Starvoid's simple, fast, multiplayer-oriented MOBA-RTS hybrid gameplay has the potential to fill an underserved niche. It's possible that Starvoid is a kinder, gentler answer to the intimidating complexity of Dota 2 and its ilk. There's just one small problem: almost nobody is actually playing it. For a multiplayer-only game with no bots, that means whatever possibilities might've existed go up in smoke. It's like a new dance club with a theoretically fabulous floor plan but nobody to dance with.
Starvoid, the multiplayer real-time strategy game from Zeal and Paradox, promised a cure for my situation. It featured short, fast-paced battles, very little faffing unless you wanted to, and a vast array of upgrades and class builds for those looking to really get stuck in.
On the surface it looks a bit like a mash-up of StarCraft II, Dawn of War 2, and League of Legends, though the inevitable comparisons to the latter are superficial at best. Given its peers -- or rather, the competition -- it may not be the easiest sell, yet it has a lot to offer.
The problem with being a wee bit lazy is that tasks mount up like an ever-increasing pile of responsibility; the result is that I frequently find myself rather busy. The long-term investment required to get the most out of the majority of multiplayer strategy affairs means that I often find myself unable to get into the more competitive side of one of my favorite genres.
Starvoid is a game of outright conflict. There's no base building, resource gathering, diplomacy, or research in the dust-covered, industrial battlefields where the title's colorful classes clash. I like building a big base and covering it in turrets as much as the next man (if he's an engineer), but sometimes I just want to rush into battle and cause a bit of havoc, and that's what every match in Starvoid is like.
In lieu of a base, players control a commander -- a tough, versatile unit which can spawn robotic allies and utilize special abilities. Commanders come in a variety of flavors: assault, engineer, infiltration, and ordnance, and while all of the classes are familiar, they can be upgraded in a way that changes their function entirely. The assault class is a close-range combat unit; the engineer likes his buffs and heals; the infiltration commander is a stealth assassin, hunting foes from far away and vanishing in the blink of an eye; and the ordnance class is built around using heavy artillery and bombarding foes from safety.
My preference was the assault commander, and for most of my matches I played him like a tank, running up to my foes and smashing them with my oversized hammer. Yet a trip to the armory to rebuild him left me with a very different unit -- one with a solution to a major issue I was having. You see, whenever enemies would see me running at them yelling like a maniac, they fled, and rightly so.
Usually their goal was to reach their spawn area, their base I suppose, where permanent cannons would destroy me in seconds. With my rebuilt commander, this problem became a boon, as I was now using a sword which did extra damage from behind. So these fleeing foes would be bringing about their demise all the more quickly.
Starvoid is a game of outright conflict. There's no base building, resource gathering, diplomacy, or research in the dust-covered, industrial battlefields where the title's colorful classes clash. I like building a big base and covering it in turrets as much as the next man (if he's an engineer), but sometimes I just want to rush into battle and cause a bit of havoc, and that's what every match in Starvoid is like.
In lieu of a base, players control a commander -- a tough, versatile unit which can spawn robotic allies and utilize special abilities. Commanders come in a variety of flavors: assault, engineer, infiltration, and ordnance, and while all of the classes are familiar, they can be upgraded in a way that changes their function entirely. The assault class is a close-range combat unit; the engineer likes his buffs and heals; the infiltration commander is a stealth assassin, hunting foes from far away and vanishing in the blink of an eye; and the ordnance class is built around using heavy artillery and bombarding foes from safety.
My preference was the assault commander, and for most of my matches I played him like a tank, running up to my foes and smashing them with my oversized hammer. Yet a trip to the armory to rebuild him left me with a very different unit -- one with a solution to a major issue I was having. You see, whenever enemies would see me running at them yelling like a maniac, they fled, and rightly so.
Usually their goal was to reach their spawn area, their base I suppose, where permanent cannons would destroy me in seconds. With my rebuilt commander, this problem became a boon, as I was now using a sword which did extra damage from behind. So these fleeing foes would be bringing about their demise all the more quickly.
