Thank you Sand Sailor Studio for sending us this game to review!

Bossgard is the second game made by the small indie group based in Romania, Sand Sailor Studio. I haven’t played their first game, Black The Fall, but it has mostly positive reviews on Steam. Bossgard is currently in Early Access and may be tweaked a bit before fully releasing. In its current state, the (player-controlled) bosses are way over-powered in my opinion.

If you ever wanted to play as an intimidating boss in a video game, then Bossgard is for you! Not only can the boss regenerate health, summon shields, go berserk, and activate traps, they also have a second stage! How cool is that? Each of the abilities have a cooldown phase, so you can’t spam them. With that said, the bosses are super powerful and hard to take down... even with five Vikings hacking away at them.

The bosses have different looks, attacks, and movement patterns. The plunger boss can only hop around while the cube one flops in a player-specified direction. The Vikings are clued in on which direction the boss will move or attack next, but they may not have enough time to dodge it. Some Vikings are more agile than others. The stronger Vikings can also take more hits than the dainty ones that attack from a distance.

There are several Viking characters to choose from and they each have a pre-determined weapon equipped. The special attack/ability can be customized before battle. Some of the abilities include resurrection, powerful attacks, summoning shields/creatures/turrets, and slowing down or poisoning the boss. It’s good to have a well-rounded team with melee fighters and archers chipping away at the boss from a distance.

As the Vikings attack the boss, they will charge their power enabling them to activate their abilities. The boss gets two full health bars if you factor in both of their stages while the Vikings share a pool of ten lives. Once all of the boss’ health or Viking lives are depleted, the battle ends. The players are then rated on their performance and given nods for who took and dealt the most damage, who dodged the most, who did the least damage, and who died the most. The players will then be given some favor by various Norse gods. By accumulating enough favor you can unlock some customizations for your character. Currently, the equipment is only for looks, but ability changing options may come at a later date.

Bossgard is fairly clean, but does have some violence which is to be expected for a game revolving around boss battles. The references to Norse gods is not a surprise either given that there are Vikings in this game.

The levels are colorful and unique. Each of them has a different theme with traps that the Vikings will have to try and avoid. A furnace-themed level has flames that shoot out of the vents, while an island level has sharks swimming around it. If there are no traps, the boss may have the ability to summon allies to assist them.

Each of the characters--bosses included-- have some decent voice acting. The electronic background music adds to the battle intensity. The weapons and sound effects are fitting too.

Bossgard is best enjoyed with friends and can be played locally or online. Unfortunately, there isn’t much of an online presence at the moment, so I’d recommend holding off if you’re looking for online matches. Single-player battles are possible, but I’ve only had luck beating the boss with the Vikings set to the highest AI level. The bosses are much too powerful, especially with their health regeneration abilities.

Hopefully, during Early Access Bossgard gets more balanced and cultivates an online community. The price is reasonable and is worth considering if you don’t mind playing solo or locally until more online matches become available.