Creative Assembly, the creators of the popular Total War series, have announced that they are creating a new spinoff of the series titled Total War: Arena at the Game Developers Conference. This new game is heavily influenced on MOBA-style games such as League of Legends, while adding a new spin on the genre.
The game shall have 10 versus 10 battles, but instead of a huge pool of units to draw from, Total War:Arena will only have three units to control. Lead multiplayer designer Gabor Beressy spoke to Eurogamer on what makes this game unique from other MOBA-style games.
"This is not a MOBA-game...It's not a DOTA clone. How do you define a MOBA game? If you just say it's a multiplayer online battle arena, yes, it is. But it is Total War, so it's not a DOTA 2 clone. We're not going to have lanes and creeps and towers," Beressy explained.
Beressy spoke about the team's desire to keep Total War: Arena grounded in reality, and not make it more of a fantasy title.
"It is a Total War battle. We are going to keep the major pillars that fit the multiplayer in general. You still have massive armies, epic scale battles and all the spectacle of what Total War can offer, and we're still keeping tactical positioning of units. So everything that makes Total War battles fun is still there," he said.
The idea behind Total War: Arena is that Creative Assembly wanted to expand beyond the single player experience the Total War games are known for, and translate that experience into a multiplayer game. Players will be able to pick from many different ancient civilizations, such as Greeks and Romans, and have their squads fight strategic battles against other players. This free-to-play game does not currently have a release schedule yet.