Did you spend a large chunk of your childhood pillaging human villages with your hordes of Orc’s in World of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness? Do you have little or no experience with anything resembling a modern MOBA? If you’ve answered yes to both of these questions, then you’re probably me. There probably aren’t a ton of you out there like me – most have at least dabbled in the multiplayer online battle arena genre at least somewhat in the last decade. How could you not? This is a style of video game that has exploded in popularity and many could argue single-handedly created and fueled the fire that is the world of E-Sports.
In any event The Maestros, a new RTS meets MOBA-lite from indie developer Systence Games, aims to lure players in with an approachable learning curve and keep us coming back with quick jump in and jump out gameplay. The Maestros is currently in early access on Steam, and we dove in to take a look at how this title is shaping up ahead of its full release.
You start out each match as a lone Commander, of which there will be a number to choose from in the full release and each with their own unique abilities and strengths. The Commander begins by building their army of minions by defeating neutral monsters found strewn throughout the arena. Once your commander has amassed a substantial enough set of minions (three or four is generally enough), you’re ready to go on the offensive against other Commanders in the arena.
A large enough group of minions is often sufficient to cause a minor annoyance against other enemies, however in order to create a real army the player is able to transform their minions into considerably stronger allies. Transform points are randomly placed throughout the arena where a small amount of minions can be traded for a new type of special unit. Like the Commander, there a number of different types of special units available each with their own set of strengths and weaknesses. Some special units act as tanks and shield the Commander from oncoming damage. Others provide ranged attacks but come with a smaller pool of health. Conductor units were my personal favorite – if you’re able to maneuver these Conductors around an enemy, they can send a linking electric bolt to other Conductors and cause massive damage to anything caught in between.
Roving Commanders can also uncover useful additions to their arsenal found around the arena that prove as massive advantages for your fight. Dreadbeasts are gargantuan monsters who are neutral in the battle between Commanders. But if you can find and defeat one, the Dreadbeast will fight along side you for a limited amount of time. It’s a great risk and reward strategy – trying to tame these monsters minding their own business could easily mean death. But given that just one of these can effortlessly take out another Commander and their accompanying units, the payoff is huge. Shrines can also be discovered and claimed by anyone. Once one team has called dibs on these areas, they can be used as respawn points, putting a Commander deep in enemy territory after a death.
Each match is played in a 2 v 2 format. You are joined by one allied Commander and the goal of each match is to gain 5 kills of enemy Commanders before the other team. It’s very fast and easy to jump in and out of The Maestros as a single game only takes about 5 to 7 minutes to complete. As previously noted, control and gameplay will be familiar to anyone who’s previously played a MOBA or any RTS. Units can be selected individually or as a group and issued orders with hot keys or on the on-screen toolbar. The tutorial does a good job at introducing the player to not only to how to play and succeed at The Maestros, but also at how to make controlling your Commander and units easy.
Being a MOBA, The Maestros’ party piece is its online multiplayer mode. Unfortunately, despite several attempts during our first look at the game, we were unable to find a single online match to join. Aside from online, there is the aforementioned Tutorial with two Basics introductory modes, a Practice and an Alchemist mode. Practice is where I spent the majority of my time and luckily it gives you a good taste of what the full game can offer with computer controlled bots. Furthermore, you can level up and progress within the Practice mode.
Having limited exposure to this genre, I was a little off put by The Maestros at first. It is well documented how competitive and toxic online communities brought on by games of this style can be. However I was genuinely surprised with how quickly I got a hold of the mechanics, learned the strategies and found myself hooked by its fun and frantic gameplay. For anyone who has been looking for an entry point into the genre at a low price tag, The Maestros may be the best bet. If the game can develop an online community that can sustain a healthy matchmaking system and nurture it’s newer players, it could easily be a success.
