Instincts, virtual adrenaline, and the blood rush are the daily dopamine hits for a gamer.
Gaming is an ocean of opportunity for some, while for others is a way of escape. Strategy gaming is one such genre that offers the players control, decision-making, and uninfluenced gaming experience in various sub-genres.
Real-Time Strategy (RTS), Turn-Based Strategy (TBS), Real-Time Tactics (RTT), and Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) are a few of those sub-genres that provide games like Age of Empires franchise, Civilisation franchise, The Close Combat series and League of Legends respectively.
League of Legends (LoL) belongs to the sub-genre called Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA). Single-player controls a character playing in a team against another group of players. This genre promotes teamwork, instinct, and group participation from different places in the world. Some of the other top 5 MOBA games like League of Legends are listed below.
HEROES OF THE STORM (HoTS)
- Initial release date: 2 June 2015
- Mode(s): Multiplayer
- Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS
This 5v5 multiplayer game creates an experiential heroic portrayal of each player’s unique trait of strength and weakness. Initially, the role cannot be chosen but is allotted; as the game progresses, the players get to unlock the heroes from a palette of 89 traits.
‘Gold’ is the in-game currency used for micro-transactions within the game. This can be used to purchase the heroic characters on further levels. The game’s ultimate objective is to destroy the structure of the enemies called ‘The King’s Core,’ which is defended by forts and keeps.
Experience points can be gained by destroying the enemy forts or killing the enemy’s’ minions’ which is naturally shared.
- Different modes like training ranked, and unranked were also offered for practice. This game is critically acclaimed and is still one of the most vibrant MOBA games available.
- The match’s target time is much shorter, and the team play is balanced by giving equal significance to all the players making it acceptable among the pros and the newbies. Among MOBA players, HoTS is a definite success.
- Due to its high reception and recognition, this game was nominated for the “Choice Video Game” category in the Teen Choice Awards 2017.
- GameSpot rated the game 9/10 and stated, “A fantastic casual-competitive game that offers untold hours of enjoyment.” Blizzard Entertainment preferred to refer to it as a ‘hero-brawler’ rather than MOBA or action-based strategy.
DEFENSE OF THE ANCIENTS 2 (DOTA 2)
- Initial release date: 9 July 2013
- Mode(s): Multiplayer
- Developer: Valve Corporation
- Designer: IceFrog
- Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, Linux
By gameplay, the DOTA franchise resembles HoTS in many ways except for the player-to-player combat feature. Involving 5v5 players, the main objective is to destroy the opponent’s Ancients’. The players can take up any one of the two roles: core and support. While the core players lead the team to victory from an initially vulnerable position, support players offer protection and guidance to the base from the beginning.
Dota 2 also presents a limited-time game mode available at particular seasons that do not follow all the game’s standard rules. The prequel of the game DOTA was a community-created game that was later extended. To promote DOTA, Valve Corporation invited an esports team, and small-scale tournaments were conducted called Dota Major Championship.
This is considered one of the universally acclaimed games based on which goodies like figurines and accessories were released and also bagged IGN’s People Choice award. Critics highly complimented the design, user interface, and graphics.
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SMITE
- Initial release date: 25 March 2014
- Mode(s): Multiplayer
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows
- Developers: Hi-Rez Studios, Titan Forge Games
Smite is considered one of the unique games of the MOBA genre as it allows the player to control the character of a god or goddess or mythical being. Each character is classified as one of the following classes: Assassin, Guardian, Hunter, Mage, or Warrior. The player controls his character from a third-person perspective, which is a unique feature of this MOBA.
The in-game currency can earn additional powers for the characters that the player wins in each combat. While the Gods and Goddesses belong to different cultures and religions worldwide, many of them protested against the representation of their Gods.
But Smite also offered platforms for beginners to practice the game for free, creating an opportunity to level up with the pro players as early as possible. After the players succeeded in the online platform, offline matches were conducted, and players were shortlisted for the Smite World Championship and had a successful esports association.
BATTLERITE
- Initial release date: 20 September 2016
- Mode(s): Multiplayer
- Platforms: Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
- Developer: Stunlock Studios
Battlerite is a combination of two sub-genres of strategy games: MOBA and Team Brawler. While traditional MOBA games require a team to destroy the other team’s establishment, Battlerite consists of action-based championship combats. It allows a maximum of 3v3 with unique defensive qualities, combating to defeat all the opponent team players in three rounds. A time of two minutes is provided for each game.
This game does not involve any in-game currency for resources as champions are provided with abilities according to their victories. This game is purely based on an action-based strategy that offers excitement and thrill. The prequel of this game’ Bloodline Champions’ received much appreciation.
The drawback of Battlerite is the failure to attract a mass gaming crowd due to its simplicity, but for a unique action-based MOBA, it was highly applauded. IGN rewarded a score of 8.2/10 and also stated, “Battlerite strikes true where it counts, and that’s in the arena. The team fighting hits hard at the core of what makes competitive gaming so engaging hour after hour.”
ARENA OF VALOR
- Initial release date: 14 October 2016
- Mode(s): Multiplayer
- Developers: Garena, Timi Studios, Tencent Games, Proxima Beta Pte. Ltd.
- Platforms: iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch
Arena of Valor is one of the most downloaded MOBAs on Android. With a high resemblance to League of Legends and Clash of Clans – to which you can gain access with the help of this article – AoV offers multiple modes with three main modes. Destroying the enemy’s towers and heading to the other end of the map to strike victory is the game’s objective.
With a maximum of 5v5 players, there are about 101 heroic characters in this game with a different skill set that can be purchased with the in-game currency.
- The opponent can cause physical damage, magical damage, or a combination of both. They can all be resisted with the help of the abilities and accessories like armor, gained from the previous matches, and the support of a magic system.
- All of the heroes come under any one of the six types: Assassin, marksman, mage, tank, warrior, and support. The game is an international adaptation of the Chinese game Honor of Kings, with the replacement of Chinese characters with European and DC heroes.
- This third-person shooter game received much regard when incorporated with foreign characters instead of Chinese and gained profitable success in the world’s market. This led to the association of AoV with the Asian Games 2018 and esports.
- Two annual championships were held called the Arena of Valor World Championship. Apart from the praise for its design, user interface, and easy accessibility, the game’s background score was nominated for many awards.
Apart from the mentioned MOBA strategic games, there are widely accepted Android games with millions of daily users. Mobile legend- Bang Bang is one of the mobile MOBA games with the maximum download, especially in South Asian countries, with about 8 million daily users.
Vainglory is another MOBA game that won awards initially. The gaming world’s evolution from single-player to multiplayer online games through MOBA strategic gaming is quite remarkable. Thus, it has created a worldwide shared platform for gamers, promoting team spirit and some sportive competition.
