A new studio called Vela Games, consisting of former Riot, Blizzard, and EA employees, is introducing a new MOBA: Evercore Heroes. In this competitive PvE game, the gameplay of a MOBA is mixed with MMO raids. MeinMMO editor Leya Jankowski was able to see gameplay and finds that it looks really good.
I love MOBAs and have spent more time in League of Legends than I would like to admit. That’s also the most known and successful MOBA. In addition, SMITE with its console focus and Dota 2 have also established themselves.
There have been attempts from other studios to nibble at a piece of the MOBA pie, but there have not been any resounding successes:
- Heroes of the Storm is officially dead: Only “Maintenance Mode” left
- The MOBA Paragon is dead and refunds all players’ expenditures
- The oldest competitor of LoL is now officially dead – What made Heroes of Newerth so special
Vela Games is a new studio that brings exactly the right experience to attempt a successful MOBA again. The team consists of people who have several years of experience from Riot (League of Legends) and Blizzard (WoW, Overwatch), which is evident in the atmospheric hype trailer.
I attended a presentation for MeinMMO where the studio introduced itself and their new game “Evercore Heroes”. We were shown the alpha gameplay. The studio and gameplay convinced me to the extent that I see enormous potential here.
A MOBA mixed with PvE raids – Here’s what a round in Evercore Heroes looks like
The basics of a “normal” MOBA are present:
- You form a team consisting of four characters, with the classic roles: Damage, Support, and Tank.
- Various heroes are available to you, each with different abilities.
- The characters have four abilities that you can level up during the match.
You will, of course, need to decide on a team composition before the round and argue over your favorite characters.
Since the gameplay shown only revealed players typing wildly in the chat when they want to play, I probed deeper here. If you have ever played a MOBA, you know how much conflict potential there is before the match.
Travis George, co-founder and CEO of Vela Games, told us:
Since this is a pre-alpha build, we haven’t implemented all our features yet. In the future, we will definitely expand our matchmaking functions with role preferences. We also look forward to adding more ways to effectively assemble teams that go beyond mere role selection. One example would be allowing players to choose whether they want to be a ‘Shot-Caller’ or a ‘Team Player’.
Travis George, CEO Vela Games
The special thing about Evercore Heroes is that you do not compete directly against other players. So you have no PvP contact. You compete against four other teams playing the same map as you. The goal is to complete the PvE challenges as quickly as possible. This determines the winner.
In summary, a round consists of:
- You defeat monsters to level up and earn gold and crystals. Crystals are items to become stronger
- You complete tasks to charge your Evercore and thus enter the boss domain
- You defeat a typical MMO raid boss that has different phases to win the round
You can keep an eye on what the other three teams are doing throughout the round and how they are currently positioned. This gives you the opportunity to respond and adjust your strategy.
There are opportunities to interact with the other teams, even though you are not engaging in direct fights against each other. You collect small energy crystals, and when a certain number is reached, the boss sends out energy waves that bring monsters onto the maps.
You also want to complete the various objectives and tasks faster with your team, as only the first team receives the reward. So you are fighting in real-time for the objectives.
They want to destroy your Evercore base. If your base is destroyed, you are out of the round.
The boss appears for all teams at the same time, and all teams that are still left by then can fight against him. The goal is to defeat the boss as quickly as possible.
Characters can be improved beyond individual rounds
Another feature of Evercore Heroes is that you can improve your heroes long-term. As you play the characters, you can unlock unique talents.
This allows you to come up with a strategy and a build for your characters that can influence your round.
I can imagine it being more enjoyable to play with a fixed group that is in sync and can also adjust talents to match.
Talents can influence your stats or even create quests for your character during a match. They can also adjust and modify the abilities of the characters.
But classically for a MOBA, you can also adjust your characters during the round. There is a shop with crystals that influence your build. These crystals can be exchanged with other players but can also be purchased with gold.
Here you can take a look at the characters known so far:
PvE environment should offer variety
A MOBA like League of Legends is of course exciting because you face others in direct combat. Anyone who has ever had a 1v1 match for everything knows the intense adrenaline rush. It brings excitement and variety again and again.
A game that relies on a pure PvE environment must offer variety to remain exciting. Vela Games promises varied maps with different biomes.
The biomes are created by the different regions that the fantasy sci-fi world should offer. With the biomes, there should also be corresponding variation in the monsters.
There are also different seasons planned, which will introduce new monsters or change the gameplay. Of course, there should also be new heroes.
We only saw one map in the presentation. Therefore, it is difficult to assess how varied it will ultimately be.
I have high hopes for Evercore Heroes, thanks to the expertise behind it
I am aware that my initial judgment of the MOBA is quite positive, even though I have not played Evercore Heroes yet. I have only seen a gameplay presentation and have to trust what was shown and told to me.
The first signals, however, have potential:
- The gameplay feels well thought out
- The already presented heroes offer a lot of variety and seem to have something for everyone
- For a pre-alpha build, the gameplay looked surprisingly fluid and visually appealing
- The minds behind the game have tons of experience with MOBAs, multiplayer in general, and MMOs
At the beginning of the presentation, some team members were introduced to us.
Travis George, whom I have already quoted here, was the lead designer and producer of League of Legends for several years, around Season 5. He has a total of 20 years of experience in the industry.
Co-founder Brian Kaiser also has been in game development for 20 years, having worked at Sony, Activision, and EA.
Additionally, there are several more minds from Riot and Blizzard involved.
Names are of course not everything. My positive impression mainly comes from the gameplay I was able to see. I thought immediately: I want to play this now!
I am really excited to be part of a MOBA from the very beginning again. I believe I am not alone in this.
I see in Evercore Heroes a MOBA with potential that can compete with LoL. I don’t mean to say that it will immediately surpass LoL. The games take very different paths regarding the PvP and PvE components.
However, it certainly has the potential to take a good chunk of the MOBA pie and attract people who generally like League of Legends – like me.
What do you think of Evercore Heroes? Do you believe in the MOBA’s potential?
