Back in 2017, the gaming market was awash with MOBA-inspired action games and shooters. The most prominent of these releases wasOverwatch, the game primarily responsible for the increased popularity of the genre. Around the same time as the mega-popular Blizzard shooter was being developed, a studio named Motiga was working on an action MOBA calledGigantic.
Gigantic was released in July 2017 to positive critical reception. It immediately attracted a respectable number of players, peaking at around 8,000 near its release date. I recall playing it when it was first released, though I was still deep in my League of Legends phase and didn’t have time to commit to another live-service multiplayer game.
Unfortunately, Gigantic wasn’t able to sustain its momentum, losing the majority of its player base by the end of 2017. At the beginning of 2018, Motiga and publisher Perfect World Entertainment announced the game’s servers would be shutting down in July.
In December of 2021, Embracer Group acquired Perfect World Entertainment during one of the conglomerate’s shopping sprees. Perfect World was then rebranded to Gearbox Publishing, becoming an arm of one of Embracer’s more notable acquisitions.
All of this context is necessary to know why Gigantic, a cult hit hero shooter from 2017 is now returning via developer Abstraction Games and publisher Gearbox. The game is being rebranded as Gigantic: Rampage Edition, and will no longer be pursuing a freemium model.
A Grand Return
I had the opportunity to get hands-on with the new and improved Gigantic, playing a couple of games of the new Rush mode, a more fast-paced experience with an emphasis on skirmishes and teamfighting. It’s intended as a faster game mode, one that brings players straight into the action quickly and without any of the cerebral clutter of the traditional Clash mode.
The developers expect that Rush will have a fully-formed diverse meta of its own, separate from the meta of Clash.
In Rush, you travel around to three different control points that you’ll need to channel to capture. These objectives are mutual, so the opposition team will be trying to fight for control of these areas. By capturing these points you fill a progress bar, whichever team reaches 100 first has the opportunity to assault the enemy’s guardian. Naturally, the other team will then defend their guardian. Once a guardian’s health has been completely depleted, the game ends.
I cycled through many different heroes during my playtest; all of the old heroes are returning and a couple of new heroes, Roland and Kajir, have been added. Roland is a sort of bruiser-y ranged DPS with a grappling hook, giving him some cool and unique movement mechanics. I see a lot of outplay potential with this hero, getting in the face of enemies and then grappling to safety to recuperate.
The other addition is Kajir, a sort of archetypical melee assassin. He’s all about misdirection and doing maximum damage in a short time. I obviously didn’t have the skill to play Kajir optimally but I did quite like his blink ability and ultimate. There were a couple of instances where I managed to enter a fight unseen and wreak some havoc on the enemy’s back line before blinking out.
SMITE 2 Hands-On: A Godly Upgrade
We had the opportunity to play Smite 2 on the day of its announcement.
Obviously, we were just some developers and press playing casually but even then, I can see the strategic potential of Rush. It’s going to be a lot of ebb-and-flow, pushing a control point and then rotating teammates in and out to heal. I foresee this skirmish mode becoming defence-focused at higher-skill tiers.
Two new maps are coming to Gigantic, a seaside pirate-themed map called Picaro Bay and a dilapidated industrial map called Heaven’s Ward. I had the opportunity to play on the former and it’s an interesting mix of tight corridors and elevation. On Picaro Bay, there’s a ridge that overlooks point C and an enemy team Charnok just stood there for the entirety of the fight raining hell down for the entirety of the teamfight. I’m also ashamed to admit I fell to my watery doom from the pirate ship a couple of times.
Gigantic now has new hero-building mechanics that theory crafters are sure to love. You can create different build paths from the main menu or in-game for each hero and can save several presets. This means you can prepare in advance different builds for different situations and different opposition team compositions and adapt on the fly.
A Different Type Of MOBA
I found the experience to be enjoyable, and I think Gigantic is going to be one of those games that’s best enjoyed with a full party. It’s got that accessibility and inviting nature that you don’t get with higher skill-floor MOBAs like League and DotA. The third-person action is frenetic and you’re able to feel even from the start how high the potential skill ceiling is.
Abstraction will be releasing free post-launch updates that are going to add new skins and more excitingly, a ranked mode. A ladder is always conducive to pushing the skill ceiling of a game, and I’m excited to see what Gigantic could be at the highest level.
It’s got that accessibility and inviting nature that you don’t get with higher skill-floor MOBAs like League and DotA.
Launching a live-service game these days is all about momentum, you need to convince people to get on board quickly and then have them convince others to come along for the ride. A $20 price tag is potentially low enough for the price to not be a big barrier to entry, but only time will tell if the new-feeling Gigantic can get off the ground.
Gigantic: Rampage Edition releases April 9 for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC, the game will feature full crossplay and costs $19.99.
Gigantic: Rampage Edition is a revival of the 2017 cult-classic hero shooter, featuring an improved experience, new game modes and new maps.
