Brawl Stars: Review

I spent about 2.5 hours this morning playing Brawl Stars, from SUPERCELL. I have to admit, I had a blast. This is a great break from Vainglory (I’m not on a break, I love VG, but I mean literally - as a break). There are still some elements to a pure MOBA. You can’t be wreckless with your positioning. You need to have some skill in aiming your attacks and your SUPER attack, but it’s really fun, fast paced, and I actually found myself enjoying the cartoon graphics.

If you haven’t yet, give it a try. It’s not very challenging. It’s a nice casual MOBA-style game. It’s NOT a MOBA, but it has a MOBA-style and some elements to it. There are several game modes that can cater to different audiences. I’ve found myself enjoying the solo heist; 10 players, be the last one standing.

I currently favor Poco, because he’s got a nice hat, plays the guitar, and can poke from a decen race (doesn’t deal much dmg) and can heal himself and allies (if in a team fight).

My IGN is, of course, Lebatron.

EDIT: Upon playing further, and having woken up more, it’s really nothing like a MOBA, as @hazeleyes suggests. Definitely a hero shooter fun casual brawl game!

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I don’t think I’ve ever heard Brawl Stars called a MOBA-style game before :laughing: Tbh, it has more in common with Overwatch than League :wink:

I haven’t played in a while — next time I have my iPad handy, I’ll post my IGN also.

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I’ve been playing brawl stars since release. Really solid game, with imo thenproper use of joystick control scheme. Removing targeting as a mechanic makes so much more sense if your game is build around joystick.

It’s less of a MOBA as much as a hero shooter similar to overwatch. In fact the game is very similar to overwatch in many respects.

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Well, seeing as I’ve never played Overwatch, I wouldn’t know - not bad company to keep. MOBA games are really all I’ve cared about the past 6-10 years or so really, so that was a natural comparision for me to make.

I’ll certainly take your and @hazeleyes words for it! Regardless, it’s a fun game.

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Not to be rude, but making a review 2.5 hours in is too soon. You need to invest atleast 40 hours gametime or if single player game - play the whole game. Saying that, those games are made to “hook” and normally are more “fun” at the beginning and don’t throw into your face microtransactions at that point and the “new stuff” unlock rate is decent. Also it’s a relatively new game, normally when time progress those ftp games fills more and more with microtransactions - been there, saw it on many games.

I agree with your edit, especially given that I played such type of games like 15 years ago (including on android, like gun bros/gun bros 2) - nothing like a MOBA.

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I’ve been wondering about this game a bit, it looks fun and I like the style but is there any pay to win elements in it?

I’d say so. As you can level up your brawlers. That said, it does come down to understanding the maps, the specific game mode you’re playing, and your hero’s and your enemy heroes’ strengths and weaknesses.

For example, with my level 5 Poco, I have out dueled and won free for all matches against players with heroes between levels 7-9.

Short answer: yes, you can expedite the leveling process to make your heroes stronger faster through purchases.

Something to consider: the MM is pretty solid. You earn overall trophies, and then trophies with each hero. The MM seems to base it off the trophies you have with the brawler you’ve selected. So if you’re trying a new hero, it’s likely you’ll be matched up with others using heroes at low levels or that they’re less skilled with.

Overall, from my first impression, game seems relatively balanced.

How about obtaining other characters? Can you get them with whatever in game currency you earn or unlocked through levels or random with loot boxes?

You unlock certain heroes through the trophies you earn by winning matches, others you get in loot boxes chests.

Some characters are guaranteed to unlock via trophy progression, you get others randomly from chests. There is a luck system in place, so each chest that does not contain a new character increases your odds of getting one. Personally I think there is nothing inherently bad about any progression system, random or otherwise, and it really depends on how that system feels to use.

In general brawl stars is very enjoyable to progress through and very satisfying reward wise. Probably more so than VG despite the fact that VG gives you way more content for free, and allows you choose what you get (in the case of heroes). In brawl stars you cannot unlock skins for free pretty much at all. Generosity imo not = enjoyable progression, and brawl stars does a good job of keeping things fun.

If you’d like to party up for some 3v3, let me know! My IGN is Lebatron! Could chat on Discord or whatever too! Stomp some nooblets!

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For sure! What’s your discord?

My Discord username is Lebatron, if that helps. I think my tag # is #0450. Others are welcomed to hit me up there as well, for VG and Brawl Stars.

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