If you've never heard of Gigantic, I wouldn't be entirely surprised. It's from a relatively small studio of seasoned developers and it's their first game. Motiga who make Gigantic don't yet have tens thousands of followers on Twitter and the sub-Reddit is a  relatively small community. What the size of its user base doesn't reflect, at this moment, is the sheer potential for this game to change the MOBA and MMO landscape forever.

Before PAX East I'd only ever heard Gigantic mentioned by a few people in passing conversations. I'd never seen it and knew nothing about the game. When my Editor, Reuben, published his recent content, Gigantic went from my "Don't Care" list to the "Holy Shit, I need this in my life!".

As a hardened MMO player who has a love for SMITE, MOBAs from a top-down viewpoint have never floated my boat. I love the concept and game mode but the clickyness of movement and combat made the game feel more like a fast paced RTS than an aggressive team game.

In contrast, SMITE offers the team game and movement I have been looking for but it lacks any verticality. The entire game is played across the X axis, right down to players having the inability to aim anywhere but straight ahead. That's a problem for me as when you're a PvP enthusiast and have experience the movement on offer in games like WildStar or Guild Wars 2, it feels odd to play a game without the ability to traverse the map away from predefined heights and paths.

Gigantic intends to change all that and has chosen to blend a variety of games. Not only is it artistically wonderful and entirely original, but it plays at the speed of any recent crop of modern MMOG’s, but with the framework of a refined MOBA and the require aim of a first person shooter. On top of that, there’s a smattering of Player versus Enemy and Arena thrown in for good measure. It sounds insane but having followed the game closely at PAX South, it’s shaping up to be something quite special.

If you haven’t already seen and subscribed, there’s a brand new sub-Reddit. Like the game, it looks lovely and although the community isn’t huge I really recommend you head on over and join in the discussions. There’s loads of links to guides and videos of the game.

So why does Gigantic appeal to me so much? There’s a couple of reasons. Besides the awesome art direction, it boils down to the fact that Gigantic slots into its own niche between MOBA’s and MMO’s. In massively multiplayer games the modes of PvP are relatively stale and I don’t think come close to what MOBA’s offer. In contrast, MOBA’s lack the combat and movement control systems that make massively multiplayer games and their combat so fun. By blurring the lines between both genres and doing away with itemisation, Gigantic is standing out from the crowd.

I’ve never been an individual who loves tab-targetting and that’s probably why I enjoyed WildStar’s action-packed fighting so much: sadly I found the game modes in WildStar slightly repetitious. I suppose the reason why is that at the heart of MMO’s, developers are dealing with a huge amount of variables that affect the PvP to such a degree that they never quite feel as competitive as they should be. Even Guild Wars 2 which offers level attributes still deals with a constant battle of having to delicately balance skills, because of the possible effect it will have on PvE and WvW. It’s simply too much to deal with. By removing itemisation and sticking to a limited action set, Motiga have a fighting chance at balancing the existing Heroes. All they then have to contend with are the skills on offer for each Hero (a big enough task) and the in-game tiering of those skills. It has to be a damn sight easier.

Other than the prospect of a well balanced game that requires players to genuinely aim, it’s the blend of the MOBA game mode that’s so exciting. Although I love creeps, they’re inevitably a rather dull aspect of the genre because although they’re fundamental to your progression, they’re also pretty pointless - they pose little threat, do little to aid your team and the repetition of constantly having to farm them becomes dull. With Motiga having removed creeps from Gigantic and replaced them with a variety of creatures that control the Battlefield, there’s still an additional component to play besides killing each other.

With it being free to play it’s going to achieve a significant player base from day one because it appeals directly to two types of gamers as opposed to one or the other. As to whether it’ll have longevity and draw enough players from DOTA 2 or League Of Legends, that’s another matter but from the videos I’ve seen so far I’ve a good feeling that it will. If nothing else, there’s every chance it’ll steal a large chunk of SMITE’s fans.

Have you played Gigantic at PAX South? What did you think? Do you think it could be the next big multiplayer title? Let me know!


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Gigantic Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Lewis is a long standing journalist, who freelances to a variety of outlets.

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