Making it to steam used to be an incredible achievement. Still is if you negate the abominable trash spewing from greenlight. Early access games are a crap shoot, with some being near ready for release. Others function as well as a rusty bike uphill. It’s a real game with a lot of bugs or as Ubisoft and EA would say ‘launchable’.
Shots fired and being placed aside, burnout happens. Eating the same lunch every day, every week, every month, every year? Yeah it gets pretty bland. Games need change once in a while, just to shake up the players and the gameplay.
So let’s talk about Gigantic. It’s been in various stages of development for years. Originally planned as a Windows 10 exclusive with cross over technology for Xbox One. Then it wasn’t, then they fired people temporarily. Dropped the Win10 exclusive. Now on Steam! Poof, on the radar instantly. A free to play MOBA, third person shooter/melee hybrid. Wait, the menu looks a lot like Overwatch and the characters have personality. Well sort of, they look interesting! Is this a clone? What about Smite? If anyone is a bit confused, the summary of this game is it had a lot of ups and downs coming out to release. What is released though, bugs and all, is still at its core a good game. The idea of what to do with it will invariably be left to the community within.
Who knows, Gigantic is damn fun though. It’s the kind of game where a good playlist of upbeat music really goes a long way.
The lack of mobs and items brings the skill level more towards a mind game, planning and coordination. Voice chat is there but it’s not required. You basically have a very hectic version of Heroes of the Storm. Characters switch out daily instead of weekly, which can be a bit jarring. Skills have a tree, you can only maximize stuff to a certain point. Ultimates are built up (like Overwatch) and grow more powerful (up to level three). More so, you also use that same meter called Focus to build different protective turrets. You have three basic turrets and two turrets you unlock with points.
Gigantic has three types of points: crowns, rubies and prestige. Crowns and rubies buy stuff. Rubies you can purchase with cash, crowns you earn by completing games. You also earn them by ranking up with prestige as well as completing cards. You get cards daily, acting as dailies sort of. However, you can go absolutely ballistic in the game and just get a hoard of those cards easily.
Courtesy of Motiga
Courtesy of Motiga
So far there are 17 heroes and each one operates differently. Sneaky backstabbers like Tripp, long ranger shooters like Imani. Hell they packed their own Doomfist with The Margrave who looks like Hellboy and a suit of armor had a disagreement. Gameplay varies wildly between every one of these heroes and the art style of them all is incredible. Motiga went ham in their idea for creating a game that distances itself from the humdrum. The look is a mix of modern sense designing with almost storybook elements.
Courtesy of Motiga
Currently the game is rather bare bones. There are only three maps (hey most MOBAs have one) and there’s only two guardians. The guardians are just nexus/fountains/whatever objectives to blow up for the win. The difference is that this gameplay feels like a long level of Sonic Adventure. You can sprint, jump and in some cases even fly. The freedom of movement is impressive and it feels great sometimes to just blast through the stage.
Make of it what you will but it’s enjoyable and a perfect kind of game to just get away.
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