread Oripathy to others as the carcass lays fumes about everywhere. Or something like that. What I was more interested in is seeing how we’re finally in outer space. As far as I understood, the sky in the original Arknights was fake because a terrifying outer force was ready to come back and annihilate everything on the planet of Terra.
Clearly if we’re in space, things have changed within the hundred or so years since the events of the original game. Which is good! But now I take issue with Endfield and how we’ve gone from a cast of characters from the original Arknights, who were generally a distrustful but hopeful bunch, to the brownnosing group of characters who would gladly do the Endmin’s laundry, and all the while sniff his or her dirty clothes before reluctantly tossing them into the wash. The Endministrator (You, if you didn’t recall) is beloved and trusted way too much for a person who has been asleep for a very long time. Throughout the course of my gameplay, I don’t think I’ve run into even a single bit of hesitation from anyone who might be wondering if it’s a good idea to delegate mission critical tasks to an amnesiac. Don’t even get me started on Perlica, your “sidekick” in arms who is so far up your bum I actually tossed her out of my party for a good ten hours before reluctantly placing her back into my team comp because she’s actually pretty useful.
The original Arknights protagonist, the Doctor, earns trusts back from his operators over the course of the game’s narrative. He, too, woke up with no memories of his own (and all of that was his own bloody fault), but the way that game handled the progression of trust was tasteful and was part of the hope that everyone held onto in a world otherwise torn apart by the worst of the worst. I like the relatively lighter tone of Endfield, albeit we don’t know too much besides one of the big bads not quite liking our colonisation research efforts. Antagonising forces shouldn’t just come from the baddies but also from your team, because not everyone is going to see eye-to-eye on how things should be done.
But hey, credit where it is due: I like that the Endfield cast is involved in the game’s story. A number of the cast that can be pulled from the game’s gacha system are part of the game’s mainline story and fill their respective roles, unlike a lot of other gacha games that tend to use these moments as a way to advertise a character and their skills so you can waste all your hard-earned money praying to Talos that you pull them. One such character is Yvonne, a character I like a lot for her spunk and the fact that such a little girl can be so intimidating to everyone around her, being so intelligent that she’s unable to comprehend anyone else’s autonomy beyond bodies she can exploit for labour.
I used the English voice overs for Endfield and I was quite content with it. Like Arknights, the developers have gone with a myriad of accents and dialects for the main and supporting cast members, making Endfield’s operations truly feel like a worldwide, massive project that involves all walks of life. Something I really like about Endfield is that it hasn’t forgotten the interactive side of video games, something that even large-scale console projects tend to gloss over by shipping time. Nothing hurts immersion more than simply leaving the player as an observer and I think this game hits the mark where other gacha games tend to fail.
Now if we could only get these characters to not speak in riddles. I know it’s gotta be a gacha staple at this point, but characters just randomly blurting “is an apple truly the colour red” sorts of philosophy to the player do little more than either elicit raised eyebrows or a nonchalant “okay”.
Anywho, Arknights: Endfield doesn’t have a set release date yet, but I can’t wait to jump back into the game. I loved the setting, the graphics and music, the base building mechanics, you name it. When it does launch, it’ll be a free-to-play title just like its predecessor, being made available on PC, PlayStation 5, and mobile devices (Android/iOS). I highly recommend keeping this game on watch. ∎
