Paragon

Epic Games has already made its mark on the action and shooter genres with series like Gears of War and Unreal Tournament, but now it looks to make the leap to another genre with Paragon. Though the game shares much with other games in the MOBA genre, Epic hopes to overcome several of the common pitfalls by putting its own spin on the genre.

Rather than taking the top-down approach common with MOBAs, Epic Games is putting players right in the middle of the action — something that Hi-Rez Studios successfully did with Smite. The three-dimensional approach to gameplay enables Epic to do what it does best: create compelling action.

A MOBA can have all of the best mechanics in place, but if the characters aren’t memorable or don’t play well with each other, it can have serious implications for the game. Epic is working to include a diverse set of characters that have different abilities. The number of playable characters is still up in the air, but Epic says it plans to follow an aggressive plan for rolling out new characters. Characters deliver a greater sense of progression, as they are leveled up over the course of matches, in addition to a card system that allows players to make different choices for the direction they take when leveling. The card system adds a layer of strategy, as you can see how your opponents are building their decks and adapt your strategies on the fly to counter developing situations.

As characters develop, they learn to use various special mobility skills. Though some characters can leap or soar over the crowd of combatants, they must be careful, as Epic has included many characters that can shoot airborne characters down with projectiles. These types of exchanges have the potential to create some awesome moments.

To show off its action, Epic Games is including the ability to craft replays. The team wants to allow players to not only recreate the cool moments developers often show in trailers for MOBAs, but also create their own highlight reels. Any captured footage is editable and shareable within the game itself. The footage looks great. In fact, one video shown to us played a lot like a trailer, but the team later revealed that it was made using the built-in tools. If the community latches on to this feature, it could be a great place to share your biggest triumphs or funniest failures.

Paragon’s early access season started last month and is available to anyone who pays $20 for the Founder’s Pack. This gives purchasers access to the game in its early form and allows them to keep their progress once the retail version of the game launches.

We took advantage of this early look at the game and went hands-on with several heroes, including newcomer Sevarog, added to the character roster a few weeks after the early season started.

Paragon remains more or less the same game it was at the launch of the early access period. You and your team try to rush down lanes with your minions, sending them to distract security turrets while you work on destroying towers. The goal is to reach the other enemy’s core and blow it to pieces.

Hero Sevarog is a markedly different character from the other heroes available in the roster, mostly because his design leans hard into dark fantasy tropes, while the majority of other heroes would be more at home in a sci-fi novel.

He’s a cloaked wraith who wields a deadly hammer capable of bringing the pain to foes and minions. He also has a useful siphon attack that boosts his maximum health whenever he uses it to land a killing blow.

These perks give you a lot of incentive to tank with Sevarog, pushing him to the front lines of battle to smash enemies into submission while your allies fire on them from afar.

The wraith’s most powerful ability is colossal blow, which is exactly what it sounds like: a powerful swing of the hammer that deals heavy damage and sends enemies flying across the landscape.

This can be particularly useful when heroes are near your towers but not getting too close because they don’t have enough minions to distract the turrets. Bopping them into the turrets’ range will likely mean their demise. Our experience with matches ran the gamut from being exhilarating experiences to tedious back-and-forth exchanges that went on for too long.

Like most MOBAs, Paragon’s entertainment factor hinges on whether or not you’re playing with a team of people who know what they’re doing and are keeping in constant contact with one another about the match as it unfolds, sharing strategies and updates.

Matches where we played with strangers or without communication abilities were a mixed bag, with a number of them descending into chaos, with teammates fanning out in every direction with no detailed battleplan. Occasionally this resulted in a good time, but on the whole these matches ran without one side making any strides over the other for half an hour or more. Paragon remains the sturdy, enjoyable MOBA it was when it debuted last month, and its steady content drip of heroes and content looks to help the game grow as early adopters experiment with new team combinations and strategies.

Paragon marks Epic Games’ attempt to enter the free-to-play hero-shooter scene, and our hands-on time suggests that the game might be capable of making a splash in a crowded sea. Epic is best known for crafting some of the most popular shooters in gaming, like Unreal and its Tournament iterations as well as Gears of War. Paragon wears that heritage of dynamic action on its sleeve, with combat that has satisfying feedback as well as simple but enjoyable interlocking gameplay systems.

What’s most immediately noticeable about Paragon is just how easy the game is to pick up and learn the basics. The one map I played, Agora, does a great job of teaching the lane-based fundamentals of the genre thanks to its simple but well-designed layout. Though Paragon’s rules and objectives are easy to comprehend, the game has enough depth to keep players engaged thanks to its varied character roster.

I started with one of the characters recommended for beginners, Twinblast, and spent a few matches shooting at minions and other enemies from afar with dual pistols, occasionally using grenades and rockets to crowd control and take down towers. I quickly learned that rushing into battle wasn’t the best way to go, as Twinblast gets utterly destroyed in close combat. The smartest strategy is to provide support for a tank character, like Steel, peppering their targets with bullets to soften them for the heavy hitters.

For my second character, I chose Gadget, a caster encased in a yellow exosuit. Gadget is fragile and has a weak main attack, but she has an array of useful powers, like a trap that damages enemies with energy damage and several flying bots that deal damage to foes. Like Twinblast, Gadget fills a support role, but you can’t play her in the same way, unloading your arsenal on enemies from afar. Instead, you have to be tactical, choosing the best time to deploy your gizmos to help out teammates.

Thanks to the skill variety in the hero roster, there’s a lot to learn about which situations each character excels in and what combinations of heroes work best together when it comes to making teams. For example, though Gadget and Twinblast are different kinds of support classes, you wouldn’t want two of your precious team slots taken up by them if you’re playing a serious, high-stakes match, opting instead for a team that has a variety of classes. Like with MOBAs, pre-game planning in Paragon is just as important as being able to communicate and make fast, smart tactical decisions during matches.

Part of planning includes keeping the card system in mind. During matches, you can give your characters cards that serve as usable items or upgrades. Some of them are standard health potions, others buff your energy-recovery rate, which is invaluable considering that all your special attacks use energy, and others serve as equipment boosts for your heroes.

The card dynamic is far more than a superficial tack-on experience; one card could very well mean the difference between victory and defeat in a close match, so it’s essential to manage your upgrades with care.

As it stands now, Paragon is an enjoyable hero-shooter that benefits from meaty combat and a strong roster of heroes. The true test is whether or not it can find an audience in a crowded market, but Paragon’s intelligent, welcoming design might just make it the game that captures the interests of a growing crowd of players who are curious but intimidated by the genre.