Critical Index Reviews: Arena of Valor

The King doesn’t go unscathed

Video Game: Arena of Valor

Developer: Timi Studios

Publisher: Tencent Games (Global). Garena (Philippines)

Platform: Mobile. Through iOS and Android, Nintendo Switch (Future Update)

Reviewed on: Samsung Galaxy Note 5

Network Connection: Required

Internet Connection: Sky Broadband 50 Mbps, Smart LTE

Game Time: Around 40 Hours. Currently at level 20. Ranked at Silver 1

THE HYPE:

I am coming from the perspective of migration: I have been playing Mobile Legends: Bang Bang for quite a considerable amount of time. (in short, addicted) As I have been playing it closely with a group of friends. It can’t be helped that Arena of Valor will be compared to the likes of Mobile Legends, Vain Glory, and Heroes Evolved. Massive Online Battle Arenas (MOBAs) that currently share the big pie of the Philippine market.

To give a brief background on the game, Arena of Valor is also known as “Honor of Kings” and “Strike of Kings” globally, developed by The Timi Studio Group. The game is published globally by Tencent Games of the Tencent Group, one of the biggest gaming and technology conglomerates globally. Here in the Philippines, Garena, a wholly owned company of Tencent Games, manages AoV.

Much hype has been given to this game. In fact, AoV just might be the most profitable game for 2016 and 2017, and is currently on track to become the most profitable game in video game history. How so? According to various media outlets and video game websites, AoV makes around 430 million US Dollars a month, which makes it the top grossing game monthly.

THE PROS OF THE GAME

At its core, Arena of Valor is your standard, yet competitive 5 versus 5 MOBA game like DOTA 2 and League of Legends. As it says: 3 lanes, 2 teams, 1 winner. Characters are also similar close to most standard and mobile MOBA games: Fighters, Mages and Support types which can be drilled down further into specific classes such as tanks, fighters, assassins, etc. The main goal is to destroy the enemy base, and hopefully through good enough team work. Pretty much standard.

The game finds its merits primarily in presentation and customization. Arena of Valor is quite beautiful. Character designs are in high definition, which makes for visually pleasing animations especially during combat. It helps add to the game’s immersion, as if you weren’t playing the game using a smart phone. AoV’s presentation has been utilized to the point that graphics presentation is already comparable to that of LoL’s. AoV’s environment is one of the best, if not, the best coming from a mobile MOBA.

Game pace is also comparable to that of an esports title. The game seems a bit slower in pace as compared to Mobile Legends. Team composition is much more crucial in this game, and much more balanced. Having three mages, one assassin, and one fighter won’t cut it out. You really would have to stick to a balanced frontline and backline composition. Your team’s Attack Damage Carry (ADC) can’t roam freely and farm, and flicker the moment he sees danger. Conditions such as slow or stun are quite noticeable in this game. This makes for teamwork to be the X factor in providing a team’s victory, instead of a pure carry game.

THE CONS OF THE GAME

However, while the game does seem like a refined the mobile MOBA genre, it does have its share of flaws which can be fixed in future patches. Most noticeable would be instances of frame skipping during gameplay. The game does have an FPS monitor, and it does show at random instances. Secondly, a language filter has not yet been set by publisher Garena. As compared to its peer Mobile Legends that seems to have a very strict language filter, you can pretty much get away with cursing all throughout the game, which does not help containing community toxicity in the game.

Another unavoidable issue, but a core part of the gameplay is the game’s responsiveness with its network. Being just two weeks after its Philippine release, it can’t be helped that AoV will be compared to Mobile Legend’s dedication for a Philippine server. Using a Sky Broadband 50 Mbps connection, network ping flirts at around 100ms to 150ms, which can be troublesome if you’re the type of player that values accuracy with a premium, affecting characters like Grakk’s hook or Mina’s Scythe pull. Using a Smart LTE connection, ping is around 70ms to 120ms, but the connection seems to change from 4G to H+, which bugs down the game and creates an inconvenience especially during team clashes. As compared to Mobile Legends, using the same connections, yielding a 15ms to 20ms ping using a Sky Broadband, and a 50ms to 75ms using Smart’s LTE connection. AFK players are not automatically tagged to become AI subordinates that can provide extra bodies during team clashes. Instead, these players just linger around the respawn area until the game is done.

THE X FACTOR: ARCANAS MAKE THE GAME ADDICTIVE

The most addictive thing to do in Arena of Valor is to tinker with Arcana Pages. Arcanas are basically runes that provide specific stat boosts to your characters. Arcanas are categorized in three different branches, representative of a specific color: Red, Purple, and Green. Every time your account levels up, you unlock an arcana slot moving from left to right.

The game provides you with two arcana pages for free. With that, players can customize their character’s additive stats freely. Unlike its peers, arcana upgrades are fully to the player’s discretion. For example, mobile legends has a similar system, yet pre-determined emblem system. Each time you level the emblem in Mobile Legends, the player is not in control of which stat he can strengthen.

In AoV, if a player wants to purely pad the cooldown reduction stat or the HP stat to boost a certain character, he can. This brings up to a myriad of combinations of arcanas that can support either a class or a specific character. For example, the Assassin “Butterfly” can be customized in so many ways, such as reducing cooldown, increasing movement speed, increasing attack ability, either, or, or all of the said combinations. Testing this customization in multiplayer is what gets players hooked.

EQUIPMENT BUILDING LIMBO

In Arena of Valor, players only get to tinker with just one set of equipment customization, as compared to Mobile Legend’s three. However, AoV presents the “Pro Build” which is basically the equipment combinations that has provided the most victories for that character. Players can still set their equipment accordingly to their playstyle, but the pro build does provide a plug-and-play setting to your character.

INDUSTRY ISSUE TO ADDRESS: AOV’S FREEMIUM IMPLEMENTATION

AoV uses several currencies in-game, just like most of free-to-play games. The standard currency is gold, which can be gained through gameplay or unlocking achievements. There are gems that are also acquired through achievements and guild participation. There are also vouchers, AoV’s currency derived from real money purchases.

On top of the game’s starter pack of achievements and easy gold acquisition, it seems that game discourages you from grinding your way into buying your characters. Players have a daily cap of 500 gold that can be acquired through gameplay. The daily rewards can only net you an additional 500 gold. While players can get an additional 1100 gold by leveling up their accounts, required experience points increases per level. In short, grinding for a character that costs 20,000 gold, will highly likely take users around 15 to 20 days in order to buy. Moreover, the gold currency is much more necessary for building up an arcana set. In its current iteration, only the gold currency can net players with arcanas while vouchers can be used to purchase characters.

Unlocking Characters in AoV using real money looks relatively cheaper as compared to other titles out in the market. Standard costs for unlocking characters range from 200 pesos to 350 pesos at most.

THE VERDICT: PLAY IT NOW, especially with friends.

Arena of Valor does bring the hype, that’s for sure. The ability to bring a high-definition 5v5 MOBA game play in a touch screen is certainly impressive. Couple that with addictive customization with the Arcana, it does give the gamer a lot of breathing room to personalize according to his playstyle. Matchmaking is currently easy, but expect a lot of toxicity as you would expect from a competitive scene of LoL or Dota 2.

However, this game in its current state is marred with issues as well. The subtle suggestion to use real money instead of the game’s in-game currency is quite evident. Game responsiveness is an issue for the time being, and the language/profanity filter has not been set-up in the game. In due time, we hope these issues are going to be resolved.

At the end of the day, go for the mobile MOBA that you will involve you as much as possible, and that means having a group of friends play with you. But what Arena of Valor presents is quite the visual treat of a video game on your smart phone.