Dragonkin: The Banished Game Review – A Diablo ARPG Clone That Shows Promise and Frustration

There’s no escaping the fact that Dragonkin: The Banished will be compared to Diablo, the reigning king of the action RPG. Developer Eko Software has experience in the genre – having previously worked on 2019’s Warhammer: Chaosbane – but this dragon-themed title pushes the studio’s ambitions further. It works for the most part, though Eko is no Blizzard when it comes to execution.

Set in a medieval fantasy world, Dragonkin: The Banished follows the return of the fiery Dragon Lords determined to burn everything in their path and turn humanity into ash. It’s up to the Dragon Hunters to assemble and stop the forces of evil – essentially, the plot point of every fantasy story with a dragon in it. Players choose one of the four heroes – the Knight, Barbarian, Oracle, or Tracker – to hack and slash their way to success. As with any ARPG, each hero has a distinct combat archetype, so it’s up to the player to decide which style they prefer and build upon it as they progress through the game.

The prologue, which received a divisive reception from early access Steam players, is actually useful in this regard. While it isn’t particularly exciting, it offers brief hands-on time with each hero to help you understand their strengths and weaknesses. Thanks to this, I quickly disqualify the Barbarian and Tracker, since I don’t gel with the characters.

Once the prologue ends and the story “officially” begins, Dragonkin: The Banished finally ignites to life. Again, like Diablo, you start with a base player and gradually grow your skillset and equipment through combat and loot collection. There’s a decent variety of enemies and boss challenges, though it’s never too difficult to defeat any of them. Consequently, it doesn’t take long to build a formidable hero; however, Eko Software forgets the most important part of any game: newcomers to the genre.

Dragonkin‘s customizable, puzzle-like skill system, known as the Ancestral Grid, is helluva confusing at first. For anyone unfamiliar with ARPGs and item-modifier skill systems, it presents a steep learning curve. Even worse, tweaking the Grid can unexpectedly change your attack button layout, which is frustrating when you don’t even know what you did to affect it here.

This lack of clarity extends to other facets of Dragonkin: The Banished. While players often complain about tutorials that spoon-feed basic information, establishing fundamentals is necessary – or else newbies might give up too quickly. The combat mechanics and environmental exploration are intuitive enough, but the other facets aren’t. For example, the Wyrmling – it isn’t made entirely clear what this dragon companion does at first, leaving the player unsure of its purpose. Trial and error is fine in doses, but it’s a recurring theme throughout this game.

Dragonkin: The Banished offers an atmospheric and interactive world to explore and experience – whether solo or in online co-op. The game encourages fast travel through portals, leaving it up to the players to decide whether to stomp their way across the map or take the shortcut. The cities aren’t static either; they grow and evolve, adding a welcome touch to keep the players invested in the long run. There’s a lot to see and engage with, but this only comes after the first hour or two of gameplay.

Eko Software set out to create an ARPG that’s accessible to all while still offering enough depth to keep players coming back for more. It gets the basics right, but the balance and subtle nuances – you know, the stuff that Diablo excels at – are missing here. The gameplay is easy – perhaps too easy and without enough consequences for death – and there’s a lack of tutorials for other aspects of the game. These issues are easily fixable through patches and upgrades, so hopefully this type of feedback helps the developer to improve on an ongoing basis.

At the same time, it’s important to acknowledge that Eko doesn’t have Blizzard’s deep pockets and resources. Dragonkin: The Banished isn’t Diablo, nor may it ever reach that pinnacle, but it’s still a fun and charming ARPG for fans of the genre and fantasy in general. It’s decent on PlayStation 5, but I imagine it’ll be much more popular among PC players.