It’s no small secret that I love Dota, and MOBAs in general. I have over 1,500 hours clocked in League of Legend, almost a thousand in Heroes of Newerth, and over 2,000 total in Dota 2. What makes these games so invariably attractive is that they’re static. The map never changes, and knowing the inner machinations thereof is a big step; you also need to learn the hundred-something different heroes and how to counter them effectively from minute one. It’s safe to say that Dota and its ilk possess perhaps the highest learning curve in videogames.
Well, that’s appropriately hilarious for a MOBA.
Psycho Interactive claims to want to change that with Voxelfield: DESTROY EVERYTHING!, a new MOBA on Kickstarter which promises fully destructible environments and a level of personal customization that is unprecedented in the genre. They aim to change the game with AI pathing that reacts to changes in geography (in most genres, this would be a given; again, in MOBAs nearly everything is static), fully customizable mercenaries and mechs, and emphasis on tactical position-based combat.
Most games of this genre which try to break from tradition end up falling on their face — Infinite Crisis is not a very good game, as it turns out — but a few have succeeded (SMITE is a good example). I don’t know whether Voxelfield will succeed where so many others have failed, but I really hope it does.
Because I love mechs.
