Oh interesting, so it's not at all like early Overwatch 1 which was way more FPS and was only compared to a MOBA because of the comparatively mild focus on abilities?

That's both good and bad to hear, but yeah, sounds like overall it has a long long way to go.

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 1 points 3 months ago

I've only had the chance to play a handful of matches but I can echo those sentiments so far, I think. Another disclaimer though is that I've only played random matchmaking, not any premade stacks or squads.

The resource battle sets the gameplay experience apart from stuff like Overwatch or TF2 - and not really in a good way (so far). It does get very snowbally, but if it's intended to be a team-oriented game like Dota it's possible I'm not seeing all the intended catch-up mechanics. It does seem like whichever team gets the best start just wins on stats, which makes the quality of matchmaking impact your fun a LOT. Uneven teams lead to very boring matches. I've also run into the classic Dota problem of "finish plz" - where a dominant team farms kills outside your base instead of finishing the game.

All aspects of the game are clearly alpha though - and there is potential here. Like highlighted the map is great and I think the hero designs are good (both visually and mechanically). With both four abilities and four slots for active items the game looks to be making its niche complexity and high skill ceiling - much like Dota (unsurprising given Icefrog is designing this).

I also think the MOBA aspect of pushing and farming isn't necessarily a bad concept as it does introduce a bunch of micro-objectives which drive player movements and create emergent gameplay. It just needs better balancing I think.