What are the best MOBA games on Steam?

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GamingPCPC Games

What are the best MOBA games on Steam?

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Aug 14, 2023

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10 Games Considered

Best MOBA games on Steam	Price	Steam Rating	Publisher
-- Battleborn	$59.99	Mixed	2K Games
-- Paragon	Free	-	-
-- SMITE	Free	-	Hi-Rez Studios
-- Dota 2	Free	Mostly Positive	-
-- Awesomenauts	$9.99	Mixed	dtp entertainment

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score 5 · Answer 1

Battleborn

Top Con

No longer available on Steam

See developer page: https://www.gearboxsoftware.com/game/battleborn/ See More

Top Pro

First-person perspective

Battleborn will utilize a first person perspective in what looks to be a MOBA style game. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mixed

Genre:First-Person Shooter, Multiplayer, MOBA

Co-Op:5 Player Local / Online

See All Specs

Top Pro

All characters start each match at level one

At the beginning of every match all players will start at level one to then accrue levels as the game progresses granting new powers and traits. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 2

Paragon

Top Pro

3 dimensional game play and terrain

Adding the Y axis to the game adds more aiming skill to the game compared to all others only using X and Z axes. See More

Top Con

Queue takes too long

The queue time takes too long you can be matched with bots due to long time of queues See More

ProductiveInti's Experience

Game is good and unique compared to ANYTHING i have ever played sadly the queue time takes too long See More

Top Pro

Unique third person view

The camera in Paragon is located behind the character, which makes the game process more dynamic. Camera position is fixed, what means the character will be shooting and looking to the point reticle is aiming at. Damage is the same regardless of zone of hit on the enemy. See More

Top Pro

Takes skill to aim basic attacks like a 3rd-person shooter

All basic attacks require aim, especially ranged heroes. See More

Top Pro

Wide array of interesting heroes

Paragon offers a number of interesting heroes and abilities. Despite many people calling the character models "basic" , you soon realize that with each new character you find new play-styles, abilities, and approaches to the game. See More

Top Pro

Best graphics in genre

Paragon uses Unreal Engine 4 which makes the game run smoothly even on mediocre PC and look very photo realistic. See More

Top Pro

Free to play on PC

There are tons of ways to unlock in-game content without paying. See More

See All

score 10 · Answer 3

SMITE

Top Pro

3rd person view is a unique twist on the genre

The 3rd person view used in SMITE is a big change from the top down views normally used in a MOBA. The game also utilizes WASD keys, unlike the traditional point-to-move system of traditional MOBAs. This creates a large blind spot behind the users character and also makes sneaking behind someone for stealth attacks a viable option. See More

Top Con

Excessive snowballing on certain characters

If not countered or shut down early, some characters can become extremely strong, making a comeback for the other team virtually impossible. See More

Specs

Genre:MOBA

See All Specs

Top Pro

Features three ranked modes

Smite features 3 ranked modes, mainly the 1v1, the newly added 3v3, both of which utilizes the new Joust map. And the 5v5, on the Conquest map. All of which features experienced players and intense matches to satiate your search for glory and honor in the league of Smite. See More

Top Con

The third person view prevents sharing your teammates' vision

The lack of overhead view causes what happens to your teammates to be almost completely unknown. Without good communication, you are running blind and might as well be playing the game solo. In other MOBAs, communication isn't as much of a necessity. If a "jungler" is nearby, you assume he wants to gank. When an ally dashes in, you assume he's positioning himself for a setup. But in Smite, an ally might have dashed out in order to run away from a bigger threat, or you didn't notice he was waiting for a good opportunity to ambush someone in your lane. You NEED to communicate in Smite, or your allies won't have any idea what's going on, until it's too late. See More

Top Pro

The least toxic community for a MOBA

The community of Smite is the nicest in the Moba genre and has many members who are ready to provide help and role coachings to new and less experienced players. See More

