The third-person MOBA Paragon is today, on August 16th, taking the step from paid early access to official free-to-play for all interested parties on PC and PS4. For this reason, developer Epic Games is streaming for nearly 8 hours and has surprises in store.
What is Paragon?
The game with the ambitious name, which means “epitome”, “model”, or “paragon”, is at home in the MOBA genre and aims to compete with some large and much longer-established colleagues like Dota 2, LoL, and Smite in the long term. Whether it will succeed is something that will show over time. The developers’ attitude certainly seems to be right.
But not to immediately declare war on the different MOBA factions, let’s take a look at what sets Paragon apart from the established giants. To give you an initial insight, you can see below the Beginner’s Guide for PS4. Therefore, dear hardcore PC users, just overlook the nice controller overlay.
Unique Features
What immediately catches the eye is the graphics. Epic Games, among others the developers of the “Gears of War” series (1-3), creates a very vivid, high-resolution, and lifelike environment with its proprietary Unreal Engine. While the genre counterparts generally present a rather cartoonish style, Paragon appears to be somewhat closer to reality.
From huge, colorful plants sprouting from massive rock walls, to barren paths, moss-covered stone structures, impressive towers, and a dense and winding jungle where many have taken the wrong turn more than once, everything can be found. And all in 3D.
But unlike in Smite, which also uses a three-dimensional environment in combination with the third-person perspective, Paragon demands even more of your attention due to some significant height differences and the resulting poorer visibility of approaching enemies. Especially the wooded jungle, which is hardly visible from the lanes that are elevated due to the dense canopy, adds a certain tension to the game.
The Heroes
But just because everything looks a bit more realistic, doesn’t mean that you can’t let your creativity run wild with the characters. Among the currently 20 completely free-to-play heroes, for example, there is a chain-wielding cyborg, a raccoon in a mech suit smoking a cigar, death himself, and recently a fairy.
The roster is, of course, relatively small compared to, for example, the huge selection of heroes in LoL. However, Epic Games has managed to maintain its rhythm throughout the entire early access period, releasing a new character every three weeks, and according to Creative Director Steve Superville (yes, that’s really his name) will continue to do so until they run out of ideas.
It is also being maintained that every hero will be free to play for all players. So no borrowing via in-game currency or even unlocking necessary. What you do need, at least if you want to develop your own strategies and be prepared for multiple situations, are cards.
Cards?
Yes, cards. During the game, you earn no gold for kills, but both XP for leveling your character and card points. With an increasing hero level, the strength of your basic attack automatically increases as well. Card points are needed in your base for certain upgrades.
The difference is that there isn’t one large, overwhelming, and cluttered shop displaying all items or here cards of the game, but you choose your buffs from a deck (optionally previously assembled) in the game. There are main cards that can then be enhanced with three upgrades to grant an additional effect of the main card. Too complicated? Here in pictures:
The left and middle card are main cards, the right one an upgrade. The number at the top left indicates how many card points it costs to equip them. “Silent Indignation” for example gives you 2.5% lifesteal (Note: Don’t be surprised, many cards were recently adjusted in value; 2.5 is the correct one currently, not the 4 indicated in the image).
You could now strengthen this effect with other upgrade cards that also provide you with more lifesteal. Or you could include the right card. Thus, you would have 2.5 lifesteal and 7.6 more energy damage. If you place three upgrades in “Silent Indignation”, it grants you an active bonus of +27.5 attack speed for 6 seconds.
Sooner or later, the system will become clear during a game. This can be well tested in the “Solo vs AI” mode. And for those who have been thinking and are wondering: “Wait a minute! But if I need cards that I don’t have at the beginning and have to get them from somewhere else to even be able to play, how is that supposed to work?”, it should be noted that every hero has 4 standard decks, each geared towards different roles, which you will select at the start of the game.
After the game, you earn experience for your player rank and the hero themselves, as well as fame. The latter serves as in-game currency with which you can purchase a pack of 5 random cards. Additionally, as your rank and hero level increase, there are further packs, fame, and coins that represent Paragon’s real money currency. With this, you can purchase skins and XP boosters, for example.
And what else?
The well-known principle: Three lanes, jungle, towers, inhibitors, cores, minions, 5 against 5 – basically everything that makes a MOBA. Currently, there is only 1 map on which you play and three modes, namely classic PvP, co-op against AI, and solo against AI, with only in the latter can you not progress for your rank or hero or accumulate fame.
Developer Epic Games is in frequent communication with the community and has also introduced direct Twitch integration today. Streamers are rewarded with random in-game goodies like skins, fame, card packs, etc. This makes streaming twice as much fun.
Additionally, Epic Games will hold a nearly 8-hour stream on Twitch today to celebrate the free-to-play release starting at 4 PM. So if you want to learn more about the game and have nothing planned for this evening, you can listen to the developers’ answers to community questions, watch gameplay, and find out what else is planned for Paragon in the future until around 11:30 PM.
Conclusion
An ambitious MOBA in development with a solid and diverse roster of heroes, constantly focusing on balance and improving game systems, such as optimizing player search and thereby reducing wait times for a game. The prevailing graphics certainly appeal to a broader and more non-MOBA audience, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
For the future, more modes, maps to play on, as well as heroes, skins, events, and similar are planned. The next big step will be the introduction of the ranked game mode, which has been delayed so far due to the relatively small hero roster. But this may be one of the announcements of today’s evening-long stream. One can be excited.
