Epic Games' action-centric MOBA Paragon muscles in on League of Legends
Oh...oh wait, I mixed that up. They’re making a MOBA. It’s Paragon, which you might remember from its series of camera-spins-around-a-3D-model teasers this past month. Here’s the (decidedly more substantial and also extremely pretty) announcement trailer:
And the (also extremely pretty) gameplay trailer:
Unreal 4 sure is a marvel.
Graphics aside, Paragon’s apparently a third-person shooter/MOBA hybrid, though in my interview over the weekend Epic mostly stressed the MOBA aspect. Expect the usual five-versus-five hero combat on a three-lane map, populated with AI-controlled fodder. Also, verticality—the three lanes are apparently tiered, allowing for cross-lane sight lines, skill shots, and strategies. Or as the Paragon site puts it:
I’m definitely more interested in this action-oriented strain of MOBAs than I am in something like League of Legends or Dota 2, but I can’t pretend Paragon is wholly unique even in that regard—Smite and Monday Night Combat both did the third-person action-MOBA thing already, and 2K’s Battleborn is doing the same in first-person.
Still, I’m not willing to write off Paragon without playing it, given Epic’s earned a reputation for quality shooters—and Smite could use the competition. Paragon is scheduled to hit paid early access in spring of 2016 through Epic’s launcher, with a free open beta to follow in the summer. You can sign up here. As for whether it’s coming to Steam, Epic gave me a noncommittal “I don’t think we’re ready to talk about that right now.”