Singleplayer.
The action roguelike genre is overcrowded and becoming ever more so; however, there is still room for new titles that push the boundaries of what players expect from the genre, and Call of Sentinels is one such game.
Unfortunately, it pushed those boundaries a little too far, and as a result, Call of Sentinels just isn’t as fun as games like Brotato and Vampire Survivors, despite being an excellent game in its own right.
The answer is surprisingly simple: Vampire Survivors, Brotato and many of the most popular games in the genre are very simple games at their core; players earn a single currency, such as gold, and then use it to permanently unlock a variety of items such as new characters and weapons, powers or upgrades.
And while Call of Sentinels sticks somewhat close to this progression system, it breaks from it by incorporating an additional token currency that is not only much more tedious to farm but is only rewarded for successful runs, unlike most games in the genre, which allow players to eventually unlock every power up, even if they fail to clear maps successfully.
This system allows more casual gamers, or those with physical impairment, expierance the entire game and all it has to offer at their own pace.
Image credit Call of Sentinels - Published and developed by A17 Studio.
While Call of Sentinels allows players to unlock some pretty decent upgrades purely with gold, the really good stuff is locked behind acquiring a currency that not only is doled out in small doses but requires players to replay missions (or farm the hard difficulty version of the starter mission) to progress, with some tier four abilities requiring as many as ten tokens to unlock the base level upgrade, let alone upgrade it.
What makes this situation sadder is that the progression tree is really good. While it’s not as big or complex as the one found in some games, every upgrade feels impactful. It would be much more enjoyable if gold were the only currency required to unlock and upgrade each ability. This would eliminate the need to replay missions dozens of times and help ensure that playing Call of Sentinels was enjoyable from start to finish.
Image credit Call of Sentinels - Published and developed by A17 Studio.
Right now, I am sitting on a relative abundance of gold. Yet, until I farm more of the tokens required to unlock better upgrades, I cannot progress further without dedicating a considerable amount of time farming earlier missions on higher difficulties to acquire said tokens, a task which I in no way find appealing, despite having spent dozens of hours farming gold and experience in Vampire Survivors.
While many higher-level upgrades in Vampire Survivors were very pricy, gold was the only currency that truly mattered. This allowed me to farm the required currency however I saw fit, from intense high-stakes runs with boosted difficulty to semi-AFK runs while doing other things. Everything I did contributed towards my final goal.
Unfortunately, this is not the case with Call of Sentinels. It forces me to play in a certain way if I want to progress any further, which honestly feels like a chore and makes me not want to play any further, despite liking the game and being a huge fan of the genre.
Image credit Call of Sentinels - Published and developed by A17 Studio.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Call of Sentinels is not a bad game, and even with its frustrating progression system, it still has a lot to offer; the gameplay is solid, and while I must admit replaying the same sentinel quests endlessly gets old very fast and is a downgrade from the more rational upgrade system found in-game like Brotato and Vampire Survivors, the upgrades themselves are well thought out, and I love being able to mix and match elements to create a build that feels fun to play.
Combat feels fluid, and while I feel that missions should either be much shorter or take place on much bigger maps (with players spending more time dodging enemies than attacking them in later stages), it still feels enjoyable throughout, even if I am normally ready to play something else by the time I complete each mission, unlike Brotato and Vampire survivors which I can play for hours on end, and still want to play further.
Image credit Call of Sentinels - Published and developed by A17 Studio.
Call of Sentinels looks fantastic. The animations are simple but fluid, the soundtrack is exceptionally good, and the cutscenes are all I could want from a title of this scope. Honestly, only the voice acting lets down the game in this regard, and even that is pretty much “okay.”
And by okay, I mean while the voice acting is crystal clear and the voice actors have some level of ability, it appears to be either the work of one or two voice actors playing multiple parts or the work of AI, with accents being particularly bad and, in the case of one of the Sentinals which appears to be based on a Jamaican male, borderline offensive.
I love the Jamaican accent; it is warm and endearing, but the “white guy pretending to be Jamaican” quality voice acting we have in Call of Sentinels feels more like the thing you would expect to hear from a drunken college student who finds himself hysterical, rather than the work of a voice actor in a published title, even if that title is from a relatively unknown developer.
I must add I do not believe this is in any way racist. Multiple of the sentinels have accents, and they all sound forced, with the Eastern European/Russian Sentinal causing me to (literally) laugh out loud at how fake it sounded.
Image credit Call of Sentinels - Published and developed by A17 Studio.
Call of Sentinels launches with a surprisingly decent singleplayer campaign, which features voice acting, narrated cutscenes, and a soundtrack that is both engaging and cinematic; while the narrative is not going to win any awards, it’s a solid fantasy romp, which fans of the genre will enjoy, as while Call of Sentinels isn’t the first action roguelike to have a singleplayer campaign, they are not very common for games of this pricepoint and scope, and I for one welcome its presence.
Image credit Call of Sentinels - Published and developed by A17 Studio.
Call of Sentinels is priced fairly for the amount of content it contains; however, it is rather pricy for the genre, especially when you use titles such as Vampire Survivors as a guideline. Vampire Survivors is considerably cheaper ($4.99 vs $7.81), offers much more content, and has reaped the benefits of continued developer support and long-term community engagement.
The same could be said for Brotato, which, while having slightly less content than Call of Sentinels, is much cheaper ($4.99 vs. $7.81) and far more fun to play.
Image credit Call of Sentinels - Published and developed by A17 Studio.
Call of Sentinels is a action rogue-like video game developed and published by A17 Studio, it was released on 29 August 2024 and retails for $7.81.
Call of Sentinels is available exclusively on PC.
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Call of Sentinels is unrated and contains:
The Developers of Call of Sentinels looked at the Vampire Survivors formula and the success of titles such as Hades and combined elements of both into something unique.
Unfortunately, Call of Sentinels is a worse game for straying too far from what made Vampire Survivors popular. In my opinion, we are still left with an excellent title and one that deserves to be more successful than it is.
On that note, while I recommend Call of Sentinels as a solid action roguelike with an in-depth progression system and gorgeous visuals, I would advise against paying full price for it if money is an issue.
Funfurenately for the developer and anyone hoping for long-term support or a sequel, Call of Sentinels will end up bundled sooner rather than later due to its dismal sales, minuscule player count, and virtually non-existent Twitch presence, despite being a game developed with Twitch integration in mind.
