Towerborne Early Access review: Xbox’s latest action game has spicy combat and big dreams | Gaming

The Banner Saga franchise is what comes to mind when Stoic Studio’s name pops up. The award-winning trilogy is praised for its tactical turn-based combat, 2D hand-painted art style, and storytelling elements. However, following the third game’s launch in 2018, the studio had been quiet about its latest projects. It was in 2023 that Towerborne was unveiled, showcasing Stoic’s brand-new direction.

Almost everyone likely has a memory of walking up to an arcade machine and trying out a side-scrolling action game or seeing a relative play one enthusiastically on a console or PC as they waited for their turn. Beat ’em ups usually come with simple controls, a joystick for moving and two buttons for attacks, easy for almost anybody to pick up and play…