At the PlayStation Experience keynote address Epic Games announced that their five-on-five, third-person MOBA, Paragon, will becoming to the PlayStation 4 and PC.
The announcement trailer gives us our first look at the Paragon’s alpha gameplay, where you can see several of the characters Epic has been teasing on their website. Of those characters, Steel, who I am assuming will be a guardian/tank class, is prominently featured; using a force field ability to protect fellow heroes/minions, and a shield bash to inflict damage withing the lane — the last scene of the trailer is Steel using what could be his ultimate ability?
A first look at the Agora, the battlefield for Paragon, is also seen in the announcement trailer. Epic Games has said that Agora will be differently than most MOBA maps. For instance, Agora has varying terrain elevation allowing for a more varied, possibly frustrating, laning experience. Unreal Engine 4, also, plays a part in what is supposed to set Paragon apart from most MOBAs; relying on a more realistic approach rather than the cartoon-y style seen in most MOBAs.
Sure, the game is pretty, but everyone knows MOBAs are all about the characters and items. Epic has said that an ever-growing cast of characters will be in Paragon, and they will be paired with a deck building system that will allow ‘infinite’ possibilities — the deck building system is probably their attempt at making something more approachable than an item store.
I’ve played a lot of Smite, a third-person MOBA by Hi-Rez, and, personally, that is my preferred view when it comes to MOBAs; it made the complicated genre easier to digest. Paragon coming from the creators of the Gears of War, the perennial third-person shooter, series I’m more than interested in seeing what they can do with it.
A select few will be chosen to online test the game in the beginning of January, with an open beta in summer of 2016. Paragon will also be available through early access in spring of 2016. You can sign up here.
