Over half a decade later from when the servers shut down, moba-hybrid Gigantic is returning to PC and consoles and players couldn’t be more excited. So, here’s what’s changing with Gigantic.
When you look at Gigantic, it’s rather quite unique in its visuals and design. Even as an Unreal Engine 3 game, it still holds up in certain areas today. Unfortunately, its crossplay was segmented, the original developers ran out of funding after a timely delay of the game’s launch, and they had issues monetizing the game properly. By the end, Motiga, the developers at the time, couldn’t keep the lights on as they bounced from publisher to publisher.
Unfortunately, Motiga had to close its doors after running out of funds. This time around, it looks like Gigantic will implement some quality features right out of the gate. Gigantic: Rampage Edition will have full crossplay from PC, Steam, and Epic Games Store to consoles—no more having to split the player base in two like the previous iteration of Gigantic did.
But that’s just the start, because Gigantic is adding new features while polishing parts of the game that were already there. Here’s everything that’s being added in Rampage Edition:
- Two new maps: Picaro Bay, a seaside map with verticality and a pirate theme, and Heaven’s Ward that is industrialized with factories and warehouses.
- Two new heroes: Roland, a one-armed man with a very big gun, and Kajir, a dexterous snake-feline hybrid brawler.
- Rush: a new game mode that focuses more on action, speed, and accessibility for those not very familiar with the main mode ‘Clash’.
- A completely revamped tutorial that should teach new players the game basics more effectively.
- Quality of life improvements across the board including multiple custom skill loadouts.
- Smarter AI bots that play more like humans.
Beyond those fixes and additions, though, is the fact that Gigantic is moving away from its previous free-to-play model. Instead, Gigantic: Rampage Addition will have a single box price while also introducing progression systems that allow you to change aspects of your hero via a loadout system. This also means that this new version of Gigantic won’t have any micro-transactions this time around. Sounds like a win/win to me!
This is a consumer-friendly move and should prove successful. Especially when you look at another game called Inkbound, a roguelite-moba hybrid. Inkbound used to have a cash shop and paid DLC. Then, the devs made it all free and took away the cash shop and the community celebrated. Which brought the game’s rating from a low-mostly positive, to a very positive rating on Steam.
At the end of the day, Gigantic is returning in a state that’s better than it has ever been before. Time will tell if Rampage Edition can stand on its own two legs if given the very best start possible. Thankfully, we will find out soon, as Gigantic: Rampage Edition launches everywhere on April 9 this year.
For more like this, check out this news piece covering Gigantic shutting down half a decade ago.
