Publisher: NetEase Games
Playerbase: Medium
Type: Mobile MOBA/RPG
Release Date: November 12, 2015
Pros: +High quality graphics. +Action combat. +Easy to pick up and play. +Lots of stage variety.
Cons: -Repetitive gameplay. -Pay-to-win aspects. –Clunky skill controls.
Eternal Arena Overview
Eternal Arena is a 3D MOBA action RPG developed by NetEase Games, a large Chinese game developer behind the mobile titles, Speedy Ninja and Rise of Dinos. Experience a unique mixture of action RPG and MOBA on your mobile device. Collect over 35 Heroes and play through 15 different modes. Save the world in the lengthy single player campaign and face players around the world in both asynchronous and real-time PVP. Control 3 Heroes at once and switch between them at any time. Immerse yourself in action combat on a MOBA battlefield. Equip, upgrade, and train your Heroes and join a Guild to meet new friends. Participate in ranked PVP battles and become the Champion of Eternal Arena.
Eternal Arena Features:
- Stage-based Levels – Fight through hundreds of stages with various modes such as action RPG and MOBA modes.
- High Quality Graphics – Immersive yourself with colorful and cartoony graphics full of detailed environments, flashy effects, and smooth animations.
- MOBA-Oriented Action Combat – Defeat hundreds of different monsters, bosses, and enemy Heroes with hack-and-slash combat combined with MOBA-style skills.
- Many Heroes to Collect – Collect, level up, and evolve over 35 unique Heroes with different classes, abilities, and roles in battle.
- PVP and Additional Modes – Compete against other players in 1vs1 asynchronous and real-time battles, and participate in a large variety of single player modes.
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Eternal Arena Review
Eternal Arena is a free-to-play, MOBA-style action RPG developed and
published by NetEase Games, a large Chinese game developer with an
increasingly large presence in the U.S. after the success of their
popular endless runner mobile game, Speedy Ninja. NetEase first revealed
Eternal Arena at PAX Prime 2015 which produced a lot of hype before it
finally came out for Android and iOS on November 12, 2015. Eternal Arena
is a unique hybrid of action RPG and MOBA that works surprisingly well.
With high quality graphics, action combat, and lots of content, Eternal
Arena is an entertaining MOBA game with a greater focus on
single-player PVE, although there is also asynchronous and real-time
PVP.
Stage-Based, Single-Player Campaign
Similar to most online mobile RPGs, Eternal Arena has a single-player campaign with over 100 stages to play through. However, it is very unique in that each stage varies not only in monsters and environments, but modes. Some stages play like a regular action RPG where players have to navigate through a fairly large map and defeat monsters and bosses along the way, while other stages play like a MOBA game. There are two MOBA modes that feature towers, minions, and enemy Heroes on either 1 or 2 lanes with rules similar to MOBA games such as League of Legends. There is also a survival mode where players have to survive numerous waves of enemies in a somewhat confined area. The different modes add a lot of variety and uniqueness to the game and players never know what mode they will get in the next stage. The game also has a story and each stage has some character dialogue although the story is very minimal and not very interesting. Players can bring along 3 Heroes in each stage and each stage gives gold, experience, equipment, and more.
Action Combat Meets MOBA
The combat in Eternal Arena is a combination of action RPG and MOBA. Players move with a virtual joystick and have a button to attack like in most mobile action RPGs except the skills resemble those in MOBA games. Most of the skills are skill-shot or AOE based and players will have to aim them although the game also has an odd auto-aim feature that automatically targets the skill at the nearest enemy. While the movement and attacking are fluid, the skill system can be frustrating because the auto-skill aim doesn’t also go where you want it to go and the manual aim is clunky and sometimes even more difficult to aim. Because the skills are based off the MOBA genre, the skills would aim much better if the game had tap controls rather than joystick/button controls, but generally, the auto-aim still works 90% of the time. Players can switch between 3 Heroes at any time by pressing the Hero icons on the top right, and the Heroes that players are not actively controlling are controlled by the AI. Overall, the combat is smooth and full of flashy effects with the only drawback being the problematic skill control.
