Impressions Of Vaultbreakers From Its Most Recent Beta

VaultBreakers, BetaDwarf’s free-to-play take on an isometric-action RPG, had another play test recently, and we got a small taste of what the game has to offer. So what do we think? My early impressions are simple. This game is easy to jump into. What takes some games hours or days of gameplay to explain, VaultBreakers does in minutes.

At the start, it's pretty brutal. Even non-player enemies can end your adventures quite quickly if you aren’t locked in. There's no handholding, and VaultBreakers doesn’t ease you into the gameplay slowly. The tutorial explains the basics and tosses you into the deep end almost immediately. The goal is simple: get in, gather resources either by looting them in the world or taking them from other players by force. Bring them back home base to build it up to add permanent boons to your hero on future runs. There is a noticeable absence of clutter. No endless UI, no walls of stats or store menus. The game communicates the goal and sends you off to figure the rest out on your own.

The moment-to-moment is where Vaultbreakers makes a strong first impression. Movement feels tight and snappy. Attacks have weight, and cool downs matter. The first few encounters are less about winning and more about learning how not to die. My first rounds had me dancing around from bush to bush, clinging to what little life was left in my health bar and willing my abilities to come off cool down with all my might, and it is that learning curve that will definitely draw more competitive players in.

Vaultbreakers doesn’t overwhelm you with a giant roster but instead starts you off with a solid handful of characters to choose from, all with their own unique level of difficulty, style of gameplay, skills, abilities, and lore. From the Jovial Juggernaut Bjornir, a Norse-inspired hero who specializes in controlling the flow of battle and locking foes down with raw strength, ice magic, and a giant hammer, to Sparkwing, a curious dragonling who zips around the battlefield helping allies and zapping foes with the power of lightning, just to name a few. The game offers various ways to unlock even more characters later on.

Vaultbreakers is a living environment with a smart design. It isn’t just a backdrop. One of the biggest surprises for me in my first few matches was just how active the world felt. From packs of wandering wolves and boars to swarms of spiders and patrolling guards. The world feels less like a backdrop and more like an enemy itself. As time passes, enemies get stronger, paths get narrower, and some even close altogether. Storms and other hazards sweep across zones of the map, and safety becomes increasingly hard to find, herding the players on the map toward each other and inevitable conflict. Dying in the vault means you drop half of the items you're carrying, leaving you to choose between risking what you have left to try and retrieve what you lost or simply leaving with what you have. This makes player encounters a real adrenaline spike when another player appears on screen, creating a constant sense of tension,

This design also does a great job of preventing passive play. Vault Breakers doesn’t let you hide forever, and this is a big reason matches will stay fun and exciting, adding hours of longevity to what, on the surface, is a pretty simple yet rewarding gameplay loop.