Strife

Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas are one of the most popular genres to be played on the PC, and that’s for a good reason: these are free to play, competitive and strategic games that took the gaming community by surprise since the rise of League of Legends (LoL) and Defense of the Ancients 2 (DOTA 2) sporting millions of daily players. Now, veteran MOBA developers S2 Games want to take the cake by targeting the LoL audience and the new player demographic with their “new generation MOBA” called Strife.

Strife is an online multiplayer game where two teams of five battle for control of the map and to destroys the enemy base; each character startsat level 1 and quickly ascends by killing NPC creeps and enemy players to gain experience and gold, this enables the player to gain new abilities and items in order to overpower the opposing team and destroying their central structure. Any player who has played any kind of MOBA will surely be familiar with the general mechanics in this game. But what about those who have never spent time with games of this genre?

Something interesting is the accessibility the game offers from the start. The tutorial is presented in the form of a small quest and presents the gameplay elements in a balanced and fast pace. It’s the closest the game has to a one player mode. Strife does make an effort to simplify the complex MOBA mechanics, anyone who has played LOL before can attest to its steep learning curve.

Strife makes an effort to welcome new players through its design; for example, they try to avoid cluttering the screen with numbers such as level, HP, Mana. In addition, they make it so every player can be benefited from their partner’s actions, unheard of in other MOBAs. The Beta counts with only 15 heroes at the time, which makes it great for new players since they won’t be forced to learn 100+ heroes’ skills to be able to play the game, although it’s pretty likely S2 Games will be adding more heroes along the way.

There are also fundamental changes to the formula that may hook MOBA veterans to this new experiment. For one, is the addition of a pet that follows the hero into battle and has select skills that the player may level up through time. And there are also elements taken straight from other games, such as the ability to hide between bushes. All in all, it shows that the developers are trying to fit the best mechanics to create a perfect MOBA.

The game is truly colorful and shiny, it looks great.It seems to surpass most other MOBAs in the graphics department, though it seems to borrow heavily in its style from League of Legends, as the character models look especially cartoony and child friendly.

Now for the veterans, here is a list of things that set Strife apart from its predecessors.

Differences with other MOBAs

- The map is smaller than other games, making it easier and faster to traverse.
- The lanes are roughly the same length each, thus the difference between going mid, top or bot lane is diminished.
- Thehero character is selected before searching for a match; also the same characters may be picked by the opposing team.
- There are no vision wards, only points in the map a character may stand on and gain visibility for a short period.
- Like other MOBAs there is a big NPC character that can only be killed by the whole team (or a character whose level is high enough), one defeated he aids the team that defeated him and pushes a lane, destroying everything in its path.
- The player is given a pet that has select abilities that evolve through time.
- The matches are significantly shorter, with half hour being the average match time.
- Every player gets his own courier to buy and transport items to him, no matter where he’s standing in the map.

I recommend checking this game throughout its release, especially for those willing to get into the MOBA action for the first time.

Daniel, NoobFeed