Category Archives: MOBA

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Review: Battlesouls

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Battlesouls: New Moba ideas
by Dark_Laharl
 I didn’t know what to expect when I first heard about Battlesouls.  I knew it was a MOBA but had no idea how it played. I decided to try the beta and was less than impressed; but I also wasn’t disappointed.
Gameplay/Controls
The controls are standard; walk with the W, A, S, and D keys on your keyboard and activate your abilities with a mouse click.  You can also switch your characters with 1, 2, and 3 number keys; no complaints here.
The gameplay is where my gripes start.  It takes too long for what it is. The game I played has an inhibitor to be captured before you attack the enemy crystals but the crystals have too much health.  If your team is not attacking it takes forever to destroy one crystal. While you are attacking, the enemy can easily capture the inhibitor and stop your attack.  The re-spawn time seems to get higher (at least, it feels like does) each time making it more difficult to go back and help complete the mission.  The entire match just feels long and tedious.
Battlesouls does bring something I have not seen to the MOBA genre: the ability to choose 3 heroes at once that you can switch on the fly.  You can start as a melee character, then switch over to a ranged, then a magic user. Every hero has a unique passive ability when you first switch to them and they also have two active-able abilities.  The game has a 3rd person style so the melee characters feel awkward to play as they slash in front of them. Aiming the melee also feels odd, but that is nothing new since I feel like all 3rd person games have weird melee mechanics.

Graphics
The graphics of Battlesouls reminds me of Team Fortress 2.  It’s cartoony and minimalistic which isn’t a bad thing; it sets the game apart from other games in the MOBA genre.

Verdict
Battlesouls is not a horrible game; it’s just not my cup of tea. I can see it improving but it depends on the direction the developers take it.  The game is free to play with in-app purchases.  I didn’t venture too much about finding out what they sell but I know I wouldn’t bother buying it, especially if it is the heroes or skins.  Don’t dismiss it until you try it, but personally, I will play other games for now.
Dreamhack, DreamHack 2016, ESports, Heroes of the Storm, MOBA

Dreamhack: Heroes of the Storm expert mode

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Dreamhack: Heroes of the Storm expert mode
By Dark_Laharl


Team work is the true winner

As a fan of Heroes of the storm, it never ceases to amaze me how much different a sponsored team can play compared to a casual player like myself. I had the pleasure of watching quite a few games played by expert players at DreamHack Austin 2016 and it has given me ideas about how to change my play style as a solo player.

The fact that the teams that play as a team is the foundation of going pro; you and your team have a common goal and strategy. When I play as a solo player I have the same goal as the rest of the team but we don’t have the same cohesion. Everyone tends to do whatever they want to do and only help when they are playing an assassin hero. The expert teams stay as a team from start to finish, if anyone is caught out of place it isn’t because they were alone, its because a play went wrong.

Whether it be Heroes of the Storm or another MOBA the reasons expert teams are better than solo players is because of team work. Us solo players have to raise our skill level much higher compared to a team to try and compensate for a lower skill player we may end up with. But really, it doesn’t matter if you’re solo or a team player, there are still losses to face and championships to win.