Solstice Arena Review-Einfo Games

The main point of difference that Zynga went for with Solstice Arena, is that it's the only MOBA on mobile and the games are incredibly quick. 10 - 20 mins are the game lengths on average which suits the mobile platform as well as the PC platform. I liked the short length as I got some of the same satisfaction from finishing a LoL game without the 30 minute wait. However that being said, the long games of LoL are twice as satisfying when you finish them. The game is very easy to snowball, if one team gets a solid lead it may as well over. The same could be said about LoL, however the shorter games mean that a lead can be taken advantage of quicker and pushed to victory easier. If you aren't familiar with MOBA's the basic concept is that the 2 teams compete to destroy a structure in the opposing teams base. In the case of Solstice Arena there is a main turret at the end of each base that the opposing team needs to destroy. There are only 3 towers separating each team from the main turret so the games tend to shift one way and stay that way for the majority of the game. Due to the short length of the games I feel that Solstice Arena lacks the same depth that LoL has in the way of strategy. I feel that the decision to port Solstice Arena was made purely to get more money. Zynga made nearly no effort to make that PC port any more user friendly. The menus are confusing and poorly laid about because they were designed for mobile devices. The gameplay formula works well for a mobile device, but I feel the controls will translate badly to mobile devices. Solstice Arena looks alright when it comes to graphics, but being a mobile game, it falls short of other games on the PC market like DOTA. If it were only a PC release, the graphics would appear really outdated. The music is pretty good but I couldn't help but thinking that it sounded just a little similar to the LoL theme music. For mobile standards, Solstice Arena presents itself really well, however for PC standards it falls short. Solstice Arena shows signs of creativity but doesn't back it up in the same way as its competitors. Each character looks like they have an interesting back-story behind them, but it's never explored. In LoL for example, each and every character has a back-story and the entire game has lore that the player can access. Solstice Arena on the other hand makes no effort to flesh out the characters in game, when it has become almost a feature of the other games in its genre. The worst part is, the characters look really interesting and each could have some really interesting stories behind them, but it just isn't there. Solstice Arena has a good lifespan. Like LoL it is addictive and fun…

Solstice Arena

Gameplay - 7

Presentation - 5

Story/Creativity - 2

Lifespan - 6

Freeness - 8

5.6

I think that game developers need to stop trying to clone popular franchises. As different as Solstice Arena is, I can tell that it just wants to be League of Legends. The annoying thing is Solstice Arena isn't that bad, but it won't garner as much attention or popularity by trying to compete with a massive game like LoL. The weird decision that Zynga made was making it originally for mobile which means they dodge most of the flak from trying to compete with LoL. However I'm not sure how well a MOBA game works on a mobile device.

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The main point of difference that Zynga went for with Solstice Arena, is that it’s the only MOBA on mobile and the games are incredibly quick. 10 – 20 mins are the game lengths on average which suits the mobile platform as well as the PC platform. I liked the short length as I got some of the same satisfaction from finishing a LoL game without the 30 minute wait. However that being said, the long games of LoL are twice as satisfying when you finish them. The game is very easy to snowball, if one team gets a solid lead it may as well over. The same could be said about LoL, however the shorter games mean that a lead can be taken advantage of quicker and pushed to victory easier. If you aren’t familiar with MOBA’s the basic concept is that the 2 teams compete to destroy a structure in the opposing teams base. In the case of Solstice Arena there is a main turret at the end of each base that the opposing team needs to destroy. There are only 3 towers separating each team from the main turret so the games tend to shift one way and stay that way for the majority of the game. Due to the short length of the games I feel that Solstice Arena lacks the same depth that LoL has in the way of strategy. I feel that the decision to port Solstice Arena was made purely to get more money. Zynga made nearly no effort to make that PC port any more user friendly. The menus are confusing and poorly laid about because they were designed for mobile devices. The gameplay formula works well for a mobile device, but I feel the controls will translate badly to mobile devices.

Solstice Arena looks alright when it comes to graphics, but being a mobile game, it falls short of other games on the PC market like DOTA. If it were only a PC release, the graphics would appear really outdated. The music is pretty good but I couldn’t help but thinking that it sounded just a little similar to the LoL theme music. For mobile standards, Solstice Arena presents itself really well, however for PC standards it falls short.

Solstice Arena shows signs of creativity but doesn’t back it up in the same way as its competitors. Each character looks like they have an interesting back-story behind them, but it’s never explored. In LoL for example, each and every character has a back-story and the entire game has lore that the player can access. Solstice Arena on the other hand makes no effort to flesh out the characters in game, when it has become almost a feature of the other games in its genre. The worst part is, the characters look really interesting and each could have some really interesting stories behind them, but it just isn’t there.

Solstice Arena has a good lifespan. Like LoL it is addictive and fun to play, but lacks a lot of the polish of its competitors, meaning it just doesn’t compare to its competition very well at all.

The in-game purchase system in Solstice Arena is, unsurprisingly, very similar to League of Legends. It has 2 forms of in-game currency, one that you earn whilst playing matches and one you pay for. Well if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it, so I can’t really fault the system.

I only got to play the PC version of Solstice Arena, and it doesn’t compare to its competition. It feels like it should have been released a few years ago by the quality of the PC port. However for mobile standards this game is a really quality product. Unfortunately, I can only judge the game on the PC version, and that version just isn’t very good.

Solstice Arena is available for PC through Steam and mobile devices.