Towerborne is a cooperative action RPG from Stoic, the studio that made The Banner Saga trilogy. It entered early access in September 2024 through Xbox Game Studios, offering four-player online co-op in a side-scrolling beat ‘em up format. The setting is a fantasy world built around the Belfry, a massive tower that serves as humanity’s last refuge. Players take on the role of Aces, warriors who venture out from the tower to reclaim territory and push back the forces threatening to overrun everything.
The early access reception has been polarized. Players who came from The Banner Saga expecting a narrative-driven experience found something completely different. Those who approached it as a casual co-op brawler found the core combat fun but the surrounding systems undercooked. The conversation around Towerborne is dominated by what it could become rather than what it currently is.
The Art of the Brawl
The visual design is immediately striking. Stoic’s hand-drawn art style, honed across three Banner Saga games, translates beautifully to the side-scrolling action format. Characters are expressive and fluidly animated, environments pop with color and detail, and the overall aesthetic has a storybook quality that gives the game an identity distinct from the darker, grittier action RPGs flooding the market. The Belfry itself is a hub that feels alive, with NPCs going about their business and the tower’s interior changing as you progress.
Combat, when it works, is punchy and satisfying. Each of the four weapon classes plays differently enough to encourage variety within a group. Swords favor speed and combo chains. Shields emphasize counterattacks and protection. Gauntlets deliver heavy, commitment-based hits. Dual daggers reward aggressive, evasive play. Chaining abilities together as a coordinated four-player team creates moments of genuine spectacle, and the game’s best encounters demand real coordination.
The co-op experience has a breezy, pick-up-and-play quality that makes it easy to jump into. Missions are short, running ten to fifteen minutes, which keeps sessions from overstaying their welcome. Matchmaking fills groups quickly, and the difficulty scales to party size. As a game you boot up to play a few rounds with friends while chatting, the core loop delivers a specific, casual pleasure that more complex action RPGs often lack.
The world design shows ambition. Different biomes offer visual variety, and the lore drip-fed through NPC conversations and environmental details suggests a world that Stoic has thought about deeply. The setup, humanity clinging to survival inside a giant tower while monsters reclaim the surface, is compelling enough to build a long-term narrative around.
Character customization, while limited in early access, offers enough options to make your Ace feel personal. Cosmetic variety is reasonable for a launch, and the weapon upgrade paths hint at deeper systems to come.
The Empty Floors of the Belfry
Content is the primary issue, and it’s a significant one. Early access Towerborne simply doesn’t have enough to do. The mission variety is thin, with most objectives boiling down to “move right, fight enemies, fight a boss.” Environmental hazards and enemy types cycle through the same set too quickly, and by the time you’ve played for ten to fifteen hours, you’ve seen most of what the game currently offers. For a live-service game asking for ongoing engagement, this is a structural problem.
Progression feels unrewarding. Upgrading your weapons and gear provides incremental stat increases that don’t change how the game feels to play. There are no new abilities to unlock, no dramatic power spikes, no moments where a new piece of equipment fundamentally alters your approach. The loot system exists but lacks the kind of exciting drops that keep loot-driven games compelling. You’re getting stronger on paper without feeling stronger in practice.
The live-service model raises questions the game hasn’t answered yet. Content updates have been slow to arrive relative to early access expectations, and the roadmap remains vague on key features. Players who invested early are waiting for the game to become what it’s promising to be, and patience has limits.
Solo play is technically possible but clearly not the intended experience. Without teammates, combat feels like a grind against health sponges, and the social energy that makes co-op sessions fun evaporates entirely. This is a multiplayer game through and through, and solo players should look elsewhere.
Stability was mixed at launch, with connection issues and matchmaking problems that have improved over time but haven’t fully disappeared. Performance on lower-end hardware can be inconsistent, and some players report frame drops during busier encounters.
A Tower Still Under Construction
Towerborne’s central tension is that it’s a game built for the long term releasing in a state that asks players to invest in a promise. The combat fundamentals are there. The art direction is there. The co-op framework is there. What’s missing is the content, progression depth, and variety needed to sustain engagement beyond the first few weeks. Stoic has the talent and the track record to build something substantial, but early access games live and die by how quickly they demonstrate momentum, and Towerborne needs to pick up the pace.
The comparison that comes up most often is Deep Rock Galactic in its early days: a game with excellent core mechanics and not enough to do with them. If Stoic follows a similar trajectory of steady, substantial updates, Towerborne could become the co-op brawler its foundation suggests. If not, the window of player goodwill will close.
Should You Climb the Belfry?
Players looking for a casual co-op experience with friends, something to play in short sessions without heavy commitment, will find enough to enjoy in Towerborne’s current state. The combat is fun, the art is beautiful, and beating up fantasy creatures with three friends scratches a specific itch. Skip it if you want a complete experience, deep progression, or substantial solo content. This is an early access game in the truest sense, and buying in now means accepting that you’re paying for potential rather than a finished product. Check back in six months.
The Verdict on Towerborne
Towerborne has the bones of something special: gorgeous art, satisfying co-op combat, and a world worth expanding. But its early access launch revealed a game that needed more time in the oven, with thin content, flat progression, and a live-service framework that hasn’t yet justified itself. Stoic’s track record earns them some benefit of the doubt, and the core experience of brawling through levels with friends delivers real fun in the moment. Whether that moment stretches into something lasting depends entirely on what comes next. Right now, the Belfry is a beautiful building with a lot of empty rooms.