I’ve got to start my review with a caveat: I really dislike MOBAs in general. That’s partly why I was asked to partake in the play throughs with iTZKooPA and antilles. A bit of a balancing voice to the MOBA veteran and PC gaming newb. Some may call it a contrarian voice given my opening statement.
That said, I REALLY disliked Gigantic. There’s no hatred here. It’s a fine game, and it plays well. There are a bunch of champions to choose, and they are each pretty unique to each other. You’ll find the usual mix of straight up DPS, tank, healer, and ranged DPS characters, and a fair share of hybrid classes. The main problem with Gigantic is that it’s not especially memorable. You play a hero who gets XP by killing stuff. That XP get you levels. Those levels get you ability and stat upgrades. The goal is to kill the enemy base. And you see where I am going, right? You’ve played this game a dozen times before. What seemingly separates this from other MOBAs is the lack of creeps thrown at the player. That’s cool. And different. I guess. You can still spawn tower creeps at certain locations, but the randos aren’t flooding out at you. Still, it feels like a MOBA. Not a bad MOBA, but not one that shines.
That means the bulk of the game, the area you spend, hopefully, the vast majority of your time in is mediocre. Forgettable. What about the rest. Well, far from better.
The game experience is overshadowed by the frustrating and cumbersome matchmaking menus. We seemed to have spent more time dicking around trying to get the match started than we did playing the game. It feels like there are three more layers of menu than there needs to be and, finally, when we’re picking our poison, the character selection doesn’t make any sense. We choose up to five characters from the roster, and then in the character selection menu – weren’t we just there? – you choose whoever you want from the full roster. But now we can see what our teammates are doing to. God forbid we can talk to them easily though. It’s expected for someone to say “oh, what the shit is happening” in the game. The tutorial is too fast, short, or clear to really be of any value. But you’re not supposed to have the same reaction when you’re in the freaking menu. On a positive note, the art style works really well. Everything is big, bright and colorful. The characters have individuality and feel fleshed out. The archetypes do exist, but some have individual slants. Overall, the art provides quite a refreshing change from many of the darker, distantly drawn presentations the genre is known for.
All in all, I’d like to reiterate that it’s not a bad game. It’s just that it’s nothing special and new. It has a charm to it, though. I could see someone that wants a break from their usual MOBA playing this game and enjoying it, but if you’re not into MOBAs already, there won’t be enough here to change your mind. This game gets a “Funyuns out of Frito Lay” Rating. I’ll never seek out a Funyun. I’m not mad at them, but I’ll take a Cheeto instead.
Interested in hearing me spout more? There’s a stream for that. Man, did we suck. Perhaps that clouds my judgement, you think? Nah, the mediocrity has nothing to do with a victory.
