Early Access Thoughts: Paragon

Lane-pushing mutliplayer strategic combat games have been all the rage lately. Generally called MOBAs, (a pretty weak genre name in my opinion), these games all build on the concept of Defense of the Ancients (DotA). While most MOBAs take a fairly standard approach (see: Dota 2, League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm) some developers are trying to take it to another level. Enter Epic Games, the developers of the well-loved Unreal Tournament franchise.

"Paragon" is, for all intents and purposes, the next level of MOBA. It combines the classic lane-pushing mechanics, the third-person view of "SMITE", and the absolutely gorgeous graphics of the Unreal Engine. "Paragon" is in early access alpha right now so it's pretty far from an actual release, but I wanted to take a look at it and see how it stacks up to the mainstays of the genre. The short answer? Pretty well, actually. For the most part.

"Paragon" puts the player in control of a Hero in a three-lane map with towers and Cores and minions. It's a MOBA. We all know the formula. The Heroes are all freely available, with the exception of some advanced Heroes you have to level up to access. In the current alpha build there are only 13 Heroes, but Epic promises to put loads more into the game. One every three weeks to be specific.

So you're probably wondering by now if "Paragon" is any good. In a word, yes. In a lot more words, though... "Paragon" sets out to do something no other MOBA in recent memory has ever attempted: verticality. The jungle is actually lower than the lanes, and you can either jump down into the trees or follow neat little paths. You can get the drop on your opponent, literally. There are also rocks and cliffs in-lane. This adds a lot more variance and life to the structure of lane-pushing. It can be a little more hectic if somebody is coming at you from above.

As with every other game in the genre, the map is split into three lanes. Each lane has two towers and an inhibitor and leads straight to the Core. In between lanes is the jungle, full of neutral mob camps which give buffs when killed. There's also the Black Monster and the Purple Monster, the equivalent of League's Dragon and Baron Nashor, respectively. The camps are taken by the Jungler, one of four roles. The other roles are the standard Attack Damage Carry (ADC), Support, Caster/Energy Damage Carry, and Tank. Everyone takes a solo lane, and the support tags along with the ADC.

This game, even in alpha, does all of these things incredibly well. It's not a major overhaul of the genre or anything like that. It's just another fun game with its own unique mechanics to put a slight spin on a popular formula. That said, I really enjoy the game. I love the graphical fidelity of the Unreal Engine, I love the design of the Heroes, I love the vertical movement and the feel of using skills with an actual feedback system. There are, however, some aspects I don't like. One in particular: Cards.

In most MOBAs, you have items. Items are purchased in stores to give you stat increases. "Paragon" doesn't have that. Instead it has card packs. You open a pack and you get what's inside, and those are your items for the game. You choose a pack, or deck, when you first spawn in. As far as I can tell, that's all you get. If you want to change up your strategy mid-game, tough luck. I hate this! The idea of pre-set decks of items is pretty cool, leaving you with less clutter to sort through for new players, but you NEED the ability to switch up builds throughout games. What happens when that tank you weren't worried about becomes a bit tankier than you'd hoped? You built yourself up to fight the ADC but now you've got a tank mowing you down and you can't alter your build at all! I think the deck system is neat in theory, but it needs a lot of work before it can properly take the place of an item shop. I have this same problem with the Hi-Rez game "Paladins", but that's for another day.

Other than that, the game is pretty solid. It's fun and surprisingly smooth. It's a bit slow (games can take up to an hour most of the time) and jungle mobs are hilariously unskinned. With a few changes this game could be a major contender in the MOBA scene for it's verticality and sheer graphical fidelity. Plus cross-platform capability. It has that! PC to PS4 anyway. No word yet on the X-bone. I'm not sure if it's worth buying into a Founder's Pack at this early stage (unless you're REALLY into the concept, or writing about it like I am) but the Summer 2016 open beta will be free-to-play. Probably best to wait until then.

-Justin

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In-Game Screenshots