As we’ve just reported, the open beta for S2 Games’s new MOBA Strife is now available globally. And it comes with the first piece of what will eventually become an episodic free-to-play single-player campaign called “The Prophecy of Darkstone”. I was able to get my hands on “Child of the Dawn,” the campaign’s first episode, at an S2 Games event in Seattle on Wednesday.
S2 Games is calling Child of the Dawn “the first true single-player experience that has ever been included in a MOBA,” and they might be right. The episode I played was quite short, but it was definitely very different from anything I’d ever experienced in a MOBA before. Warning: mild spoilers ahead!
Child of the Dawn puts you into the shoes of Strife hero Bastion, a serving boy in a medieval fantasy realm who is thrown into prison and condemned to death after word spreads that he is a child of prophecy destined for great things. The episode begins with Bastion’s escape from his prison cell, with the help of Strife hero Rook, and ends with him defeating an evil mage and the executioner who was originally meant to kill him.
Gameplay
In terms of gameplay, Child of the Dawn is surprisingly varied. It’s not going to take you very long to complete (I was able to beat it in about 15-20 minutes), but within that short time-frame you’ll do quite a bit. Bastion’s escape includes combat, a stealth section requiring precise timing and some mild puzzle-solving, and a fantastic platformer-like section where you step into the shoes of Rook, using his grappling-hook ability to dodge fireballs while taking on enemy archers. It all concludes with a sizable boss fight that’ll require you to dodge the executioner’s attacks, stun him, and then swoop in to deal damage while he’s temporarily immobilized.It wasn’t a huge challenge, but I genuinely did have a lot of fun playing it, and it was quite interesting to see the ways MOBA controls made for fun gameplay even outside of the multiplayer battle context they’re generally found in. Although not everything will translate into the proper game, I expect these single player episodes will also be an excellent tutorial of sorts for players who are trying out MOBA-style controls for the first time.
Story
In terms of story, it’s certainly not the most unique premise in the world; it seems like the humble serving boy is always the one who ends up fulfilling prophecies and riding dragons in fantasy sagas. But the episode does still hold some interest from a story perspective, as it’s quite interesting to see the different ways that Bastion and Rook react to things. In particular, I liked the contrast in their views on what to do with the executioner after knocking him out early in the episode. Rook was all about killing him permanently, but Bastion balked and wanted to spare him. It was a very simple moment, but it showed a little bit about the character of both heroes.Conclusions
In the end, Child of the Dawn is a bit like a handful of popcorn: light, enjoyable, and fleeting. It’s a unique experience in a MOBA that will leave you wondering why no one else has done it yet, and it certainly left me wanting more. S2 Games wasn’t willing to commit to a schedule for releasing future episodes, but they did say the next episode was likely coming in “a few months” and that they expect to get quicker at releasing new episodes as time goes on.Child of the Dawn, like the rest of Strife, is free-to-play, and it’s available in the game’s open beta as of today, so you can play through the episode for yourself right here.
Disclaimer: Strife developer S2 Games paid for GiA’s travel and accommodations in Seattle. We accepted because we maintain full editorial control (we can still write whatever we want), and because we think our audience is genuinely interested in Strife and a bunch of the other games at PAX. For more information about our ethics policy, click here.
