Pokémon Unite

Oh no, it's happening again

"What if you play League of Legends- and you're immediately hooked?" Said the lady with the pretty voice in that advert I've seen so many times it's burned into my retinas. Just like that damn Nevercake advert, I feel like I've seen more ads for LOL than actual gameplay through Youtube marketing efforts alone. And why won't the algorithm just drop it and see the obvious; I'm not a MOBA player, never will be! I just don't have it in me to play a heavily competitive team-based arena grudge that's heavy on the moment-to-moment strategy and mastering 'mains'. The last competitive game I got down with was Overwatch, and even back in those days I never liked playing ranked for more than a couple times a month. I'm just not that competitive type game player. I mean sure, I played a little Battleborn when it first launched but we all remember what became of that game, don't we? (It died. Horribly.) I just don't have a MOBA heart in me. Or so I said to myself.

Seems that maybe the lady from the ads knew what she was talking about a lot more than I ever gave her credit for, because here I sit with a confession to make: I may have fallen for Pokémon Unite. Yes, the MOBA. Turns out all it took was for a brand I have some sort of nostalgic connection with to take the plunge and I would just end up falling into the trap hook-line-and-sinker. (I'm weaker willed than I thought) To be fair, it started under duress! They dangled a limited edition Zeraora at me and I just couldn't let that pass me by. That's a literal Mythical Pokémon which is part of this game's base lineup for some asinine reason; I wanted him! And so like the Pokémon rube that I am, I logged onto the game to see what it was like, acknowledged that the controls felt a little better to play then I expected, and now I'm an addict who's letting his Pillars of Eternity II playthrough quietly slip to the wayside so that he can play more Unite. Do you know how messed up that is? Probably, it should be fairly clear.

So long story short, I'm a hypocrite. Pokémon Unite has been a lot of fun and I'm starting to really get the appeal of this whole MOBA thing, it's a lot more accessible than I originally thought. (Or maybe I only think that because it's still the introductory weeks and this game is literally being marketed to Children. Whatever the case, I don't feel too proud of myself when I score another MVP badge.) I find the hand-holding built into the UI rather comforting, (It'll tell you how tough a Pokémon should be to play as well as what lane they're typically best for.) the maps are familiar and bright (Though I'm slightly upset that only Quick Match has multiple maps right now) and the idea of sticking Pokémon in a MOBA space fits so much better than I realised. They have literally over 900 different Pokémon to throw into various roles, be they mobs, bosses or new playables; this game could have growth potential indefinitely! Whether that potential will be readily met, however, is anyone's guess.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, Pokémon Unite plays like any MOBA you've played before with some small Pokémon twists. Once you've picked your Pokémon, equipped their utilities and placed your chosen item, you are sent off to the races as a level one weakling. From there you can feast on mobs to increase your level and get access to more abilities, as well as gain points which you can then 'bank' at the enemies' goal. (And if you're playing an applicable Pokémon, certain levels will 'evolve' them as you might expect) The struggle becomes a back and forth of defence and attack as you try to protect your own goal and pick off your opponents, the MOBA dance of death. Here and there some special mobs will spawn that grant bonuses upon being slain, such as the basic specials who will give you a boost to an attribute, the bigger specials that might buff the entire team or throw themselves hurtling towards an enemy goal, or the centre special (who tends to be Zapdos or Regigigas right now) who will give all the team 20 points and temporarily make all enemy goals insta-score zones. (So no more waiting around to bank points all vulnerable-like)

For my part I happen to think that the core gameplay, however appropriated from it's contemporaries it is, can be endless fun all on it's own, but I do think that right now the game has a serious lack of driving force for the more achievement-focused player out there which is going to become slowly more apparent once this game moves out of the honey-moon phase. What are the things that are going to keep bringing players back beyond the thrill of entering the arena again? Right now there are some challenges that are limited for the first few months and exist mostly just to get new players to try out all the different modes, and I'm sure new challenges will role in decently regularly, but that's just the fluff ontop of the cake; what about the core progression? You can't expect character level to be the only thing people grind for, can you? (That would be crazy, right?)

Of course, the real progression train they want people to get on board with is the acquisition and boosting of held items in order to provide that little percentile boost which starts to make all the difference in the later levels. The only problem with this being the problem pointed out by MoistCr1TiKaL (I hate typing that name and I know he does it on purpose) wherein you can literally buy the boosts for these items, thus creating a pay-to-win atmosphere. In fact, this has been a big topic of debate over the last few weeks, sparked by Charlie, (Mr Moist) which some are saying has the potential to kill this game, and I concur. The biggest mistake someone can make in these companies is operating under the impression that their name gives them immunity, because unless they've spent decades fostering the exact type of community that will put up with their machinations (like sports games have) they're in for a rude awakening.

You see, nothing turns a relationship more sour than talking about money, it's like the shortcut speedrunner route straight to rocky grounds, and if someone who loses a match of Pokémon Unite is steaming, thinking about the money their opponent must have spent to get that boost- well, you can see the seeds of discontent being laid, no? Marvel's Avengers is a game that thought it could get away with flooding microtransactions just on the strength of it's name alone, and that game didn't even have pay-to-win Microtransactions! What was the result? An awful first impression that has irrevocably tainted the game so that even after a straight year of substantial free content, that game is struggling to justify it's existence due to poor player numbers. That isn't the sort of future I want for Pokémon Unite, because I kind of like it.

Of course, I would throw in other suggestions such as character progression trees to encourage players to specialise, and maybe a little bit more general customisability in the vein of how League does things, because those cosmetics have sailed many a fan-led crusade over in that community. But for humble beginnings I suppose that Pokémon Unite is doing well enough, considering that I can't get enough of the game and it's starting to seep into my psyche. I love seeing these little Pocket Monsters expand their horizons into newer fields and would love it even more to see them excel, the more diversity that hits this franchise the better for everyone in the long run. Just- be that little bitter better, guys, you're so close that it would be a tragedy to let it all fall apart now. If by this time next year Pokémon Unite is a ghost-town, I'm going to be distraught.