Bossgard
Full Disclosure - we actually got this one to review a while ago now, and partly due to moving over to Squarespace, I hadn’t realised that this post had never been converted from a Draft! It felt weird to post without going back and giving the game a go again, so this has been updated to reflect the current status of the game.
Sand Sailor Studio’s Bossgard left us bamboozled right off the bat. Upon starting the game, you have various options within the main menu: Intro, Survival and Play are three of these choices. Intro, which seems like the intended first choice led us into a screen giving us two characters to pick from. After making your choice, it tells a little of the story of Bossgard before dropping you into a battle against The Corrupted Guardian as part of this introductory story. It feels a little stunted, especially as it doesn’t tell you much about how to play, so a lot of it feels like guesswork. The intro continues by splicing you in and out of gameplay and more cutscenes. Nothing really feels like you are told what to do or where to go - you just kind of stumble into the next part, before being returned to the main menu.
Once you get through this and have a chance to look through everything within the game, things start to feel a little less confusing (although they never totally make sense). You can play Survival; a third-person single-player mode where you fight your way through all of the bosses along with waves of enemies as you trudge through a blizzardy tundra in your fight to survive the cold. Defeating enemies replenishes heat, which can be spent at Shrines to increase your warmth time, your attack damage or to heal. This mode feels very different to the rest of the game options, despite feeling like a substantial aspect of the game. Through the Play option you can choose online/local multiplayer where you can fight against various bosses either 1v1 or in a group of up to 5v1; or alternatively, you can play as the Boss. The different options of play keeps things interesting and prevents you from getting bored, giving you choices depending on what type of gameplay you’re in the mood for.
Bossgard’s art style is interesting, with a lot of humour injected into character designs. Bosses are well varied, done in a bunch of totally wacky designs ranging from a slice of bread to toilet plungers and the Viking designs themselves are funny little caricatures of their respective countries. Whilst most levels and areas of the game have brightly coloured, zany designs, the Survival mode known as The Hunt is very different in that it is a fairly barren area shrouded by a raging blizzard. Your mission there is to defeat 10 bosses known as Elites, to gather their Evil Eye stones in order to open up a portal to the final boss. The design of the Elites are jagged and menacing looking, but the colouring of these (and the minor enemies) is mostly black and red - a far sight different from the vibrant bosses in the multiplayer.
Voice acting feels somewhat awkward and distant, and upon these story elements finishing being told, the music cuts out entirely. This makes things feel really strange, and to add to that - the subtitles don’t always line up with what is being said. A line mentioning you finding the spider made of fire came up on the screen at least twice without being spoken - despite this line only being said once before, in a separate cutscene. The soundtrack is diverse, with tracks fitting the characters well and the Valhalla area - where you can meet the Gods and purchase upgrades to increase your favour with them - having a powerful, yet ominous vibe. In the Survival mode, there is no music - instead just having the environmental sounds of the snow and enemies to keep you company.
The twin-stick controls of Bossgard feel good, and whether you’re playing alone, with other players or with bots (who are all given cute names like Botany or Abbot) it’s a lot of fun to play. Playing online is currently quite limited as there doesn’t seem to be many people playing across the servers, but with the ability to churn through some games with friends and family, you’ll still be able to have a good time - though it’s definitely one of those games where you’ll all be shouting at each other for using certain moves, as some characters feel like they have a bit of an upper hand in combat.
With tonnes of unlockable characters, as well as customisation options for both the Bosses and the Vikings, you’ll want to try and get them all but trying to get these will cost a good chunk of your time. You’re probably gonna need to do a fair bit of grinding too, as new characters and some of the more interesting customisation options can be pretty pricey, and with each win only gaining 600 gold (or 60 for a loss), it might take a while. We really liked the idea of the Survival mode, however it just feels like a miss as there’s just so much empty space and time wasted wandering around the vast land with nothing to really guide you but a compass - and trying to find all 10 Elites whilst your warmth rapidly depletes is super frustrating, especially when you end up walking in circles trying to find a Shrine. If you’re coming to Bossgard for anything, it should be the multiplayer options as these are enjoyable whether you play with bots or with friends.
In the end, we decided to give Bossgard the Collecting Asylum rating of 6.5/10.
Have you played Bossgard yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Sand Sailor Studio for the Bossgard Nintendo Switch review code!
