Stoneguard – A unique blend of genres with some solid ideas.

Indie game developers really never cease to both impress and amaze me with their endless creativity and passion for gaming. Combine this with the fact that so many of them are working with tiny teams and limited resources and this amazement only grows. Stoneguard is developed by ThornSpire Games, just two people, a husband and wife team based in the UK and is what I would call a cross between base building games like Ark, tactical combat games such as Mount and Blade, and strategy games like Age of Empires.

Stoneguard sees you in control of the last ruler of earth, and protector of the Lifestone, a magical crystal capable of extending your lifespan and healing almost any wound, and tasks you with protecting this precious stone from an ever increasing onslaught of alien invaders looking to steal it.

What makes Stoneguard so unique is the way it blends the genres it borrows from together, letting you build up your base during the limited daylight hours, before throwing you into a defensive battle as night falls. The whole premise of Stoneguard is set up in such a way that as long as you protect the Lifestone, you can heal from any wound, and with a system in place that allows any character, player or npc, to lose limbs that can then be replaced with crafted prosthetics, Stoneguard once again showcases the kind of out of the box thinking that makes indie developers so important to the industry.

A real plus for me is the fact that Stoneguard can also be played with up to four people in co-op mode, and whilst I didn’t have the opportunity to test this at the time of reviewing, it’s a game where you can easily see the fun that could be had by getting some friends together to survive the harsh night battles.

Being an early access game, and also with such a small development team, you can of course expect Stoneguard to be a little rough around the edges, but honestly?…that just adds to its charm. It’s so refreshing to see indie studios trying something new and pushing the boundaries of what we have seen before, and I really did enjoy my time with Stoneguard. Is it a perfect game? No, but does such a thing really exist? Sometimes you just have to judge a game for what it is, and Stoneguard is a truly interesting title that has some excellent ideas, and I am looking forward to seeing how it progresses in its early access journey.

WildStarGaming Scores: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆    

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