This week we’ve been chatting up developer Lucid Games’ Switchblade, which is a unique twist on the seemingly set-in-stone MOBA genre. Unlike more conventional games like Dota 2 and League of Legends, Switchblade offers mobility and battle cars in its action-packed gameplay. If this has piqued your interest, check out the what a match looks like in the gameplay video below:
So, starting from the beginning, let me give you a quick play-by-play. The splash screen opens to character selection between two opposing teams of five, the Lions and the Sharks. You may notice that we have seven AI players in the mix and — while there is definitely a lack of an audience atm — I recorded this footage at 3 AM on a Tuesday. In other words, you can generally expect a more full roster of players than this.
In the vehicle select screen, everyone gets to choose two vehicles — this is a means of healing and offering variety, as with 10 vehicles on any given team you can be sure there will be a healer.
After jumping into the arena, the task is simple: destroy the opposing team’s four towers before they can do it to you… or the clock runs out. The strategy, like in all MOBA games, are to kill mobs and take shots and the other players, helping your minions cross safely into enemy territory and chipping away at the defenses of the towers. Along the way, we have three unlockable abilities (on each car) that you can allocate points to as you level up. These will all vary by vehicles — some are more aggressive in launching missiles at the enemies, while the support units can create turret-wielding weather balloons or AOE healing.
New abilities are frequently being added to the roster — in fact, a new one was revealed this week by developer Lucid Games:
Who's excited for a first look at the Sundog later today?
Join us at 3pm GMT on our Twitch channel for the preview!https://t.co/Xxjwt0oc2f pic.twitter.com/qBKcMIR17h
— Switchblade (@Switchbladegame) March 6, 2019
My performance is rough around the edges, with only a handful of kills in the eight minutes of gameplay. With that said, the ending is definitely climactic, as a cache of enemies wipe me out just as we clear the last tower (and a trophy pops).
Switchblade is a pretty climactic MOBA that is in need of an audience. We did a quick preview earlier this week, saying that the free-to-play game is worth booting up if you have a PC or PS4.
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