My brother Austen and I are hooked on MOBA games. You might know them as “DotA games” or “Action RTS games,” but it’s equally likely that you haven’t heard about them at all. At the very least, you probably have no idea how fast these Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (see, MOBA) games are growing and evolving. Trust me: these indie free-to-play MOBA games are definitely the next big thing.
Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is a Warcraft III mod that kick-started the movement, and most of its original structure remains in place, in most current MOBA games:
- Five players battle against five other players in the middle of a large map to defend their respective bases, which are located on opposite corners of the arena.
- Players select from a stable of powerful heroes, champions, gods, etc., starting the game at level one, and leveling their skills to a cap by killing each other, as well as waves of A.I. minions.
- There are three lanes (pathways where minions continually march towards each other) and a jungle (an area between lanes where A.I. monsters or creeps spawn and can be killed for gold, experience, and stat-boosting buffs).
- Players fight to push deeper and deeper into their enemy’s side of the map. First, to kill a few A.I. defense towers, and then ultimately, to destroy the opponent’s heavily-defended base and claim victory.
- Players can buy a range of items at a store to increase their defense, damage output, health, etc.
With each match lasting roughly 20 to 45 minutes, it’s easy to pop in and enjoy a game or two without the huge time investment most MMOs take to get one character to max level. It’s also nice to not worry about playing a single role in combat because you’ve leveled up one type of character with one kind of gear. Instead, you can simply pick a different champion/hero each time, and thus switch between support, carry, tank, assassin, and so forth every game.
Innovations in MOBA gameplay are becoming more frequent and fun. There’s an outstanding third-/first-person shooter MOBA called Super Monday Night Combat and a smaller arena-style game called Bloodline Champions where players don’t level up at all. Even within traditional MOBA games that have been around for years, developers have brought out new maps and modes recently, like the Dominion map for League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth‘s Mid Wars.
Super Monday Night Combat believes in diversity.
In fact, there’s so much good content coming out lately that we’ve decided to bring you the most complete, comprehensive review of every single MOBA game available online, all in one place.
Without further ado, here are the MOBA reviews coming your way:
- League of Legends
- Heroes of Newerth
- Super Monday Night Combat
- Smite
- DOTA 2
- Bloodline Champions
- Avalon Heroes
- Awesomenauts
- Lands of Chaos Online Evolution
- Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes
- Blizzard All-Stars
- Realm of the Titans
- Guardians of Middle-Earth
Did we leave your favorite off the list? Throw it in the comments and we’ll check it out! Meanwhile, keep coming back as we post reviews of the best and not so great MOBA games out there.
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