One big emphasis during the Supernova meet/greet with Primal Game Studios at Bandai Namco’s Global Gamers Day was a high sci-fi driven setting. We’re talking about humans versus cyborgs versus creatures and such. The 30+ minutes I played of the game toward the end of the last day displayed lots of vehicles, ways to hire what Primal Game called ‘Mechenaries’ and a fast and furious MOBA experience. The style was like a flavor of Warcraft mixed in with Starship Troopers and Terminator. That is a helluva mix.
Supernova, which is in a closed Alpha test right now, showed some strong potential, especially on the upgrade/leveling sides. One big addition with this MOBA was an army management system. When you call the troops up to follow you down one of the three trails into what will be certain death, you can actually upgrade their attributes to make them more powerful. Granted, I have only played one MOBA in my lifetime prior to this one (Middle-Earth), it still seemed to make sense within the scheme of things. Also, it was quite easy to keep up with during battle, and outside of it.
Primal Game Studio hopes to make this game’s complexity comparable to DOTA 2, which is going to be quite an achievement if pulled off. At the same time, the game is being developed to also provide a crutch for people new to the MOBA genre. For example, while I was playing it, and doing awful, one of the developers pointed out that I could turn my army management assist on, which would help me to upgrade and move army personnel out without much thought. For someone like me that doesn’t spend a good amount of their PC gaming in a MOBA world, this was a huge help. And as it was pointed out to us during the question/answer session with Primal, having a balanced experience for both experts and novices to MOBA gaming was an essential aspect. The 30 minutes I played of Supernova certainly pointed strongly to this notion.
On the leveling side, the main character you play can be given special powers through leveling (like electricity bursts), as well as upgrading player typical attributes (powers, defense, mobility, etc.). While certainly complex underneath, meaning you have to choose the right attribute upgrade depending on your style of character to get the most out of them, understanding what character you’re playing with and finding said attribute isn’t that difficult. The character I chose was a snake like creature that fired from afar. The developer leading me through the game pointed out that my focus on leveling attributes should be centralized on ‘Power’. The more power, the better hits I could make without having to get into the scrum. I like that idea, especially since this genre is still new to me.
On the actual act of gaining points to level your character, it can be done in several ways. Taking out enemies is certainly the typical way of doing it in MOBAs, but there is something called ‘going into the jungle’, which is what was told to me at the beginning of my session by another player. Basically, the parts of the map that sit between the three trails are referred to as the jungle. In there, you can acquire monsters and mech to help your plight, as well as level up easily by destroying them. If you need a quick way to level, this is apparently the place to go. I didn’t have time to reap the benefits of this knowledge while at Bandai Namco’s Global Gamers Day, but I fully intend on doing it when I begin my alpha of the game here at home.
At the end of the day, Supernova’s developers seem sincere in their desire to make this more than just a quick money grab on a cookie cutter MOBA. They seem like they want to bring faster gameplay that has deep sci-fi style and MOBA gaming elements that will at least put them in the same category as DOTA. Right now, as it stands, Supernova is entertaining. Primal Game Studio’s need to speed up the MOBA genre and keep players engaged seems to be on target. What they do to improve the game and create more separation factor with other MOBAs is going to be interesting.
We’ll have more for you in the coming weeks about this alpha. We’re still getting digging into it, so it’s tough to give a full impression.
We’ll get it done, though.