Ex-developers of League of Legends combine the battle royale trend with the greatest strengths of the MOBA genre in Supervive
Jumping off with your squad like in Apex Legends, looting items like in Warzone and firing Ultimates like in League of Legends:Superviveis probably the most unusual shooter mix I’ve played in a long time.
2023 First announced under the working title Project Loki, this wild cocktail is being created by indie studio Theorycraft under the direction of CEO Joe Tung – ex-Vice President at LoL developer Riot
And yes, at first glance Supervive looks like a clone of the popular MOBA. But the truth about the game is quite different! I’ve already been able to dive into the alpha in advance and would like to briefly summarize the most important information for you here
What kind of game is Supervive?
Supervive should actually be called “Apex League of Super Smash”.Because it combines elements from party brawlers with battle royale and loot shooters in the isometric perspective ofLeague of Legends.
The most important difference to other MOBAs, however, is the direct control:We steer our character like in a top-down shooter with WASD and fire with the left mouse button. There is also a set of three active abilities plus Ultimate with cooldown times and a passive talent
You can choose from classic archetypes – the fat tank stands at the front and blocks damage, the fragile mage deals a lot of damage from the second row and the healer scurries around at the back.
“All characters can deal damage and stand their ground on their own if necessary,” explains a Theorycraft employee. “You should also feel powerful in the support role. “
But no matter how strong my hero is, without teamwork I’m usually quickly history in Supervive. In general, teamwork is an extremely important factor: When I thoughtlessly walk away from my squad in a round and stumble into another group, a combination of lightning bolts, shotgun pellets and fireballs grills me faster than I can say “Oh, enemy here”.
Hot drop into the sandbox
If you’ve ever playedOverwatchyou should know your way around quickly, despite the different perspective: Shift triggers a movement ability, the right mouse button is an alternative fire mode and so on
In contrast, the map and game flow are more from the corner of Apex Legends: Together with our squad, we move through the open world, kill AI monsters, capture conquest points and farm equipment and increase our skills in this way.
If you dare to take a “hot drop” on particularly coveted locations on the map, you can expect fierce battles right from the start of the match – but with a bit of luck, you can dust off some fat loot right away.
Between the various biomes on the mapthere are deadly chasmsthat all playerscan overcome with a built-in glider. But be careful: If you are hit in flight, you will immediately fall to your death! Knocking enemy players off platforms instead of working on their life bars is even a valid tactic in Supervive. Clever positioning is therefore often the trump card
How does a round in Supervive work?
A match in Supervive lasts until only one team is left standing. This usually takes between 15 and 20 minutes. You can imagine the rough sequence of events as follows:
- Jumping off:We choose a landing zone for our team to start from – areas with valuable loot are hotly contested at the start.
- Exploration & Loot:The search for helpful items begins immediately! We conquer small outposts, fight creeps and level up our skills.
- Death Zone:As in other Battle Royales, the game world shrinks and we must always orient ourselves towards the next circle. If you stay out, you die.
- PvP battles:Our goal is to eliminate enemy squads – but only a complete wipe means the end for a team, revives are possible.
- PvE battles:We find bosses with powerful buffs or use minigames to break into secured magic vaults to gain an advantage.
- Endgame:Due to the shrinking zone, the frequency and intensity of the battles continues to increase, with highly equipped teams coming together for the big showdown.
Is this really fun? Even with a lot of experience in online shooters and League of Legends, it wasn’t exactly easy for me to get started with Supervive! Skills, upgrades, loot and … aaah, the zone is getting closer! With no map knowledge, I stumbled after my team and tried to position myself cleverly in the team fights, only to suddenly be swept off a platform and into the void.
But at some point it clicked and I started to use the first skill combos sensibly and to see through the attack patterns of bosses. Hey, I can be useful after all! And when I hit the decisive shot in the final 1on1 battle with a shaky mouse hand, the voice chat erupted with cheers.
Yes, Supervive definitely requires a lot of patience at the beginning, but it offers an enormous tactical depth that I only begin to understand superficially after four hours. Incidentally, the developers themselves say that Supervive is set to become the next 10,000-hour game for competitive squads. I’m beginning to understand what they mean by that
Editor’s verdict
What a wonderful mess! Supervive slays me at the start with its hectic battles and a huge map crammed with secrets, NPCs, clever mechanics and deadly traps. Even as a LoL and shooter connoisseur, I was briefly overwhelmed.
I once won a team fight by a hair’s breadth, only to be run over by an express train that I hadn’t seen coming in my frenzy of joy. Now I know that even the tracks in Supervive aren’t laid just for fun!
One thing is for sure: this mix of LoL and battle royale shooter is highly complex. It will probably take months to learn all the interactions and synergies between spells and items. But that’s exactly why I see so much potential here too: after all, LoL has been thriving on its complexity since 2009. And this shooter has plenty of it!
Good onboarding is therefore particularly important for newcomers like me: Supervive needs the best tutorial in the world. Otherwise, some players might turn away after the first round, overwhelmed and frustrated
