Gigantic Preview

Pet sim gone awry.

Multiplayer-only games are on the rise, and the developers at Motiga are looking to throw their hat in the ring. With Gigantic, they’re adding a new element to the base-defense mode of play by making your “base” a living guardian, a gigantic creature that can attack and be powered up over the course of a game. Throw in 5-vs-5 team-based gameplay and charming cel-shaded graphics with a lot of flare, and Motiga could be bringing the next online obsession.

At the demo I attended at E3, the player chose a tank-like robot, named HK-206, from the 16 available characters. Rather than focus on hard-divided classes, they each fit into roughly a melee, shooter, or support type. But the developers made each character unique in terms of skillsets and field performance, designed to work for players with different gaming backgrounds. Not only is it unlikely that you’ll have the same experience with any two characters of any type, but even the same character can grow differently as they level up. A support character could start dealing real damage, and a melee character could develop projectiles and healing abilities. There are a lot of permutations.

Once the demo began, the wild action ensued with abilities exploding all over the place. The map, though long in nature, had a ton of corridors and pathways to explore, allowing a variety of tactics for approach. When the player did come upon the other team’s guardian, upon seeing its intimidating size, he didn’t last long trying to attack it. Coordinating with your team to take down or defend these beasts is key, and it’s important to bring the right mix of characters to make sure all scenarios are accounted for. That said, Motiga did indicate that an ambitious group could find success via attrition with a less varied set as well. The key is how they each choose their upgrades.

I took the opportunity to try out Gigantic on the show floor once the demo was over, going for the melee-ish character, Aisling, a young girl wielding a sword possessed by the ghost of her father (like you do). Aside from swinging the sword around, Aisling can use her father’s soul to attack or slow down enemies before her. Unfortunately, as my single-player ass learned the hard way, she’s not as effective wandering about on her own. I definitely needed the help of my teammates, and I needed to help my teammates in turn. Navigation and skill use felt smooth, and even at this stage, I didn’t experience any slowdown even when the screen was full of action.

Currently, the team at Motiga is working on readying Gigantic for a beta trial in August on both platforms. In the final release, it will feature opt-in cross-play between the platforms, but that feature won’t be available for beta. In terms of price, they were only willing to admit the game is free to play and wouldn’t elaborate any further. During my time with it, there weren’t any pay walls or prompts to shell out funds, so I cannot report on what impact real money will have in-game. They’re already building quite the fan base, so I hope that they maintain a model that treats those fans with proper respect.