Warcery

Warcery was a Hero Shooter in the vein of Overwatch, Paladins, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege that was released in March 2021 worldwide, after a troubled development cycle hindered by budgetary restrictions and the COVID-19 global pandemic. It was the first game to be developed by the Irish-based independent development team, Draíocht Inc. - and tragically, their last. While eagerly anticipated by fans, critics were less kind to the game – calling it “a half-baked imitation of other, better shooters” (Jerome Clancy, GamingImproved), and “a buggy mess that shoots for the moon and lands among the Pacific Trash Vortex” (Hannah Wright, Recommended). Geoff Collins of Angry Man’s Angry Thoughts went so far as to say, regarding Warcery’s release, “I would literally rather play any other f**king game!” While Draíocht’s one and only published release found a small, niche fanbase, the damage had already been done. 

To make matters worse, the massively-popular Hero Shooter/Battle Royale combo game, Apex Legends, was published to critical acclaim only a few short days following Warcery, quickly leaving the smaller, lower-budget game in the proverbial dust. Only a month after the game’s release, Draíocht announced that they were ending all support for the project, and the server’s went offline several weeks later. By the start of the summer, Draíocht Inc. had closed its doors for good. 

Fortunately, despite the game no longer being playable in any capacity following the shuttering of the project, you can here access a written manual of sorts for the game. With the power of your imagination alone, you can finally experience what it might have been like to play an unsuccessful Hero Shooter game! With over two dozen unplayable characters and multiple different game modes to ponder, there's certainly something for everyone to enjoy!

Created as part of the Lost, Broken, Unplayable game jam.