Pagan Online's MOBA-inspired action RPG combat in action
Hack, slash and maybe think a little, too
We've got our fist look at Pagan Online in action, Wargaming and Mad Head Games's MOBA-inspired action RPG. Far from the over-the-top heavy metal fantasy excess of its debut trailer, I feel that Pagan Online looks rather restrained compared to Diablo 3, and definitely less wild than Path Of Exile's massive monster-swarms. Mad Head Games also talk of players building up a stable of unique characters (another MOBA-like element), instead of spending ages tweaking character builds on a single hero. Take a peek at a bit of hacking, slashing and avoiding AoE markers below.
What stands out to me about the new footage is the focused scale of it. While maybe it'll throw larger swarms at the player in co-op, most fights shown are against a small handful of slightly beefier foes, or a dozen or so more expendable 'popcorn' sorts that still take a couple good hits to kill. Mad Head's talk of tough, tactical encounters might just bear fruit, as each character seems to have a well-defined bag of tricks and the big boss critters shown seemed to have a few of their own. It's definitely a step away from action RPG standards. Much as I love Path Of Exile, I applaud anyone trying something new.
Not that there won't be loot. Mad Head say there's plenty of character customisation through skill buffs and boosts conferred by items, but the core of a character isn't going to completely change. Given that Pagan Online is most likely going to be free-to-play (given Wargaming's stable of online games), I'm hoping that there won't be too hellish a grind to unlock new characters, if that's the way they're going with it. If it's trying to bridge the gap between ARPG and MOBA, then it's going to have to take the fight to both Dota 2 and Path of Exile, and neither of them are stingy.
There's no release date for Pagan Online yet, but they'll be letting some folks in for testing in the new year. The official page (now fully launched) is here, and you can sign up here.