We were recently provided with an Early Access account for new sci-fi free to play MOBA Games of Glory, a futuristic gladiator arena themed MOBA from Lightbulb Crew that is currently in testing phases but can be purchased through Steam as part of the public Early Access. We were interested to check out the game to see whether it had the potential to make waves in the genre or more ripples in the ever expanding sea of MOBA games. The general premise is, from what we could cobble together, that in the future fighters are able to enter the games for the entertainment of some big emperor type dude and their Clones fight in these battles for glory (hence why they can keep returning after each kill).
At first look it doesn’t look to be that different to a lot of other MOBA, though whilst there are similar elements to some of the bigger titles out there a few features have been stripped away whether for simplicity, personal choice or… well.. budget. Whilst it would be great for all companies who wish to make amazing games have the option to just make exactly what they want and release it complete, the reality is that the almighty dollar rules the roost and games are as often as not release incomplete from the original vision. That’s where we’d say Games of Glory is at.
The website is pretty much undeveloped and only showcases a rendered cinematic that leads into some gameplay, the cinematic is alright and shows a team of five Clones heading up in an elevator to the arena and then as the doors open it jumps into gameplay. It doesn’t exactly get the blood pumping and in all honesty is quite easily forgotten and would have been money better spent elsewhere for a “hype” cinematic that doesn’t really generate hype. The graphics in general are pretty sub-par, but again we can allow for it in areas as the game is still in development, but it feels like everything would need a complete overhaul to get it to a quality that competes with other MOBA. The animations were a little awkward in combat, there’s very little special effects and so it’s hard to recognize one attack from another most of the time, which we imagine will be pretty hard for any eSports style Twitch commentary, but overall just lacked any real flare.
We love the general feel, the futuristic gladiator pits had that general The Running Man with Arnold Schwarzenegger vibe about it with the gameshow commentator over the top really making it a more immersive experience and further backs up the e-Sports direction the game seems to be taking with official Tournaments already being held.
Combat is pretty much the same as most MOBA, where we could choose a MOBA style control setup using right mouse click to move around, left mouse for basic attack and then our four main skills on QWER. One of the things about combat, particularly when making ranged attacks, is that you can “run and gun” ie. move and shoot at the same time, and we actually found the MOBA setup quite clunky to do that as for some reason the camera doesn’t seem to stick on your character and you’re constantly having to focus on it using spacebar. Thankfully there is a WASD movement which might be more useful for players, we definitely found it more suitable for the style of game.
There are two maps available in the game, but only one of them has really had any time put into it, the Arkashan Arena, which is the closest to a MOBA style map but focuses on point capture. The same premise as most MOBA is that our team started at one end of the map in our base protecting our Energy Core protected by an energy field to stop enemy players entering and accompanied by two turret towers, which are the only other defenses for the base or in the two lanes (unlike other MOBA). Between the bases are three Control Points that are spread that when a team member stands on them it will pull control over to them, the more team members on a point the quicker it switches, and once all three points are taken you drop the energy field and can attack the core. Whilst this was written down on a visual and explained in a tutorial, we still weren’t 100% sure what was going on as it felt like getting past the towers was pretty impossible given how hard they hit, you need a pretty full team to be able to take them down.
One of the features we did like was that after a set amount of time from all three points being controlled they will lock down and reset, ie. the doors to the room in which they are located are shut trapping players out… or inside. Inside the rooms Minions spawn and respawn after the first reset, they’re pretty tough for new players and dangerous get stuck inside, though with our ability where we could switch places with players, including enemies, we did manage to time this well after accidentally being locked inside then seeing them as they came by and switched places with them and trapped them in the room to get killed.
As you level up you actually want to be in the rooms between resets as the minions are a great source of extra credits, along with neutral Bonus Points that can be captured to give a constant stream of credits to the controlling team. Credits are used to buy weapons during the game when in your own base, divided between melee and ranged weapons the setup is pretty user friendly, by opening up the shop you choose whether you want to buy a melee or ranged weapon, as all Clones can use both, which is particularly handy when you run out of ammo. From here there are different variations where you can choose which area you want to focus on, such as scatter AOE style attacks with a shotgun, automatic weapons or long range sniper rifles (we actually found using the sniper rifles EXTREMELY difficult and the melee weapons really seemed to dominate in the hands of the right characters). Players can then upgrade their weapon twice in the battle with a branched tree hierarchy so players start with weaker weapons and get more powerful ones as the game progresses.
As a side mention the other Arena map, Svandia, is a 3v3 team fight where one player per team is flagged as a marked target and the objective is to kill their VIP before yours dies, the game is the first to win 5 rounds on a pretty small make with not much going on, but the base area is locked off an players are simply teleported into the arena when battle starts. It’s a quirky idea but not one we think will get a lot of play in the long run as it pretty much just ends up being a random gank fest that is over in about 5 seconds when the two groups meet.
Ultimately whilst it has the core elements of a working MOBA it lacks a LOT of spit and polish and at £29.99 for Early Access which gives you full access to the current 12 available characters, some skins, items and shop currency, we really can’t hand on heart say the game is worth that kind of up-front investment. That much for early access is what makes us think “budget issues” and why the game still feels and plays like it does, very buggy with wall clipping and just an all-around lack of excitement during the battles with everyone looking pretty much the same from the birds-eye perspective it feels like it is lacking at every point. However, the game has some definite potential and with tweaks, changes and updates then hopefully the final product will get a more positive review, but for now we’ll say that the game is well and truly an early Beta release and it shows.
