Teams, turns, and tactics
If you take everything that makes XCOM great and mix it with aspects of League of Legends, then add other features that have propelled the multiplayer online battle arena genre to fame, the result is a game like Atlas Reactor. This character-driven multiplayer title uses simultaneous turns instead of the meticulous and sometimes-plodding pace of core strategy titles. Things are fast, fun, and incredibly interesting.
Trion Worlds accomplishes the feat of multiple players taking their turns at the same time through an ability priority system akin to paperrock-scissors, with most of the big attacks happening last in order. The system divides abilities into three types: prep, dash, and blast. Movement happens after all those phases, which is a significant deviation from other strategy games where movement happens first in a turn. Prep moves contain all manner of buffs, traps, shields, and other things that can mess with your opponent’s strategy. Dash happens at a critical moment in the turn order – it’s a welltimed escape maneuver to keep you out of harm’s way in anticipation of the final turn phase. Blast is the last thing that happens – the big attacks. This delicate balance in turn structure is elegant in its design, allowing for speedy-but-strategic turns that take only 10 to 30 seconds.
You have plenty of cover to hide behind and power-ups littered about the battlefield to plan around, so you have to do some thinking beyond just sizing up your opponents and their abilities. Like fighting games, there’s an additional layer of mental trickery going on behind the scenes in trying to determine how your opponent will react, and then countering it with your own plans. A weakened opponent will obviously use a reflective shield to counter incoming damage, right? Or does your opponent know that’s what you’re expecting and instead decide to go in for the surprise kill?
Like MOBAs, characters have their own archetypes, personalities and movesets including an ultimate ability and taunt moves that add a little more life to the actions of the somewhat impersonal isometric view. The competitive multiplayer is the centerpiece of the experience, but Trion Worlds has hinted that a singleplayer mode is a possibility.
If nothing else, Atlas Reactor is an intriguing amalgamation of genres and designs. If the concepts sound interesting, you can sign up for the alpha right now and experience the uncommon action for yourself. Daniel Tack