The number of games utilizing blockchain has been growing exponentially for some time now. Many aren’t overly interesting, but there are plenty of diamonds in the rough. This is certainly one of them.
Lost Relics is an action-adventure RPG similar to Diablo or Path of Exile. It was made using Unity and has loot that is backed by Enjin’s blockchain. Despite being in early access and still under “heavy development”, there are a lot of reasons to play it. Firstly, it’s free to play and you can play right now. Secondly, it has Enjin wallet integration already set up, so you can earn items and own them. Thirdly, there are around 15,000 monthly players or more, which is highly impressive for an early access, indie game!
There is a lot of content you can watch, showing proper gameplay, but one of the best I found was this beginner’s guide:
This is another game that I have tried and I’ve got to say, I was impressed. I will put together a more comprehensive preview in the near future, but I’ll offer some brief insight here. The game plays exactly how this genre is meant to; it’s reactive, it’s smooth, and it’s difficult. The latter might seem unappealing to many, but the hardcore RPG gamers will appreciate that. The in game chat was incredibly active with advice and questions, which was strangely comforting. There is also risk, which like difficulty, is appealing to us veteran gamers. That is, your virtual items (not your blockchain backed items) can be lost if you die while out in the world or in a dungeon.
Though they really drill home that the game is early access, it is far and away above most blockchain games you can play at the moment. I haven’t progressed far enough to see where the boundaries are yet and so I can’t tell how limited the scope of the early access client is. From what I have been told from other people though, it isn’t overly restrictive. There are only two downsides to the game that I could find, one was not their fault, and the other was understandable.
The first (that isn’t their fault) is the transfer fees for sending items to your wallet or other players and processing transactions with Ether. Until Jumpnet lands, these sort of expensive transaction fees are par for the course, but they do heavily detract from actual trading at the moment.
The second issue (that I empathize with) is the game isn’t strictly “free to play”, but rather using a freemium business model. That is, while you can play for free, paying for a membership yields a lot of rewards. Below are the benefits:
As I say, this is fully understandable. They’re building a popular and engaging game and that warrants financial reward. You can choose not to spend a penny if you wish, but if you’re enjoying the game, it’s more than worthwhile. The membership is bought through Power Pendants — an in-game item — and is $24.26 USD (as of 20th March 2021) for 30 days, with options to buy 1 day, 7 days, and 90 days, with the larger the duration, the more you save. It’s also worth noting that you can buy these pendants at the in-game marketplace (Royal Emporium) for in-game currency. This means, if you’re proficient at grinding gold, you could have a membership and still technically be playing a free-to-play game.
Lost Relics is without a doubt one of the best blockchain games you can play right now, and this preview hasn’t covered even half of the exciting features this game has to offer (if I were to mention one more, it would be their leaderboards). There is also a lot of content in development, including up to 4 player co-op PvE and PvP. If you enjoy games like Diablo and Path of Exile, it might be worth getting in on Lost Relics before the crowds.
