| Champions of Anteria | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Blue Byte |
| Publisher(s) | Ubisoft |
| Director(s) | Mihnea Dragoman |
| Producer(s) | Lukáš Kuře |
| Designer(s) | Christian Hagedorn |
| Programmer(s) |
|
| Artist(s) | Edgar Bittencourt |
| Writer(s) | Iain Lowson |
| Composer(s) |
|
| Platform(s) | Windows |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Action role-playing[3][4] |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Champions of Anteria is a 2016 action role-playing game for Windows. Developed by Blue Byte and published by Ubisoft, it was released in August 2016. In October, Blue Byte released two DLC packs; The Alchemist and The Beastmaster, featuring new characters and buildings.
The game tells the story of Anteria, a once prosperous kingdom that has fallen into disarray and factionalism. Beset by enemies on all sides, each attempting to gain control of the kingdom, the people of Anteria turn to a group of champions - native Anterians who have recently returned after many years away. The champions agree to help, but soon find themselves in conflict with Kalen Daark, a powerful black mage with his own evil agenda.
Originally intended for a 2014 release as the eighth entry in The Settlers series, the game was announced as The Settlers: Kingdoms of Anteria. Championed by Blue Byte and Ubisoft as the most innovative title in the series to date, it was set to feature a mixture of city-building, economic micromangement, real-time strategy, and action-role playing. However, after the closed beta produced predominately negative feedback, especially in terms of how the game didn't "feel" like a Settlers title, Ubisoft scrapped the project. Nothing more was heard of it until 2016, when it re-emerged as a new property entirely, unrelated to the Settlers series and with a new title. Keeping most of the art assets and maintaining the tone and broad storyline of Kingdoms, Blue Byte had completely reworked the gameplay by removing most of the city-building and economic elements and focusing instead on the action role-playing combat missions.
Champions of Anteria received mixed reviews. The graphics, voice acting, and humour were generally praised, and some critics found the integration of city-building and action role-playing well handled. Others, however, criticised the game as being neither one thing nor the other, with both the city-building and the combat lacking sufficient depth. Many critics were also unimpressed with the AI, especially in relation to pathfinding, and there was a general consensus that the combat missions were unacceptably repetitive.
- ^ Tobias, Simon (July 19, 2016). "Champions of Anteria: Retail-Version angekündigt". Gameswelt (in German). Archived from the original on May 7, 2020. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
- ^ Krostra, Michael (July 19, 2016). "Champions of Anteria: Erscheint auch im regulären Handel". 4players (in German). Archived from the original on May 18, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
- ^ Bleich, Olaf (September 9, 2016). "Champions of Anteria: Das Beinahe-Siedler". Gameswelt (in German). Archived from the original on May 7, 2020. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
- ^ "Champions of Anteria - When Strategy and Action RPGs Collide". YouTube. July 13, 2016. Archived from the original on April 28, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2020.