VainGlory

VainGlory

Vainglory is a mobile MOBA designed from the ground up by a development team composed of veterans from Rockstar, Riot and Playfish. Super Evil Megacorp has created a mobile multiplayer online battle arena game that takes full advantage of the touch screens that we’ve grown accustomed to harvesting crops and slicing fruit on.

Vainglory is powered by Super Evil Megacorp’s proprietary, and fittingly named, E.V.I.L. engine, to deliver incredibly detailed and high quality graphics, ones you would expect from a triple A title from your favorite game companies.

Arena of Fate

Arena of Fate

Arena of Fate is an upcoming action packed online multiplayer game from Crytek. The game will feature legendary heroes from history and also ones from fantasy, that will battle in a MOBA-like arena. Arena of Fate offers 5 vs. 5 battles featuring characters like Robin Hood, Fenrir the werewolf, Joan of Arc and Nicola Tesla.

More will be revealed at E3 2014, but Crytek has said that an Early Access Beta will begin later in the summer of 2014.

Dragons and Titans

Dragons and Titans

You’d expect a game with a title like Dragons and Titans to be full of flame and fury. You’d expect that a MOBA meaning to compete with the likes of Dota 2 and League of Legends would offer up some quality, and bring to the table something unique. You’d expect flying a dragon about the battlefield and raining fiery death on your foes would be exciting.

Unfortunately, in this case, you’d be wrong on pretty much all counts. While Dragons and Titans offers up a promising selection of different characters (if it’s ever once been called a dragon in lore, gaming, or mythology, it’s probably a part of this game’s cast), it doesn’t really do much with them. Yes, every dragon has a unique set of mechanics and a completely unique appearance associated with it. And yes, your rider can equip any of a number of different legendary weapons to add new abilities to their repertoire. Promising as all those ides are, though…they still don’t work in practice.

The problem that lies at the core of Dragons and Titans is that it oozes mediocrity. For one, the gameplay simply isn’t all that exciting. Even the fastest dragons feel slow, cumbersome, and awkward, flying about lazily as you direct them in battle. As though to compensate for this, the AI in single-player missions is thoroughly incompetent, requiring absolutely no effort to take down.

It doesn’t help that the game’s ugly as sin, plagued with a series of clunky, unintuitive interfaces. To be fair, neither League of Legends nor the original Dota looked particularly stunning when they came out, but both titles looked better than this. Choosing my dragon and weapon felt like a constant struggle, and when I finally got into the game, the controls continued to present a significant problem.

Even all that mediocrity might be tolerable, were it not for the fact that everything – including upgrades – can be purchased with real money, adding an irksome ‘pay to win’ aspect to the game.

Virtually the only area in which Dragons and Titans doesn’t seem to fall short is its matchmaking system, which allows players to pre-select their roles before they find their way into a game. It’s a welcome addition, and one which would thoroughly mitigate many of the problems with Dota 2 and League of Legends. Unfortunately, that’s hardly enough to redeem the game’s other faults.

If the idea of roaring into battle on the back of a dragon excites you, look elsewhere. Clumsy mechanics, poorly-designed interfaces, and a healthy dose of pay-to-win makes this halfhearted entry into the genre one to avoid.

For players new to competitive online games, Dragons and Titans is quick and simple to learn. At this point in the game, there are over 30 unique dragons to control and 30 different weapons for each match. Even the most veteran MOBA player will find something new to master. Choose between multiple game modes: *5v5 PvP Battles *Team Co-Op *Single Player A new weapon or dragon is introduced to the game every week.

Cannons Lasers Rockets

Cannons Lasers Rockets

Full disclosure: this game’s still in alpha, so a lot of the current problems could potentially be fixed by the time it’s ready for its official release. At the same time, however, the developers have displayed a few distressing tendencies that don’t necessarily bode well for the title’s future. I’ll just describe my experience with CLR, and let you folks be the judge of whether or not it’s worth playing or not. 

Cannons Lasers Rockets takes the traditional MOBA concept and attempts to spin it on its head, mashing it together with a third-person space combat simulator. How it works is pretty simple: each team has a base on either side of the map .There are several ‘lanes’ in each combat, guarded by massive flagships known as Defenders. The goal is to get past the defenders in order to destroy the opposing team’s base. Pretty simple, right? You’re helped along in this by strange little starships known as hornets, awakened from floating structures known as cocoons – standard minions, basically.