Top Con

Meta is unstable

SMITE's meta has always been shifting ever since. In Season 2, the Hunter class is the most powerful class in the game, giving birth to certain unique builds like the Unicorn Build, an item build revolving on power, penetration and attack speed on hunters. Hunter items were soon nerfed. Then, back in Season 2, the Guardian class dominates the scene. Very long crowd control chains can kill almost everyone in an ability channeling gods era, and shuts down the powerhouses of team fights, the Mages and ADCs. Giving birth to the unique DirtyBubble Build, a build focused on protections and cooldown to counter the crowd-controls and burst damages from tanks. We all hope the Season 3 changes will balance overpowered classes and make the meta stable. See More

Top Pro

Ultimate god pack

SMITE has a god pack that costs $29.99. It unlocks all the current gods in the game plus the future gods to be released. See More

Top Pro

Great graphics and art style

SMITE, by far, has the best graphics and art style in the scene, the map design is great, Hi-Rez studios tries their best to keep the gods as mythological lore-like as possible, and the cosmetic skins crushes the other cosmetic skins in other MOBAs. They have these what they call Tier 5 skins, like the Archon skin for Thanatos, and Ragnarok Force X skin for Thor, which are straight fire and worthy for its cost. See More

Top Pro

An aggressive Titan for each team

Unlike the Nexuses of DOTA 2 and League of Legends, SMITE features an aggressive Nexus called Titans, which defends themselves and their teammates. See More

Top Pro

Cross platform

SMITE is playable on PC and Xbox One, and Playstation 4. See More

Top Pro

Beginner friendly

New to SMITE? Well, you don't have to worry. Get five free gods of every role at the start to help you learn the role you want. Learn the game basics and mechanics over the Practice mode and the Jungle Practice map where all gods are available for you to try and experiment with. The community is also friendly to new players. You won't have a hard time adjusting to SMITE's mechanics and gameplay. See More

Top Pro

Updates often

Because Smite is young game, updates are really often, new gods, maps, balance-path, etc. Expect to receive patches in a biweekly manner, alternating between god release, balances and skins, then god release. See More

Top Pro

Auto buy

SMITE has the ability for users to set an auto buy on items and abilities. See More

Top Pro

Even basic attacks are skill shots

All basic attacks are skill shots as there is no auto attacking. See More

Top Pro

6 great game modes and a rotating match of the day

Smite has 6 game modes and all of them are extremely popular: Arena. A 5v5 death match, no lanes or objectives. Arena is best for people who prefer intense combat over strategy. Good for impatient but independent players. Joust. A 3v3 mode, with a single lane and buff camps on one side, and an objective lair on the other side. The Demon Bull King provides a clearly interesting mechanic to Joust, kill it, and it disables the enemy towers, to prevent turtling, which is pretty common in Joust. Joust is great for working with a team. Everyone has a role to fill, and learning how to adjust your play for your two teammates is half the battle. Surprisingly focused on teamwork, despite small teams. Conquest. The typical 5v5 mode, three lanes, jungle, towers, objectives. Conquest is the standard game that everyone knows, and requires lots of communication. Siege. A 4v4 objective push map. Siege is similar to Joust, but has massive battles compared to small skirmishes. Two lanes definitely adds chaos to the mix. Assault. A 5v5 ARAM. Assault is randomized. Nobody gets upset when the team of all tanks lose. Just queue up again in 15 minutes. Clash. A 5v5 Conquest and Arena mix of style mode. Plus, there's a rotating Match of the Day (MOTD). A random game mode with a twist, like max cooldowns, no basic attacking, god swapping and more. MOTD can sometimes be more fun and interesting than anything else. See More

Top Pro

Voice Guided System (VGS)

SMITE has provided the best and most efficient way to communicate in game. The VGS provides keyboard shortcuts for in game commands like pressing the keys V>F>1 which stands for "Enemy missing left" and V>B>F meaning "Enemies at the Fire Giant'" or in simple terms, the enemies are doing the objective. This simple shortcuts are very useful in game communicating and keeping your team vigilant without losing focus in the game. See More

Top Pro

Shown difficulty levels

The game shows difficulty levels for each god such as hard, average or easy making it easier for players to find characters suited to their experience level. See More

