[Editor’s Note: The following preview assumes some knowledge with the MOBA genre. If you’re totally new and want to learn more, why not check out IGN’s great Wiki for Dota 2 and League of Legends.]
Strife'€™s design foundation is not that far from soccer.
More than anything else, the word I heard used to describe S2 Games’ new MOBA Strife was “accessibility.” However, since accessibility is often perceived as a negative, S2 Games’ CEO Marc DeForest was quick to point out how Strife’s design foundation is not that far from soccer. Soccer requires one ball and is probably the easiest sport to start to try and play (contributing to the fact that it’s so wildly popular), but player skill varies wildly, from children bumbling around on a street corner to the pros who represent their nations in the World Cup. Like soccer, Strife aims to be easier than its competition to get into, but also have a metagame and competitive level of play that will satisfy the hardest of the hardcore.
So how exactly do you make a MOBA, one of the most intimidating genres of games, accessible? For S2 Games this meant taking a look at their own titles and the competition, and deciding which features supported intuitive, non-toxic gameplay, and which were unnecessary holdovers in their attempt to stay true to the original DotA.
In practice this means cutting out mechanics such as denials (where players kill their own minions to “deny” the team gold), as well as changing how last hits work. Last hits now count for any team member in your lane no matter who got the final hit, hopefully alleviating the constant bickering between players for “stealing kills.” This change to last hits is also intended to make it so each person feels like they have a reason to stay engaged in combat, something S2 takes issue with in other MOBAs.
That idea of keeping you engaged in combat also influences many other changes that Strife brings to the genre. Like Dota 2, Strife has couriers to carry your items in combat. Where Strife diverts from Valve’s game is that every person has their own unkillable courier. The courier in Strife is intended to be a visual indicator to the enemy that you’ve received an item, and to prevent you from having to constantly return to base to shop. It’s convenient, resulting in faster item progression for everyone and no bickering over who gets the courier next.
The out-of-combat health and mana regen of Strife also help matches progress at a faster pace than the competition.
Likewise the out-of-combat health and mana regen of Strife also help matches progress at a faster pace than the competition. In Dota 2 or League of Legends it’s common to return to base in order to rapidly regenerate. You can do this in Strife as well, but you also can passively regen health and mana by simply staying out of combat for a few seconds. The enemy can see this visually, creating a dynamic where they attempt to interrupt your regen. More importantly, though, it just reinforces the idea that you’re meant to stay in the fight, contributing to matches that last somewhere around 30 minutes, as opposed to the 45-minute or hour-long matches of Dota 2 or League of Legends.
When it comes to item building, arguably one of the most intimidating systems in MOBAs, Strife simplifies the process. For instance, no completed item in Strife acts as component in another item’s recipe. Furthermore, you don’t have to make decisions about whether you want to build certain types of damage, you just build one stat called Power and it translates into your character’s type of damage (Magic or Attack). You can still build items to counter another player’s attack type, but fewer items exist overall since they can all be used to boost your specific type of damage.
Where item builds get into the sort of minutiae more experienced players will like is in Strife’s new take on customization. Between games you can spend in-game or actual currency to create augmented recipes of items. For instance, you could take the most basic bracer of the game and augment it so it gives additional power, health, or mana. Doing so proportionally increases the cost to build it in the game, but also allows you to tailor various items to your playstyle. If you want to be a carry, then you might go all power augments for your items; a tank might choose health augments. Items have limits on what additions can be put in on them, too, insuring that low-level items won’t necessarily be amazing into the late game.
Strife also introduces additional complexity via its pet system, but does so with accessibility in mind.
Strife also introduces additional complexity via its pet system, but does so with accessibility in mind. Like League of Legends’ Summoner Spells, Strife gives players additional, account-wide powers that they can periodically cast in battle. However, while you have to click on an enemy or open a menu to see what Summoner Spells they brought in League, in Strife you can simply look at their pet. Each pet gives one additional spell, and this spell is always tied to the avatar. So as soon as I see an enemy player with a turtle, I know that they have additional defensive spell options, while a player with the cat-like pet are likely going to play aggressively.
The changes, or rather abolishment, of strict player roles also makes Strife easier to jump into. If you’ve never played a MOBA and jump into League or Dota 2, you might not understand why certain characters are told to go into specific lanes, or why someone is telling you that you’re a “jungler.” In Strife every character can and should get player kills, most of them have abilities that can support teammates, and you won’t find a single item or character tailored to be in the jungle. The primary focus of Strife is to keep combat in the lanes, keep everyone in the fight, and prevent arguing over who on the team isn’t playing their character “right.”
This focus on keeping all players viable for lane engagements, as well as attempting to make no player feel like they have to do something also influenced the decision to get rid of Wards entirely. Instead of Wards, players get additional vision by controlling Observatories placed in key locations on the map. Taking them like a control point, the team gets temporary sight over key places, allowing them to line up ganks or figure out if it’s safe to take on hero creeps. Vision has always been a problem for newer players to wrap their heads around, and with the deemphasis of roles in Strife this feels like a natural, and welcome, fit.
Strife'€™s boss comes in the form of an angelic being who, once killed, unleashes a giant ape named Krytos into a lane of your team'€™s choosing.
If you’re going to be focusing on fighting in your lane and staying in combat, the designers of Strife felt they had to redo the way Boss creeps are handled, too. Instead of one uber boss that you fight in order to simply get an item or buff that may or may not influence how a fight carries out, the team wanted a mechanic that forced a fight, pushed the game’s progress forward, and prevented a team from turtling in their base in order to farm for a long-winded rally. To this end Strife’s boss comes in the form of an angelic being who, once killed, unleashes a giant ape named Krytos into a lane of your team’s choosing. Once he’s on the field, Krytos marches forward, destroying enemy towers in a fury until the enemy team kills him or he kills himself (he strikes so hard he hurts himself is the lore, but in practice it just keeps him from winning the game for you).
But before you jump headlong into the multiplayer, which even with its more accessible featureset is still intimidating for a new user, you could always cut your teeth on its single-player content. Yeah, really, you read that right, Strife is the first MOBA that will feature regularly released single-player campaign levels. The first only takes about a half-hour to complete, but does a good job at introducing basic mechanics and providing the foundation for Strife’s lore. More content is slated to roll out regularly, though the schedule has yet to be defined.
If you end up loving Strife, S2 wants you to be able to share that love via streaming, and the game’s integrated Twitch makes it easier than the competition. No need to download additional software, just jump into the game, login to Twitch, and then start your stream. With League and Dota 2 being the top two most-streamed games on the service, it’s very forward-thinking of S2 Games to make the process as painless as possible for users.
If you’ve played other MOBAs and hated the toxic community, lamented about how hard it was to learn the characters or systems, or just wanted to dive in and not worry about what role you should play, then give Strife a try. I don’t think it’ll act as a replacement for Dota 2 or League of Legends, but it differentiates itself enough to stand out, and is a good reminder that accessibility shouldn’t be used derogatorily.
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