In that regard, Cannons Lasers Rockets actually puts another rather interesting twist on tradition. I’m not sure if it’s a glitch or not, but Hornets are hostile to whatever ship happens to get close enough. As such, awakening a cocoon on the opposing team’s side of the map will provide you with some much-needed firepower to get past the Defenders, but you could also find yourself being torn apart by your own forces. 

Once a cocoon is awakened (by shooting its shields down), the only way to rid yourself of the constant stream of hornets is to destroy it. So far so good, right? 

The control scheme’s your pretty standard WASD affair, with the mouse used for aiming and the mouse-keys and number keys used for your ships abilities. Destroying hornets, cocoons, structures, or enemy ships will net you points with which to upgrade your own ship. Again, pretty standard stuff, but with the potential to be pretty damned fun. Unfortunately, here’s where the game starts to stumble.

For some reason. battles are restricted to four ships in total. That’s two teams of two ships each, as opposed to the traditional 5v5 MOBA formula. You’d think this would make it easier for players to find a match, but that’s not the case – it took me at least twenty minutes just to get into my first game, and even once I did, the lag was a constant issue, combined with framerate drops and a whole host of mechanical glitches. Since it’s an alpha, I’m willing to overlook most of these problems. on the assumption that they’ll be patched out when the full game releases. 

One thing I’m not willing to overlook is the horrible matchmaking system and its horrendous wait times. If you’re building a MOBA,that is literally the most important component of your game, right after gameplay. If the developers can’t get that right, even in alpha, well…doesn’t really bode all that well, does it?

As if that’s not enough, the game doesn’t even do freemium all that well, either. Free players (or “trial” players) only have access to two ships, while those who shell out $15.00 gain access to ten premium vessels. Near as I can tell, there is no way for free players to unlock these without paying money. 

The problem is that beneath all these problems, there’s actually a very promising (and honestly, incredibly fun) game. I’m holding out hope that, once it’s out of alpha, it’ll be more worthwhile. For the time being, I’d recommend skipping out on this one – it doesn’t have much to offer right now. 

Dawngate

Dawngate

Dawngate is a top-view MOBA currently under development by Waystone Games. There will be two bases, one on the bottom left corner and another in the top right. Three lanes will lead minions and champions from on base to another. Kill the minions passing through your assigned lane and work with your teammates to infiltrate the enemy base.

There is not much information currently available regarding the game’s development and release.

Awakening of Heroes

Awakening of Heroes

Awakening of Heroes (AoH) is a fantasy MOBA currently under development by Serbian video game developer COFA games. The game begs the question, “what if ordinary people were heroic?” and throws you into a world where the mundane becomes extraordinary. Very quickly will you realize that you’re not there to save the world, you’re there to save your place in it.

Awakening of Heroes will be very similar in style to League of Legends and DOTA. It will feature two bases (on the lower left and top right corner) equipped with healing wells, barracks, inhibitors, and towers, connected by lanes and surrounded by a jungle. As of right now, there are 4 characters available in alpha testing: an old lady, a schoolboy, a butcher, and a chick with a whip.

AoH will allow players to invite their friends to join the fun through the use of their social media button. A really special feature found in the game is its compatibility with the Oculus Rift. This allows spectators to observe matches in real-time, vertically scaled, 3D.

Infinite Crisis

Infinite Crisis

Infinite Crisis is a free to play MOBA from Turbine that gives players a chance to use their favorite superheroes from the DC Multiverse in a fast paced arena styled combat game.  Use the most iconic DC heroes like Batman, Spiderman, The Green Lantern, Catwoman and more to take out your opponent!

There are many options out there in terms of MOBAs and while they all offer a similar base-style of gameplay, what Infinite Crisis does differently is creates an evolving story crafted in collaboration with DC Entertainment.  Throughout the game you will discover new characters inspired by the worlds of the DC Multiverse as you confront the shadowy force that threatens to destroy you.  Every battle counts as you team up with other players to determine your fate and gain rank through each and every battle to determine who is the best.  

Another unique addition to Infinite Crisis that other MOBAs cannot lay claim to is their destructible environments.  Players are actually able to grab items from the surrounding area like cars or walls and use them to your advantage.  Want a quicker route to the enemy?  Destroy a wall to make sure your team can gank them from behind.  But be careful, that wall is now permanently destroyed and the enemy can also use it to their advantage.  With a deep roster of heroes already included, and the inclusion of many more as the game gets updated, Infinite Crisis has something to offer both hardcore DC fans and fans of the MOBA genre.