Top Pro

5 free gods and five more each week

You start with 5 free gods and a weekly rotation of 5 more. See More

Top Pro

Provides a lot of incentives to play the game often

You have the daily quests which rewards you favor and gems (in-game currency). So you don't have to worry logging in daily, like its previous predecessor, the daily log-in reward. There are gem events, which is a limited period of time in which players can get gems (valued in game currency). There's a First Win of the Day reward (FWOTD). Rewards every time we win a match, insane sale discounts. Also, Hi-Rez employees sometimes give away in-game freebies in their Twitter account. See More

Top Pro

Odyssey Event

Every year, SMITE releases an Odyssey event months before the Smite World Championships. Over the course of several weeks, cosmetic items are released every week until the start of the SWC. These cosmetic items will be available for purchase some time after the SWC and will be branded as "Exclusive Skins" after the event. Every purchase in the Odyssey contributes to the SWC Prize Pool. Players can obtain limited edition items when they purchase a certain amount of items. For example, the Archon Thanatos, and Ragnarok Force X Thor can be obtained by the player when they have purchased all the Odyssey Items. Additionally, every item purchase will grant an Odyssey Chest roll that can be claimed in the rewards center. This chest can contain god skins, ward skins, and voice packs . There is also a slim chance that the chest will grant exclusive in-game items. See More

Top Pro

Characters are derived from mythological gods

Instead of imaginary champions and heroes, Smite derives its characters from ancient mythological gods from around the world. Coming from the Norse, Hindu, Greek, Roman, Mayan, Egyptian, Chinese, and the recently added pantheon to join Smite, the Japanese Pantheon. The roster consists of 72 gods at the moment, from 8 different pantheons around the world. See More

Top Pro

Completely play to win and not pay to win

There is no difference between a new player and a world champion. All players are equal. You don't buy your runes or as we call it, actives with real life cash, you buy them in game. You decide what active to use. This gives all players the ability to strategize and counter without using real cash. Microtransactions are only for buying gems (in game currency) which you can use to buy cosmetic items which does not necessarily affect your play style. See More

Top Pro

Hi-Rez approaches the SMITE community for feedbacks, brilliant ideas and mechanics they could use in the game

The company behind SMITE, Hi-Rez studios, actually listens for community feedback and looks for potential ideas and mechanics provided by the community. For example, the Odyssey ultimate reward last 2014, was nominated by players. The SPL Ticket Announcer Packs reward were also picked by the community. And some in game skins are actually created by players. The Harajuku Neith skin, The Ba5s Drop Janus skin, the Opera Bacchus skin, were all conceptualized by Smite players. And the most recent one, the Demon Bull King mechanic, which disables the towers and phoenixes in Joust to prevent camping, and the addition of the Japanese Pantheon to the game, were taken from community feedback as well. See More

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score 5 · Answer 4

Dota 2

Top Pro

Good for brain

trains brain definetly hard See More

Top Con

Rude, toxic community

Many players feel free to flame and insult, especially in the lower ranks and from non-english speaking countries. See More

LuckyNinshubur's Experience

A third world wasteland that clearly displays just how awful the rest of the world is compared to the USA See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

Genre:MOBA

Top Pro

A very diverse MOBA

This game has a steep learning curve, but it's well worth it. The games that came after Dota like League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, Smite, and other lookalikes don't even compare to the complexity of Dota 2. Every hero is unique and valuable in one team composition or another. The amount of versatility of each hero is amazing as well. The mechanics by far destroy any other Dota style game (MOBA) and that's what makes this game top tier in its genre. This game is the highest grossing eSport game in the world and will probably continue to be for a long time. See More

Top Con

You love and hate the game

While infuriating at times the addictiveness of the game keeps the players coming back. See More

Top Pro

Players can trade self-made cosmetic items

The game includes a system for players to create, buy, and sell cosmetic items. See More

Top Con

Will consume a lot of time if you are not careful

Dota 2 has the potential to suck the player in. See More

Top Pro

Very active professional scene

Dota 2 has one of the most if not the most active professional scenes in e-sports today. See More

Top Con

Game has been broken down to make it noob friendly

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Available on Windows, OS X, and Linux. See More

