Here’s what you need to know about Vainglory, the MOBA showcased at Apple’s iPhone event
At last night’s new iPhone reveal, Apple showed off Vainglory, a brand new MOBA for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. After years of seeing yet another new Infinity Blade game at each of Apple’s events, this was a welcome change of pace. Here’s all you need to know about Vainglory.
It’s hardcore (or so we’re told)
Vainglory is pitched as an “an unapologetically core MOBA”. That’s no surprise given that the development team sports talent from Blizzard Entertainment and Riot Games. Matches will last around 20 minutes, though, and there are only three players to a team. There’s a single lane, a jungle and two teams on opposite sides of the map. Each team has a structure known as a vain crystal, and the objective is to destroy your opponent’s in order to win.
The common strategy that players are using in its testing phase, according to developer Super Evil Megacorp, is having a ranged carry in the lane with two other teammates in the jungle. Laning, ganking, and team-fighting all have their place here, along with a jungle shop in the middle of the map for those who like taking risks.
(See: Strife has a plan to beat LoL and Dota 2—and it might just work)
It has some interesting ideas
There are no wards. In their place are scout traps. These are bombs that give a field of vision. When enemy players step on it, it explodes as well, exposing their location for seven seconds.
15 minutes into a match, replacing the gold mine in the middle of the map, from which you were able to harvest resources, is a raging kraken. Defeat it, and it blasts through the lane, destroying enemy turrets.
It’s a neat end-game mechanic that in theory, gives losing teams a potential comeback —or can be the decider in very even matches. Either way, the feature is sure to encourage quick finishes.
No clunky controls
The controls in Vainglory seem rather intuitive. Traditional MOBAs on PCs are notorious for their many hotkeys and unintuitive interfaces. This is fine simply because of the keyboard and screen space most desktops and laptops offer. But older mobile MOBAs like Heroes of Order & Chaos sport way too many menus and icons to be easy to use. Vainglory has a slick interface that should make it easy to play on mobile devices.
Hold on to your old iPad
Surprisingly, Vainglory is coming to older Apple tablets, specifically from the iPad 2 onwards. It’s a welcome move given that most iOS devices, especially newer ones, are prohibitively expensive in most Asian markets such as the Philippines and India. While there’s no news of an Android version anytime soon, don’t hold your breath. It’s highly unlikely given that games Apple showcased at past events such as Infinity Blade and Rage have remained exclusive to iOS.
(See: Asian gamers rejoice, there’s finally a good MOBA for iPad)
More questions than answers?
The game brings a few interesting ideas to the genre, and hopes to properly bring the genre itself to platform for the first time. However, the ideas themselves are hardly new. How Vainglory plans to monetize is also unknown at the moment, especially since the developer has claimed there won’t be any timers or limited games-per-day mechanics other free-to-play games use that might interfere with your gaming. Right now Vainglory is being tested in several South Asian markets and will release officially this October.
Could this be your portable MOBA fix or do you believe MOBAs should stick to a keyboard and mouse? Let us know in the comments.
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The post Here’s what you need to know about Vainglory, the MOBA showcased at Apple’s iPhone event appeared first on Games in Asia.
The post Here’s what you need to know about Vainglory, the MOBA showcased at Apple’s iPhone event appeared first on Games in Asia.
