14 DAY TRIAL // Strife is an upcoming free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena from S2Games that is currently in closed beta testing and that will be deployed on PC, Mac and Linux sometime in the near future.
The MOBA genre is going to get increasingly crowded, as Dota and League of Legends have shown the world that even free to play games can rake in astounding amounts of cash, provided of course you have a quality game and nurture a competitive community around it, none of which is an easy feat.
The game looks even more cartoonish than League of Legends, something I thought impossible until poking my nose into Strife's closed beta. At first glance, the game looks pretty solid, offering the standard quality MOBA experience (S2Games' previous MOBA, Heroes of Newerth, certainly helped in this aspect) with a few improvements specific to Strife.
All the game's heroes are available from the get-go, and you don't have to farm your way to fame like in other such titles. You can craft your own items and there are some cute pets that offer various bonuses and can be leveled up, and that's pretty much it, as far as what's new is concerned.
The game starts off with a nice tutorial explaining the basics, so newcomers need not feel afraid – at least until they have to hold their own inside the arena. Strife presents the same time-tested lane-based symmetrical maps where you have to take down several turrets before being able to finally assault the main building in the base.
[YOTUBE=http://youtu.be/vNnoOWhn2u8]
There are also neutral creeps that offer various bonuses, they are much more approachable and there is no more uber elite that the whole team has to come down on, but instead two lesser bosses, one that gives gold and xp and another sturdier one which rewards the team that kills it with a powerful siege creep to help them push a lane of their choice.
There are also some lookout towers that allow extended vision while jungling or scouting for when you want to catch your opponents off guard or want to steal the jungle creeps that they worked so hard for.
Over the course of the games I played, the heroes seemed pretty well balanced and they all seem to have some strong points and weaknesses, offering different gameplay experiences and feeling overall like the roster of a full-fledged game ready to take off.
Their abilities are pretty well designed, with plenty of areas of effect spells, slows, snares and other such crowd control possibilities, as well as ones that increase mobility, such as dashes or grappling hooks, or character-specific like increased attack speed or bonus damage on every third shot.
It certainly feels like the game is well designed with a strong direction for every character that you can pretty much guess at a glance, by going through each one's abilities. Players can also choose a companion with extra spells and effects such as a small amount of damage reflected to attackers on every hit or a temporary mana regen boost and many others.
I noticed a very interesting notion at play here. When a player delivers a last hit on a creep, the money is divided equally between all allies in a certain range, as opposed to only the player getting the kill also getting all the bounty. This allows everyone to get the same amount of money and doesn't permit the kind of plays ADCs and support players focus on in League of Legends, for instance, where the supporting player lets the carry also farm his share of the creeps.
Another interesting thing about Strife is the fact that you can create your own items from the basic ones found in the shop, allowing you to create unique items that fit your custom play style or strategy that you can then buy while playing multiplayer matches.
The system is completely balanced, of course, and simply allows for greater flexibility and more tuned builds, should the existing items turn out not to be to your satisfaction. Note though that creating items takes a certain amount of a resource you gain after playing matches.
You can also level up your pet to give it more abilities and even unlock new pets using food, another resource you can either buy or patiently accumulate by playing Strife. There is even the option to imbue your customized items with various enchantments.
Overall, the game plays very good and feels very solid, it has good visual effects and the characters feel very well in combat, and working together with your team seems as good and balanced as in any solid MOBA out there.
Strife is also pretty action oriented, as the laning phase doesn't last too long and doesn't require tedious micromanagement of last hits split with your partner or denies on your own creeps, and soon you'll find yourself roaming across the jungle looking for fresh meat and starting team engagements.