Top Pro

Most Diverse MOBA

This game has a steep learning curve, but it's well worth it. The games that came after Dota like League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, Smite, and other lookalikes don't even compare to the complexity of Dota 2. Every hero is unique and valuable in one team composition or another. The amount of versatility of each hero is amazing as well. The mechanics by far destroy any other Dota style game (MOBA) and that's what makes this game top tier in it's genre. This game is the highest grossing E-Sport game in the world and will probably continue to be for a long time. See More

Top Pro

Moba-leading graphics

When compared to other leading MOBAs, Dota2 has some of the best graphics to be found. See More

Top Pro

Game balanced well by IceFrog

Gameplay is balanced in the sense that while other MOBAs would have only around 30-60 viable picks for the competitive scene, Dota 2 has heroes and strategies in the game that are more varied, which enables more heroes to be picked in the competitive scene. Number of Heroes Picked in Dota 2's Recent Major Tournament in the past 4 months (as of July 2016) is 86/111 heroes picked and 100 out of 111 heroes picked. To compare between Dota 2 and LoL pick diversity, LoL has 64 out of 131 champions picked for LCS. There are also factors such as the ban/pick phase difference and the more rigid positions in LoL that may limit the viability for different playstyles and hero picks (typically it is 2 (AD, Support Bot) -1 (AP mid) -1 (Tank Off) - 1 (Jungler), with a possibility of double junglers in LoL). On the other hand in Dota 2, there are a lot more different positions compared to Lol/Smite such as Duo Mid (1-2-2), Traditional (2-1-2), One Jungler (1-2-1-1, most similar to league), One Roamer (1-2-1-1 as well with the difference being the hero roams the map for kills to create space for the mid and safelane rather than farm the jungle which can weaken a lane), Duo Roamer (1-1-1-2, all lanes are weaker in lane presence with the tradeoff being they get solo experience with two aggressive supports roaming), Trilane (1-1-3, Aggresive or Passive Trilane) and Abandoned Offlane (0-1-3-1 where the offlane is completely left empty due to a strong duo or trilane on the opposing team). More heroes are viable and balanced in Dota 2 partly due to the greater flexibility in laning. This can be attributed the mechanics such as creep pulling and creep stacking which allows the team doing trilane to make up for the shared experience between three heroes. Besides that, the existence of teleport scrolls that allow you to defend your towers or punish a tower dive also allows you to react and assist other lanes. In pub games, any hero/lane/lineup can work, and it is more about your individual mechanical skills (understanding of hero, combo execution, map awareness, last hitting, timings, item builds, flow) over the lack of coordination and teamwork (on both teams). See More

Top Pro

Fair free-to-play business model

Microtransactions involve only cosmetic items such as custom weapon designs or clothing colors and tickets to view live events. See More

Top Pro

Incredibly deep gameplay

For players who put the time into Dota 2 to get past the early beginner phase, Dota 2 can become an extremely satisfying game. There's a reason it's one of the most popular eSports titles in the world. The amount of strategy, skill and variables involved make it a very deep game where anything could happen. See More

Top Pro

Regularly updated

Dota 2 is regularly patched and changed with new characters being introduced and balance changes made. This can prevent the game from becoming too stale as the tactics utilized by players changes often. See More

Top Pro

Deny creeps

You can kill your own low-health creeps to deny experience and gold to the other team. See More

Top Pro

Has user-created custom games

Dota 2 includes Workshop Tools that allow users to create custom games as well as other play them. See More

Top Pro

Dota 2 has the world's biggest e-sports tournament

At The International 4 in summer 2014, players raised the prize pool to more than $10 million, one of the largest prize pools in E-Sports history. See More

Top Pro

Can be played online and offline

With different Bots difficulty levels, if you play offline, you still need to be logged in Steam. See More