Prime World

Prime World

Prime World is a MOBA by Nival that is set in a fantasy world where two nation are stuck at war against each other. Like it’s classic MOBA bretheren, Prime World features 5 v 5 combat in a battle arena where the goal is to take out the enemies base. While in the battle arena it is quite similar to a League of Legends or Dota. Where the game gets a bit different is on owning land and building a city/collecting resources.

The city-builder element takes place when you’re not in battle. You have a home screen where you have your own castle that you can build much like in a game like The Settlers Online. You build barracks, libraries, mills and you use them go gain resources and build up your talent trees.

The game does a great job of introducing players to the MOBA aspect of the game, however, the city-building part is more or less just thrown on you and you have to do your research online or through the community to figure out exactly how to do it. There are parts of the game that work well, and others that seem a bit clunky and underwhelming. In the end Prime World does offer something slightly different for fans of the genre, and you might find it works better than your precious League of Legends.

Let’s jump into the nitty gritty.  First off, there are no items in-game save for consumables. Instead, whatever character you choose to play is slotted with a series of “talents” before starting the match; these talents give stat boosts, unlock special abilities, and generally function as a weird fusion of gear and abilities. Each talent also increases a stat known as “Power” by a set amount; this ups all their base stats and generally makes them a better fighter.

These talents range in rarity- think of them like weapons or armor in World of Warcraft – from standard yellows and greens up to purple and orange; rarer talents give more power and generally better benefits besides. Talents can be acquired through a number of methods; the simplest is by playing the game(we’ll get to an alternative method in just a moment). Each hero you unlock also remains persistent, gaining levels, stats, and strength the more you play them.

Although the layout of the main map, Borderlands, will be instantly familiar to any MOBA veteran, there’s one primary change of which everyone should be aware: each lane is peppered with flag-posts. ‘claiming’ these flags for your faction will cause your “Native Terrain” to cover the area. Characters can, once every three minutes, teleport to any stretch of Native Terrain; certain heroes also gain bonuses to their skills and abilities when using them on Native Terrain.

Also gone is a traditional four-slot skill-set. Instead, each hero has six different ‘tiers’ of talents. Unlocking a certain number of talents at one tier will make the next tier available; unlocking talents will also advance your character’s level and increase their stats. All of this is done through a resource known as “Prime,” which is also used to purchase potions and other consumables.

Oh, there’s also a Zuma-esque minigame which lets you create usable scrolls(admittedly, these can be extremely powerful and even turn the tide of battle). Unfortunately, once you’ve started this game, there’s no way to back out, and your character is effectively out of commission while you do so. Depending on how well your team is doing, you might well have to use whatever scroll you created to make up for the experience Prime you missed out on.

Your heroes and Talent inventory are managed out-of-game through a city-building interface. As you play, your castle will level up, allowing you access to more powerful heroes, better structure upgrades, and more space for buildings – it actually feels quite similar to a Facebook game. Truth be told, it actually felt like I was playing one at times; you can set up a Prime World account using Facebook, and you’re encouraged to add your friends to your structures to increase resource production. It’s an interesting idea – and a good way to generate new Talents, Silver (for buying new heroes), and the like, but it’s a little too slow-paced for my liking.

See, one of the biggest problems with Prime World is that matchmaking tends to take forever. There was one point where I was waiting nearly twenty minutes to find a match, which itself only lasted about as long (the other team surrendered after two of the players quit). It’s a bit of an unpleasant tradeoff, and there are no doubts in my mind that the problem is linked directly to Prime World’s factions system. Of course, it’s also a bit problematic that there can easily be more than two of the same hero on a given team, as well.

At account creation, each player is made to choose one of two factions: the steampunk Dokht Imperium, and the druidic Keepers of Adornia. Players can only be matched with other players in their faction. The same goes for adding people to their friends list. In an MMORPG, where one doesn’t necessarily have to fight the other faction, such a system works fine. In a game like Prime World, however, it tends to draw out (and often imbalance) the matchmaking system. I’ve also heard rumblings of imbalances with the heroes as well; I can’t really speak to the legitimacy of such claims one way or another.

Oh, and don’t even bother trying to play with the AI – it makes the beginner bots in League of Legends look like tactical geniuses.

