What is this, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena week? Earlier yesterday, I was finally given the chance to participate in the Dawngate closed beta for the Personal Computer and now, I have found another MOBA to tinker with? While I was browsing on the Internet today, I stumbled into an ad for a game called Solstice Arena by Zynga that is supposed to be available on my iPad. It claims to be... gasp! A MOBA! I was like, "A MOBA on the iOS? Yeah, right, this is going to be a train wreck," but I was just so very tempted to give it a try and perhaps get a little laugh out of it since it's free to download.
There are not a lot of characters at the moment but hopefully more will be added.
Well, the game ended being... surprisingly fun and not only that, the touchscreen controls actually make sense. Sure, it's not the perfect setup since input mistakes are bound to happen but this game is proof that you can make a good MOBA on mobile devices. The game features 3 versus 3 match up and the main difference here compared to the typical MOBA convention is that there are no creeps to kill. And there is no leveling inside the match either. You do however have to destroy three of your opponents' towers before making a final assault on the base. The characters level up outside of the matches themselves where you can customize their skills. Not sure how balanced that would be because I haven't tried out a match against humans yet - actually, the bots are fun enough for now. Though the lack of creeps simplify things for the game, unlike Guardians of Middle-earth for the consoles, you can still shop for items during the match with your accrued gold and that immediately elevates the game beyond GoMe. As a matter of fact, GoMe should have been more like this game with its smaller map, smart design, and focus on action. There are also power-ups to collect on the map - they spawn randomly and certain champions will benefit from certain power-ups. There is also a treasure chest that would show up in the middle of the map that can grant gold for the entire team so you know the action gets hectic when you are fighting to claim it for your team. Since there are no leveling in the match, that also means that you cannot unlock an "ultimate" ability so you only have access to 3 abilities. One of them is called a "Signature Move" but it is just not the same without having it unlocked while playing. You won't miss your "ulti" much though because of how fast pace things are but it would have been nice if it was made available maybe 2 minutes into the match.
The graphics are nice but the frame rate is a rather choppy. It's tolerable.
I have to play more of the game to analyze whether or not this game is truly free to play like how things are in League of Legends and other big MOBAs out there. I can tell you that unlocking champions using real money is very expensive here and it will take a while to unlock it using the in-game currency you can get from merely playing the game. I have only played several bot matches, both with computer controlled teammates as well as other players online, and it's easy to declare that it's the most fun I had playing a game on my iPad thus far. Let's hope that it gets better from here. Download this game now from the Apple App Store!
You can only ping the map in-game and you can only say "GG" at the end of the match.
You know what that means? You don't ever have to ever worry about ragers!
FIRST IMPRESSION: 5 out of 5
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