Bandai Namco Announces F2P MOBA Supernova

If you were itching to play a new spin on the MOBA game genre, then Bandai Namco aims to have you covered. Via press release, Bandai Namco Games America announces Supernova, a free-to-play space-faring MOBA with real-time strategy elements, set to release on the PC by the middle of 2015.

Set in the distant future, humanity has sought out life across numerous planets. Instead of hope and glory, the human race of Supernova has discovered legions of alien races currently waging war across the galaxy. Portals have suddenly cropped up, bringing the fight to humans in a way unseen before. Now they must arrange the best and brightest leaders together to save themselves from destruction as the mystery surrounding these ancient portals becomes uncovered.

Supernova sees players take control of several commanders, who fight one another in an effort to save their prospective races from extinction. Humans versus aliens is the main setup for the story, however you can control robots, cyborgs or interstellar races in an effort to dominate the competition. Where the RTS elements take play is by utilizing minions in an in-game upgrade development scheme, allowing for strategic improvements made to infantry, plus mechanized land and air combat ships.

Interestingly, on-the-fly control of your commanders and team of underlings is not where gameplay customization and optimization ends. Supernova also includes a crafting system that takes drops won from matches to create ability boosts to commanders of your choice, giving you that edge in future skirmishes. Whether or not crafting materials will be included in monetization plans or not was not mentioned in the release, so hopefully that’s not how Bandai plans to cash in on their free-to-play game.

It’s the sci-fi setting that has Bandai hoping they can push through to success with Supernova. You can optimize your team of commanders in a plethora of ways, from mech pilots, to mercenaries or even as aliens fighting alongside each other. In order to get an even better edge, players can challenge “the ancients,” who will provide Mechanoughts if conquered. These are pieces of “planet-razing ancient technology” (their operative words) that can really cripple enemy forces if players can defeat them first.

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Judging by gameplay footage of Supernova, it’s not quite as pedestrian as described. I’m not really a MOBA fan, yet I could see the inspirations of space-based RTS gameplay has a possible positive impact on the game’s balance and strategy. The field of MOBA games has grown rapidly, as people’s time and money has shifted away from the MMORPG. Can Bandai Namco effectively build themselves a strong community amid a competitive marketplace that grows by the day? With an Alpha test launching today, and an expected release window of Q2 2015, we’ll learn that answer sooner rather than later.

You can check out Supernova in action for yourself with their gameplay trailer below.

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