There are other sticking points, as well. Though the game is positively gorgeous and blessed with a beautiful soundtrack, the voice-acting ranges from passable to sub-par to “let me just throw my speakers out the window.” The single-player challenges are hair-pullingly frustrating, and the other game-modes, while a nice change from the standard 5v5, don’t ever really ‘click.’

Still, there’s a lot of promise to Prime World. Eventually, perhaps, it’ll come into its own, and prove itself a worthy competitor to the likes of LoL. For the time being, it’s a decent diversion, at least.

SMITE

SMITE

SMITE is an online battleground between mythical gods. Players choose from a selection of gods, join session based arena combat and use custom powers and team tactics against other players and minions. SMITE is inspired by Defense of the Ancients (DotA) but instead of being above the action, the third-person camera brings you right into the combat. And, instead of clicking a map, you use WASD to move, dodge, and fight your way through the detailed graphics of SMITE?s battlegrounds.

Players have access to an initial set of playable gods for free. Everything affecting gameplay can be earned by playing the game. Additional gods are unlocked through gameplay time or more quickly through micro-transactions. Cosmetic skins can be purchased for further customization.

Key Features:

Be a God
Cut through your enemies, encase them in ice, or drown them in a vortex of souls. Assume direct control of your godlike avatar and experience the MOBA genre up close with the game camera directly behind your character. Choose from a long list of well known and more obscure gods, each with their own history, special abilities, and unique playstyle.

Tactical Gameplay
Master your godlike abilities and use them to fulfill key roles such as damage dealer, tanking, crowd control, and support. Explore the map and defeat NPC enemies for increased gold and unit buffs. Deny your opponents? victory with well-placed stuns and calculated ambushes.

Mythical Setting
Five players battle five opposing players on a fire-themed battleground. The end objective is a Boss Minotaur, protected by three flaming Phoenixes. Within the jungle, there are Cyclops NPC camps as well as the legendary Fire Giant.

Power Up
Within a single match, your god levels from 1 to 20. Your powers gain strength and you purchase in-game items and consumables to benefit your god and support your personal playstyle – buffing your Magical power, Physical power, Defense or Utility capabilities. Calculated Strikes Every attack in SMITE is a skill shot controlled by you. Ranged attacks are aimed, melee attacks are positional, and Area of Effect damage must be groundtargeted. Predict your enemies? movements and hit your mark as you experience fast-paced combat.

League of Legends

League of Legends

January 13, 2013 – League of Legends (LoL for short), is a 3D fantasy MOBA by Riot Games where players choose from one of many champions and fight it out in PvP battles against their enemies. Each individual ?game? or ?match? doesn?t take place in a persistent world, players earn experience points for winning matches, which can be used to permanently improve attributes in all future games. League of Legends is actually very similar to a popular Warcraft 3 mod called DotA (Defense of the Ancients).

Players take on the role of hero characters, leading an army to the enemy player?s base to destroy their fortifications and armies. It takes the RTS (Real-Time Strategy) genre and gives it more action.  During each game, players will have approximately 1 minute and 30 seconds to select a champion, two summoner spells, and some runes. League of Legends currently has well over 60 playable heroes, each of which are distinctly different. Each of the heroes has 4 unique skills, of which 1 is an ultimate, as well as a unique passive ability.

The heroes are actually incredibly balanced, and even the 8 beginner champions, which are fairly ?easy? to play, aren?t at all ?under powered? or anything like that. After playing a few matches with the recommended characters, players should try out other champions as well, because the best way to really master League of Legends is to learn every champion?s skills. Memorizing every champion?s skills may seem a bit nerve wracking at first, but you will get the hang of it, as just by playing the game regularly players will learn on their own what each hero is capable of. Of the game?s many playable heroes, most of them won?t be available to newbies, as they have to purchased in the game?s store with the ?influence points? earned from playing and winning matches.

The more matches a player wins in League of Legends ? the more experience their champion gains. Every level yields a single mastery point, which can then be spent in the ?masteries? tab. Masteries are passive enhancements which will enhance a champion?s attributes in every single game. The masteries work a lot like the ?talent? points in World of Warcraft and Runes of Magic, but they are ?account wide?, so it doesn?t matter which champion you select; you?ll always receive these bonuses. The three skill trees in the masteries tab are Offense, Defense and Utility.

League of Legends is popular in the eSports realm, becoming a major game in MLG (Major League Gaming) professional play.

Pros: Many characters to play, Good support, Flawless PvP.

Cons: None I can think of!

Winner of an MMO of the Year Award in 2013.