GameLight - Solstice Arena (Steam)

Official Site: http://www.solsticearena.com/
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/240380/
Source: Youtube Channel SolsticeArena

Five months ago, I mentioned a new MOBA in the making that was releasing on mobile devices such as iPhone and iPad.  It was a bit of a surprise to see it on Steam yesterday and I decided to try it out.  I was a bit hesitant about the decision since it's published and seemingly developed by Zynga who are known for questionable practices in the Videogame industry.  What gave me some hope was that the game was being developed by "A Bit Lucky" studios before they joined Zynga in finishing the product before putting it out in the market.  Solstice Arena boasts itself for being the first Speed-MOBA in the market which delivers fast and exciting PvP matches.  It takes out minions to farm, lanes to gank and focuses on positioning and utilizing the abilities of all the characters in the team.  What's left is a bare-bones PvP action that, surprisingly, was a lot of fun.

Some Pros:
+ Eased into the game: tutorial isn't long and the game has the player play at least one bot match and one co-op match before they're thrust into a real match between players so that they can familiarize themselves with the characters, items, mechanics and map.
+ Matches are short: You don't have to invest a lot of time to get the excitement and action of player vs. player.  Even if you lose, it was a short duration and you can jump right back in for another match.
+ Various characters and skills: The characters are rather distinguished and fun, though missing a bit of personality with the lack of story.  Each match is dynamic and different as each player will have their own playstyle and different composition of characters brings something new to the game.
+ Intense PvP: A lot of abilities are skill shots which requires aiming and timing
+ Super easy account creation: I've played dozens of Online games and it's quite frustrating when creating an account is a hassle.  The account can be created in-game with a display name, email, username, and password.  The game can also be played as a guest before you decide you want to stick with the game and create an account to carry over what you progressed.
+ No chat: Why is this a plus?  Because if you've played enough online games, you might be familiar with people who consistently argue, yell, and rage throughout a match and ruin the experience for everyone else.  There are in-game pings which is more than enough to communicate with the team and a button to say "GG" (Good Game" to everyone at the end of the match.
+ Fast loading: Get into the game quicker.  The game isn't very big and loading is very short.  Shorter load times = more play time.

Some Cons:
- Imbalanced characters: Some matches can work against you and you won't be able to do a thing when characters leap towards you, slow, stun, knock up, and burst you down perhaps across the map.  It can be a bit depressing, but it reminds me of DotA where characters are balanced by fighting broken with broken.  It's not a very balanced game, but it sure makes it fun (so it can be seen as a plus).
- Terrible interface: The game is essentially a straight port of the iPad version.  Buttons will even have the words "Tap here" on it.  It works well for touch screen, but the interface isn't designed very well or elegantly for PC.
- Graphics aren't very good: The game is a straight port of the iOS version which has a lot of blocky lookin' characters.  I actually think the graphics are pretty nice for a game that originated from a mobile device, but there will be players that will be turned off by its presentation.
- No chat: Some people want to yell or maybe playfully jeer at the enemy, and not having any form of communication with the enemy other than saying "GG" at the end of the match might not be what some players want.  I have met those who enjoy bullying other players in online games and play those games to feel superior.  It's rather depressing...
- The meta-game: Players can level up a character that they play often to make their abilities even stronger.  This is an interesting meta-game that's a nice incentive to keep playing a single character and have an advantage over players, but players of all levels are matched up against each other which puts lower solstice level players at an immediate disadvantage.
- Everything is incredibly expensive: If you play League of Legends, 6300 IP already sounds like a lot just to earn enough to buy a new character.  Characters can get up to 30,000 points before you can get them unless you use real money to purchase them which might be the whole point.  This is Zynga we're talking about, the business portion won't be handled by the developers and you can expect some shenanigans coming from Zynga here.
- Cross-Platform Multiplayer: If I understand this correctly, players on Steam/PC will be playing with players on iPads and iPhones.  The controls do look pretty good on iPad, but the fact that the player's hand gets in the way of the display already puts a disadvantage on them.  Players on PC will be able to kite, react and cycle through their skills much faster than those on touch screen in general.  This isn't much a con for PC players, but I find this really unfair to iPad users who have been supporting them for the past 5 months.

To put it simply, the game isn't perfect but is a whole lot of fun.  The action is pretty consistent and the experience isn't ruined by other player's complaints and whining.  I'm actually very impressed that the developers found a way to give the player the means to communicate within the game without having to add text/voice chat.  The game isn't too hard to learn compared to most MOBAs, but has enough customization and depth to keep it interesting.  If anything, it's a fun game to mess around in.  Solstice Arena can be downloaded through Steam up on the link above.