Epic Games launched an open beta at the end of May for their multiplayer online battle arena title Paragon. If you paid for the founder’s pack, then you obtained the privilege to get in on early access to the game, a move that is something new for PlayStation 4 gamers (hopefully a continuing habit). So, how was the open beta for those of us who participated? Let’s get right into it.
The weekend before the open beta started like this:
Note: Tim is an actual person and is not made up. He is also single, so any gamer ladies out there need a gamer dude, that’s your man.
Me: Hey, Tim. Want to try out Paragon with me?
Tim: Sure, what is it?
Me: Not sure, but Epic Games made it, so taking a chance on the game is probably okay.
Tim: Sure. *purchases founder’s pack* *begins to download game* Done.
Me: Alright, let’s get this going.
Once the downloaded, Paragon gave me little trouble in launching, which sounds pretty ‘duh’, but considering the game is still in beta it is refreshing to see a title actually functioning before a final release. That’s better than most games when they launch. In short, it was a smooth opening and didn’t require any sort of magic or sacrifice to the gaming Gods to get going.
{media load=media,id=4140,width=720,align=center,display=inline}
Once the title launched, some minor updates were applied, the game came to a character screen that briefly/briskly explained to me the type of characters I had to choose from. The categories consisted of:
Caster: This is the type of character that is basically your mage and does ranged attacks. They sit somewhere in the middle when it comes to strength and defense.
Fighter: The name implies what the character is perfectly, someone who gets into the scrum and does some head-on attacking, rather than just sitting back.
Ranger: Someone who lies somewhere in the middle with a good mix of Caster/Fighter attributes. I know in the old D&D games (Pool of Radiance, anyone?) from the 80s this would have been my go-to type of character. It’s a good, even selection.
Assassin: I didn’t get a chance to play as this one, but I saw folks pop in and pop out during matches, so I’m assuming those were assassins.
Tank: Trading quickness for brawn on this character type. Brutal in the swing, but easily avoidable with a quicker character.
Each character in each category sported their own visual measurement of how good/bad their attributes were. For example, the character Rampage (tank) would have his strength attribute through the roof, as well as his defense, but his quickness would not be very high. What I particularly liked about this sort of visual display, and I realize this is minor, is that you could quickly glance through each character and pinpoint which one suited your needs. Having that quick view of attributes, which again might seem minor, is helpful, especially with the amount of characters you get to go through.
Having said all this, I picked a robot/android named Muriel, who sported wings and a lot of eloquent attributes (she was a cool looking caster). Once chosen, the game allowed me to pick out an outfit for her, only one was available with the promise of four additional outfits (and a preview of them). After choosing the correct, and sadly only outfit for Muriel I got to choose what type of game I was going to get into.
The beta version of the game allowed for solo or multiplayer play right from the gates. You could choose to go up against actual players or you could choose to just go at it against CPU players. What’s particularly cool about this is that you could bring in your own team to play against the CPU players for practice (this is where Tim comes back into the story). Deciding not to go up against other players because I wasn’t familiar with anything yet, I sent Tim an invite and we easily (and I mean EASILY) paired up and launched into a MOBA session against CPU players.
To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from Paragon. I understood that it was a MOBA, but I assumed all the pretty graphics it displayed at the beginning would be replaced with some far away, top-down viewpoint that is typical in MOBA titles. What was delivered was a third-person view point with large, gorgeous animated characters that reinforced uniqueness into a worn genre, large sprawling environments that teemed with life and quite a bit of details to boot. You start atop a mountain with your characters, swoop down to ground level and start doing what you usually do in a MOBA game, but in a third-person view. Before we move on let me stress something to you just briefly. My MOBA experience is limited with a handful of games, but nonetheless strong when it comes to enjoying MOBA. Every MOBA I have played has been top-down, so to see something in third-person for the first time was a little mind-blowing. If there is another third-person MOBA out there, I’m sorry for not mentioning you. It’s nothing personal. I don’t have a large MOBA resume.
Anyway, so the game launches, your character moves from the top of a mid-range mountain and you can proceed to choose the path you want to take (three of them — typical in MOBA titles for you n00bs out there). Each path has a set of towers to defend and attack. Each tower is armed to the teeth with defense systems and each path has a set of enemy troops that come down it to slow your progress in the game. The tower defense portion of this game is also typical with MOBA titles, and it works well in third-person view. The enemies come in droves, as well as do your troops that back your characters up. The key to victory when bringing down towers is to wipe out enemy troops, send your troops in as sacrificial lambs against the tower defenses (oh, it’s fine — don’t be judge-y) and start attacking said tower while your troops are perishing. Once a tower locks on to enemies to defend itself, it doesn’t let up until the enemy is dead or the enemies step outside of the activation circle (that activates the defenses) around the tower.
Once you bring down enough towers in the game, and you bring down the main enemy tower in the back of the level, the game ends. The game also comes with a time limit, so if you can’t conquer the towers, you should at least make sure you brought down more than your enemies.
This all seems pretty straightforward for MOBA experienced players, but for someone like my friend Tim, who has never touched a MOBA in his life, it actually was easy to pick up on. I think out of all the elements of this preview session of the game, I was most impressed with how a non-MOBA gamer picked up and went with the game. Credit Epic Games for making the title simple enough for non-experienced folks to pick up and go, but exciting enough for seasoned veterans of MOBA games. Kudos big time to Epic for doing this, as it will bring in a lot of new gamers to the genre (and Paragon). Also, credit Tim for being a good gamer. He is adaptable when it comes to trying new games.
On the controls side of the track, everything was laid out pretty well to accommodate the non-PC control scheme of the PlayStation 4. Certain special attacks were configured using all the buttons on the controller. Hitting a few buttons flipped selections and as the game progressed more selections would open up for the gamer to use new techniques. As your player levels during the actual MOBA session, you get access to more options when it comes to attacking. If you go into a scrum as the aggressor, then you will level up faster with each enemy elimination and allow for your character too grow and become stronger. This isn’t a new concept with MOBA gaming, but it’s easy to do and consistent, which makes the game really fun and interesting. Leveling in the current game and overall is pretty simple, so the game keeps the controls and attacks/defenses simple and accessible to first-timers.
Once a round ends, you character is given a performance evaluation and depending on how they did, as well as their team, you are rewarded with points, upgrades and sometimes even unlockables depending on level. My personal goal is to unlock the customized armor for Muriel, which looked positively badass. One of them features a lava-laced armor that looks positively amazing. Now, going back to Tim for a second, the rewards for doing well and leveling up during gameplay was a huge motivation for him to keep going. He played this game for hours before he had to vamoose, so that’s always a good sign when it comes to capturing new fans for this genre. I think he might be chomping at the bit to get this going again this week, so there is that too.
Overall, Paragon contains a lot of exciting new things and a lot of old MOBA concepts. MOBA fans will certainly feel comfortable with this structure that Epic Games has created for Paragon and will find out how well the third-person viewpoint actually works when playing. For me, I look forward to returning to this title when time frees up. Until then, I’m comforted by the thought that the Tim’s of the world will find some value in a predominantly PC expert gaming genre. That will certainly impact who is going to purchase, support and play this game on the PS4. At least I hope it does.
Anyway, keep an eye on Paragon, folks. It’s worth a look.