Top Pro

Start with all heroes

You don't need to unlock or purchase characters. See More

Top Pro

In-game mic

Has in-game mic so you can get toxic with voice chat. See More

Top Pro

It's very well-balanced

Gameplay is balanced in the sense that while other MOBAs would have only around 30-60 viable picks for the competitive scene, Dota 2 has heroes and strategies in the game that are more varied, which enables more heroes to be picked in the competitive scene. Number of Heroes Picked in Dota 2's Recent Major Tournament in the past 4 months (as of July 2016) is 86/111 heroes picked and 100 out of 111 heroes picked. To compare between Dota 2 and LoL pick diversity, LoL has 64 out of 131 champions picked for LCS. There are also factors such as the ban/pick phase difference and the more rigid positions in LoL that may limit the viability for different playstyles and hero picks (typically it is 2 (AD, Support Bot) -1 (AP mid) -1 (Tank Off) - 1 (Jungler), with a possibility of double junglers in LoL). On the other hand in Dota 2, there are a lot more different positions compared to Lol/Smite such as Duo Mid (1-2-2), Traditional (2-1-2), One Jungler (1-2-1-1, most similar to league), One Roamer (1-2-1-1 as well with the difference being the hero roams the map for kills to create space for the mid and safelane rather than farm the jungle which can weaken a lane), Duo Roamer (1-1-1-2, all lanes are weaker in lane presence with the tradeoff being they get solo experience with two aggressive supports roaming), Trilane (1-1-3, Aggressive or Passive Trilane) and Abandoned Offlane (0-1-3-1 where the offlane is completely left empty due to a strong duo or trilane on the opposing team). More heroes are viable and balanced in Dota 2 partly due to the greater flexibility in laning. This can be attributed the mechanics such as creep pulling and creep stacking which allows the team doing trilane to make up for the shared experience between three heroes. Besides that, the existence of teleport scrolls that allow you to defend your towers or punish a tower dive also allows you to react and assist other lanes. In pub games, any hero/lane/lineup can work, and it is more about your individual mechanical skills (understanding of hero, combo execution, map awareness, last hitting, timings, item builds, flow) over the lack of coordination and teamwork (on both teams). See More

See All

score 5 · Answer 5

Awesomenauts

Top Con

Dead community

Compared to most, this game's community is mostly dead. If you want to play a match, you'll have to beg your steam friends to join a game. The game's creators even went so far as to give away thousands of copies of the base game away for free some months ago. But people have given up on this game. See More

Top Pro

Like most MOBA games, Awesomenauts is deeply tactical

Awesomenauts is a very tactical game that will take time to learn all of it's nuances, with enough time and patience though the game pays out with plenty of fun to be had. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mixed

See All Specs

Top Con

Gameplay is boring

Can be fun for getting steam achievements but soon after, the game can quickly get very boring. See More

Top Pro

Simplified MOBA gameplay

Awesomenauts works as distilled down gameplay of a regular MOBA and is played on a 2d side scrolling plane. This has made it easier to be played on consoles as well as for first time MOBA players. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 6

Paladins

Top Pro

You can customize characters to fit your particular play style

Paladins has a system in place called "Card Mastery." Essentially, a player can spend their gold (or gems, if you choose to put money into it) on cards which will buff your character in specific ways in-game. These cards can radically change how characters are played, even allowing them to fit other roles in some situations. There are also "Burn Cards," which allow the player to make themselves stronger or even counteract opponents' strategies. These are limited in use but very powerful. See More

Top Con

Characters are not well balanced

Characters range from being highly underpowered to wildly overpowered. See More

Specs

See All Specs

Top Pro

Free to play

Everything that affects gameplay in Paladins can be unlocked simply by playing. However, there are cosmetic items available for purchase if you'd like to support the developers. See More

Top Con

In-game cards nullify characters

Cards like Cauterize and Wrecker completely nullify all tanks and healers halfway through the game, and it consistutes a battle of who gets the max first. See More

Top Pro

Well balanced strength of characters

All champions in Paladins are powerful and well balanced up to a point. Each character has their role in the games, and therefore, relies on tactics and champion picks in the game to win. If a champion, however, feels quite overpowered or weak, new patches will adjust him/her to a better choice for players. See More

Top Con

Still in Beta

Paladins is not a perfect game due to its constant lags and bugs and has to heavily rely on new patches to fix them. See More

Top Pro

An expansive roster of characters

Paladins currently has 22 characters available to play, and those span 4 different roles. It should also be noted that brand new players will start off with 7 characters and need to play to acquire gold in order to unlock new ones. See More

Top Pro

Fast-paced and full of action

Paladins is a fast-paced first person shooter. Games are over pretty quickly, and queue times are short, so you can make the most out of your play time. See More

