Realm of the Titans

Closed Beta
I got an invitation from Aeria games to join the closed beta of Realm of the Titans. I decided to try this out. The game is free to download and play (at least for now), happens mainly online but uses its own 'client' (not your browser). After downloading and installing 500Mb of whatever (windows only) I was set to go. If you don't know about MOBA, Aeria Games and Heroes, this is your post. I don't know either, so let's see what this game is like if you enter entirely blank.

Getting started
I found a goodie-code here, and signed in. This didn't work at first, but after logging in-and-out on the website first, I could get in. I confessed I was an amateur en started with the tutorial.

Tutorial
The game starts with a fully interactive in-game tutorial. I try to ignore the huge amounts of stats and panels at the top, bottom and side of my screen and follow the tutorial step by step. Right when I'm about to slay the inner tower my computer freezes. Patiently I restart, update my video drivers, grab a mouse (much better than a touchpad) and try again. I redo the whole tutorial and enter the main menu.

Play!
So, let's play. I missed the AI option and went straight into Match Making. This process picks 2 teams of 5 players each that all have roughly the same skill (skill as in: how good you are in playing the game). Every game starts by picking 1 Hero. Each one has different characteristics and special abilities. Once all players are set to go the game is loaded.

Level!
You start from scratch with your Hero at level 1. There's a battle field that contains buildings and scenery. You see the game from the top (there is a fog of war), and solely control (move / attack) your Hero. By collecting XP and gold you can level up, buy new items and improve your special abilities. This all will make you more powerful.

Battle!
On the map, players from both teams can freely roam around. There's other players to fight, but also Bosses, neutral creeps and spawned enemy units controlled by the computer. Fights happen real time (not turn based). Apart from normal attacking you can also launch special attacks. These cost mana. When hit you will loose health points. When they're all gone, you die (but will respawn after a timeout). Both health and mana can be restored in many ways (spells, items, potions, the fountain). There's also ways to heal others.

Win!
The goal is to knock down the opponents inner tower. There are also other towers in the game. These spawn AI-controlled units from the team that owns that tower. These will go to battle all by themselves. The map is mirrored and at the other side the same type of units will spawn. So without player interaction, there's a lot of fighting going on but this is well balanced. Players can strategically join parties of spawned troops and thereby shift the balance in their favor.

Titan Powerrrr!
Each player has a set of Titan powers he/she can choose from. These powers grow stronger over time (they do for all players). You can switch special power every 3 minutes.

Balance
There's a lot of balancing going on in the game. Death-timeouts become longer and more expensive (if you want to 'sell out' and immediately respawn by spending gold coins) at the end of the game, AI-controlled units become stronger, Titan skills more powerful, etc. A game will take between 10 and 45 minutes (very rough estimate based on my own games).

Meta-stuff
The fun part is that you all players will start from scratch at the start of each game. Well, there is some meta-leveling, badge collection, ranking, Titan power tweaking (this part seems not completely finished, or at least very unclear), in-game-money-spending and item-gathering going on. I am however not really sure whether this can actually bring in-game advantages (over other players).

Overall verdict
The game looks nice, is very fun to play and addictive. I do think there is many more games in the same genre, but since I don't know them I can not make a comparison and might be more positive than others would be. The game is also relatively accessible, I got the hang of it faster than I had expected when I first saw all the stats and panels. The tutorial will help, but will also leave a lot to discover. But over time, things will become more clear. And there is a lot of information in game about the effects of spells and items. One can always play an AI game to experiment, learn and get to know the different heroes and their strengths and weaknesses.

PS: This game is called a MOBO game: Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. It's a new and upcoming genre.