Hello, friends and Hive Gamers!
Recently, The Pokémon Company published their free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game, Pokémon UNITE. There wasn't much hype surrounding the launch, as many people expected the game to be lackluster at best. But being a Pokémaniac myself, I have to try out everything Pokémon at least once.
The result? The game is surprisingly good! And it seems like others are finding it quite fun as well.
The premise is simple, you and your team of five "capture" wild Pokémon by defeating them with your attacks, then collect points in Pokéballs for the capture. Go to your opponents' goal rings and you can 'score' your points for your team. But the opponent can interrupt you with attacks, and in the worst case, can defeat you and nab up your hard-earned points that drop when you are KO'd. The team with the most points at the end of ten minutes is victorious.
Pokémon start out in their unevolved forms and gain experience by attacking on the field. This allows them to level up, learn moves, and evolve. You have two move slots, each which begin with 'starter' moves then can be replaced with one of two 'advanced' moves as you level up. This allows for you to build your Pokémon to suit your own play style.
Pokémon can also be equipped with one active battle item and three passive hold items before the battle begins. The active item such as a health-recovery potion or attack-boosting capsule can be activated in battle by pressing a button. The held items grant permanent stat boosts as well as passive abilities such as making your run speed faster or gradually healing you over time.
And that's about all there is to the game. It's surprisingly simple, but that's what makes it work so well. There are a few other things you'll need to think about, like slowing down in the opponents' goal zone, eating berries off the ground to recover health, and wild Pokémon that give special benefits when defeated.
The game mechanics are basic enough that a child can play (it is Pokémon after all!) but the design of the game allows for high-level e-sports gameplay among skilled players. Players can play for fun in standard matches or be matched with similarly-skilled players in ranked mode. There's also a just-for-fun "quick match" mode that plays on a variety of smaller maps and takes less time with smaller teams.
Outside of playing the matches, you'll find menus full of challenges and rewards, much like free-to-play mobile games. There's daily, weekly, and seasonal achievements as well as events on top of events, so you have tons of red dots to check off as you play and are constantly bombarded with little rewards here and there. Serious players can purchase a battle pass to get even more rewards from the season or pay money to unlock additional playable monsters sooner without having to save up their in-game currency.
The roster of Pokémon is nice, with each creature falling into one of five roles: Attacker, Defender, Supporter, All-Rounder, or Speedster. There's Pokémon from a variety of generations and types with more on the way.
Personally I am a fan of the Defender Crustle, first and foremost because it's a bug-type, but as I've gotten used to playing with it, I've found it can be quite powerful with the right set of skills. Its Rock Tomb attack allows you to trap opponents with well-placed semicircles of rocks, and then punish them with the powerful X-Scissor when they find they can't run away any more. This also lends to being a great support for your teammates; when the opponent is running away, you can trap them and allow for your team to catch up and finish them off before they can return to their side of the field to heal and get a speed boost.
And even within each role type, Pokémon play quite differently. There's no trap-and-slap combo when playing with another Defender like Snorlax or Slowbro. Instead, they have their own play style and moves to experiment with, like Snorlax using Rest to restore HP and tank as much attack as possible, preventing the opponent from ever being able to reach the goal.
Crustle is the coolest, though.
In all, Pokémon UNITE shows a lot of promise as a fun MOBA for experienced players looking for a new game as well as an entry point to the genre for those curious to try it out, or even something fun for Pokémon fans to play casually here and there.
If you haven't gotten in on it yet and have a Nintendo Switch, I encourage you to try the game out. If you don't have a Switch and are interested, a mobile release of the game is intended to come out in a couple months, so keep your eyes peeled for that one.
And if you wanna add me as a friend, feel free to add me with my code GLACPTK :)