Unique MOBA Mechanics
While the action RPG element of the game greatly resembles those of other mobile action RPGs, the MOBA aspects is somewhat unique compared to other MOBA games. The biggest difference is that players have control over 3 Heroes rather than only one, and every PVP match is 1 vs 1 with each player controlling 3 Heroes. However, unlike an RTS where players can control all 3 Heroes at once, players can only control 1 Hero at a time which actually makes sense since it is a MOBA where individual Hero movement and skill-shots are required. The computer AI opponents and allies are not very intelligent but are decent enough. They will generally spam skills and rush their opponents until they get low on HP and then run away, but in a way that they are usually able to get away. There are temporary power-ups such as health, attack boosts, and defense boosts that occasionally appear in the jungle area as well as in the lanes, and killing minions, enemies in the jungle, and enemy Heroes increases the player’s Power meter which strengthens the player’s Heroes (which replaces in-match equipment purchasing). Other than those differences, the rules of the MOBA stages are fairly standard. There is either 1 or 2 lanes and 2 towers to go through (on each lane) before getting to the Core, and there are minions that tank towers. The team that destroys the other team’s Core wins.
Pick Your Hero
Eternal Arena has many Heroes to collect to add to the 3-man party. Each Hero is either a Tank, Warrior, Mage, or Support. Tanks are defensive melee damage absorbers, Warriors are melee fighters balanced in attack and defense, Mages are powerful ranged sorcerers, and Supports are supportive ranged healers and buffers. Each Hero has different abilities so their roles in battle are not set in stone by their class which provides a lot of variety and strategy to the battles. Heroes start between 1-3 stars and can eventually be evolved into 5 stars via Soul Essences for that particular Hero. Soul Essences can be obtained from login rewards, completing certain stages, and from summoning the same Hero twice. Once a Hero receives enough Soul Essences, they will automatically evolve into the next rank which increases their stats and unlocks new skills. Heroes can also be equipped with various equipment that ranged from 1-5 stars that can be upgraded with in-game gold. Each Hero also has a bunch of voice-acted lines when they move and attack that add a lot of charm to each Hero.
A Large Variety of Additional Modes
In addition to the lengthy Story mode, Eternal Arena also many other single player modes that yield great rewards. These modes include Goblin Hunt, Monster Hunt, Wanted, Invocation, Rune War, Trials, and Challenge. In Goblin Hunt, players have 2 minutes to kill as many gold-carrying goblins as they can, which is a good way of acquiring gold. In Monster Hunt, players have 40 seconds to deal as much damage as they can to a Boss and are rewarded based on their damage. In Wanted, players must either complete a map or defeat a boss for various rewards. Invocation is a boss killing mode where players can team up with up to 4 of their friends in real-time co-op, Rune War features quick 3-round automated PVP duels, Trials is a 10-wave survival mode, and finally, in Challenge, players take on boss versions of AI Heroes. All modes give various rewards and can be attempted a limited amount of times each day. They also add a lot of variety and content to the game.
Cash Shop/In-App Purchases (IAP)
The main in-app purchases in Eternal Arena are random Heroes and equipment summons and energy. With Gems (premium currency), players can summon random Heroes between 1-3 stars and if they summon 10 at a time, they will receive a guaranteed 3 star Hero. The same goes with equipment summoning and summoning duplicate Heroes will provide Rank up Experience to increase the star ranking of to those Heroes. Players with money to spend will be able to summon much more Heroes and equipment, and rank up Heroes much more easily than non-paying players. They also have an increased possibility of getting high ranked Heroes and equipment. Free players do get one free Hero and equipment summon a day which helps but obviously they are at a disadvantage against players that pay. Energy can also be purchased with Gems which will allow players to play longer. Overall, the game is somewhat pay-to-win because paying gives an advantage in better Heroes and equipment, which allows paying players to dominate in the PVP, although only temporarily until non-paying players can catch up.
Final Verdict – Good
Eternal Arena is a surprisingly fun mobile game that combines action RPG combat with the MOBA genre. Although the skill usage could use some work and the PVP is fairly pay-to-win, the single-player campaign and overall gameplay is engaging, fast-paced, and action-oriented that both MOBA and action RPG fans can enjoy.
Source : mmos.com
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