See All

score 5 · Answer 7

AirMech

Top Pro

Inspired by Herzog Zwei

The developers of AirMech show a great bit of inspiration in AirMech that is derived from the 90s classic Herzog Zwei. Something of a spiritual succesor if you will that is now reformed into the current trends of MOBAs. See More

Top Con

Slight advantage gain to those that use real world money

In-app purchases are not limited to just cosmetic items, which means there is the possibility to get an advantage by unlocking worthwhile items with real world cash. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

See All Specs

Top Pro

Many options to experiment with

All of the in game options means there is a swath of strategies to experiment and play around with making for a game that one can spend a good amount of time playing in order to learn all the different aspects. See More

See All

score 8 · Answer 8

Strife

Top Pro

More than a clone

By utilizing a smaller hero pool, less items and no lane specific heroes, Strife is more than a LoL or Dota2 clone as these are original aspects that separates it from others. See More

Top Con

Community just as toxic as other MOBAs

Even as an entry level MOBA, the community is just as rough. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

See All Specs

Top Pro

Good for beginners and profesionals

Strife has simplified a lot of aspects of the MOBA genre to make their game more accessible to any skill level. See More

Top Pro

Designed with being less "toxic" in mind

The developer of Strife purposefully set out to create a MOBA that is less toxic than what is currently on offer, they have implemented blocked chat across teams as well as limited chat on ones own team, making for less communication between people who at times will be having heated moments. See More

See All

score 4 · Answer 9

Infinite Lagrange

Top Pro

3D space battles

Top Con

Grinding

Slightly pay-to-win. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

Top Pro

Great visuals and effects

Top Con

Steep learning curve

See All

score 1 · Answer 10

Cyber Hunter

TranquilRheda's Experience

Full of cheaters. Nobody cares aparently. Waste of time See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mixed

score 12 · Answer 11

10 Games Considered

My Recommendation for Battleborn

My Recommendation for Battleborn

No longer available on Steam

First-person perspective

All characters start each match at level one

My Recommendation for Paragon

My Recommendation for Paragon

3 dimensional game play and terrain

Queue takes too long

Unique third person view

Takes skill to aim basic attacks like a 3rd-person shooter

Wide array of interesting heroes

Best graphics in genre

Free to play on PC

My Recommendation for SMITE

My Recommendation for SMITE

3rd person view is a unique twist on the genre

Excessive snowballing on certain characters

Features three ranked modes

The third person view prevents sharing your teammates' vision

The least toxic community for a MOBA

Meta is unstable

Ultimate god pack

Great graphics and art style

An aggressive Titan for each team

Cross platform

Beginner friendly

Updates often

Auto buy

Even basic attacks are skill shots

6 great game modes and a rotating match of the day

Voice Guided System (VGS)

Shown difficulty levels

5 free gods and five more each week

Provides a lot of incentives to play the game often

Odyssey Event

Characters are derived from mythological gods

Completely play to win and not pay to win

Hi-Rez approaches the SMITE community for feedbacks, brilliant ideas and mechanics they could use in the game

My Recommendation for Dota 2

My Recommendation for Dota 2

Good for brain

Rude, toxic community

A very diverse MOBA

You love and hate the game

Players can trade self-made cosmetic items

Will consume a lot of time if you are not careful

Very active professional scene

Game has been broken down to make it noob friendly

Cross-platform

Most Diverse MOBA

Moba-leading graphics

Game balanced well by IceFrog

Fair free-to-play business model

Incredibly deep gameplay

Regularly updated

Deny creeps

Has user-created custom games

Dota 2 has the world's biggest e-sports tournament

Can be played online and offline

Start with all heroes

In-game mic

It's very well-balanced

My Recommendation for Awesomenauts

My Recommendation for Awesomenauts

Dead community

Like most MOBA games, Awesomenauts is deeply tactical

Gameplay is boring

Simplified MOBA gameplay

My Recommendation for Paladins

My Recommendation for Paladins

You can customize characters to fit your particular play style

Characters are not well balanced

Free to play

In-game cards nullify characters

Well balanced strength of characters

Still in Beta

An expansive roster of characters

Fast-paced and full of action