A balanced gacha system and imaginative experience await you in AFK Journey.

With the release of AFK Journey, developer Lilith Games is returning to Esperia five years after the success of AFK Arena, the popular fantasy role-playing game for mobile devices. The objective of AFK Journey, a sequel to the idle war simulator, is rather clear: to create a game that is more vast, inventive, and addicting while maintaining the essential elements of its predecessor. First indications are excellent since we have early access to the game's closed beta.

For those who are keen to participate, Lilith Games has concluded the beta stage and has not yet revealed the AFK Journey release date, other than the fact that it will launch in 2024. This implies that you will need to control your enthusiasm with patience. When your wait pays off, you'll be plunged into what is sure to be one of the year's top mobile games (though it will also play on PC since it is a cross-platform game).

Naturally, AFK Journey, being a gacha game, will either succeed or fail based on the performance of its characters. Our first observations are that this balance is very well-balanced. There is an amazing range of characters from many sides, all of them have creative designs. Some people (like Seth) have such a unique and interesting appearance that you'll be itching to pluck them even without considering their stats or classes. This is combined with a wishlist pull system that lets you choose which characters you really want or don't, increasing your chances of obtaining your most sought-after fighters.

Using these characters, you'll put together a small group to go top-down across the realm of Esperia, defeating enemies and exploring various biomes. This is where the fantasy game really shines. Putting the fighting aside for a moment, exploring the game's surroundings is an absolute delight. The most remarkable accomplishment of AFK Journey is its stunningly produced environment with a dazzling aura that begs to be explored. The visual design is astounding. This makes playing the game for hours on end rather simple.

You will come upon opponents that must be defeated as you go around Esperia. This is when the combat mechanism kicks in. AFK Journey gives you a system that's a lot like Auto Chess or Dota Underlords from Valve. You place your warriors on a board across from your opponents (often with barriers in your way), and then you sit back and watch the fight unfold. Or, maybe more properly, perspire as you fret about the result. This seems really simple at first, and it lets you choose the level of immersion in the experience. It’s okay if you wish to take a more detached attitude. It's also possible to be more engaged and keep an eye on every aspect.

But as you go through the game, this fighting concept progressively becomes more complicated despite its simplicity. The battle's result is largely determined by how you arrange your fighters on the hex-block battlefield, such as where to put your melee soldiers relative to your ranged units. This is a more gratifying experience than a simple hack-and-slash since it forces you to really examine the strengths and limitations of each of your troops.

It's difficult to predict how well any of these elements will function after the game is fully released since things change all the time, and with gachas in particular, it's quite simple for developers to tip the scales with apparently little changes. So far, however, AFK Journey is a game that everyone should play, whether or not they have played Arena. This is both familiar enough to appeal to longtime fans and unique enough to be your first entrance into the series. Having said that, we are quite thrilled about what we have played so far, which is evaluated only based on its own merits and without regard to the future.

See our lists of the most recent Genshin Impact codes and the top best games like Genshin Impact for more fantasy worlds. Alternatively, you may peruse our selections of the top Nintendo Switch games as well as our conjectures about the impending Switch 2.