My First Impressions of Illuvium’s Private Beta

May 11, 2022

2 minute read

I meant to write this article immediately after my first run of Private Beta Survival Mode. Everything would be fresh and the content would flow. 10 hours later I had nothing. I was still playing. I heard similar stories from others who had Private Beta access. 8, 10 even 12 hour runs with barely a break in between. Once you get your hands on the game and start to go through wave after wave, it’s easy to lose track of time. Having the live leaderboard exacerbates the cycle as once you finish a run you’re immediately shown how the top players have done. If you’re competitive and receive access, make sure to clear your schedule.

A good game

The team promised a good game, as many have done before, but what we have is actually a good game. It’s more than just play to earn, it’s play AND earn. If this is what the Survival Mode beta experience is like then Illuvium Zero and the Open World are about to get crazy. Not to mention, the autobattler doesn’t even include fighting other players yet. One day we will have massive brackets of people fighting each other in tournaments with record breaking cash prizes hosted in Illuvium Zero arenas. This is Web 3 meeting esports and it is undoubtedly the future.

NFT adoption through Illuvium

Of course the graphics look amazing as they always do with Illuvium products and people can see that clearly from Twitch streams and Hi-Res photos. That was to be expected. The big question remained can this team deliver something fun? In my eyes, Illuvium has arrived. This game is going to bring so many people into the world of NFTs and Web 3. Gaming has always been a driver of innovation and this is no different. The adoption will happen through Illuvium. There will be others to follow, but Illuvium is currently first by a wide margin. They are a legitimate AAA gaming studio built in Web 3 and this game solidified that for me. Plain and simple. I’ve been in this space for years and I haven’t seen anything else even remotely close. So yes the game is great. Yes, people can and will make (and lose) money. More importantly though, people can and will play with no aspirations of making money. People will play this for fun simply because it’s a ton of fun. Illuvium has cracked the code, proven that they can compete with the legacy gaming giants and I for one can’t wait to see what the team does next.