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Game: Aerena: Clash of Champions

  • Aerena: Clash of Champions Review
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    Aerena: Clash of Champions Review

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    Aerena is a free-to-play game of strategy, where being two moves ahead of your opponent is the key to victory, much like Chess. But where Chess is a medieval-themed game, with knights and kings and queens, Aerena (or Ærena as the developers sometimes spell it) is a silly blend of steampunk and Saturday morning cartoons.With players selecting three out of ten characters as their champions, they must do their best to destroy the enemy player's massive battleship. Where chess is a calm game of strategy, Aerena is more akin to a Monster Truck Show, with champions blasting one another to pieces all while an announcer shouts out the entrances of additional champions to the fight.The reasoning for the titular "arena" misspelling is apparent as soon as the battlefield is glimpsed. Taking place in the aether, or Æther (get it now?), of the realm, the conflict is high above the earth, literally within the clouds. Each player has their own giant warship (currently there are five in the game to choose from) and must destroy their opponent's ship in the ensuing battle. 
  • Aerena: Clash of Champions Preview
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    Aerena: Clash of Champions Preview

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    On another planet Earth that's very different from ours, human history has taken a dark turn. The discovery of Aether early in the 20th Century granted mankind almost limitless power - and sparked a war for control of that power unlike any ever seen. Great Aether-powered flying machines plied the skies, raining devastation down upon the cities below until there was virtually nothing left. From the ashes of civilization, a desperate humanity founded the United Nations, which took control of the few remaining Aether extractors and replaced war with The Games - battles between champions for control of the Aether.That's the story behind Aerena: Clash of Champions, the new online battle arena game from Cliffhanger Productions, and it's a pretty good one. "We're proud of the original story behind Aerena (actually we got carried away and wrote MUCH more than necessary), and this will increasingly show in the upcoming versions," Creative Director Jan Wagner told me. "I think the care and love for the universe we created helps set us apart from the more utilitarian approach of many other games.""Aerena is different from other entries in the MOBA genre in other ways, too. Wagner acknowledged that comparisons are inevitable, but said that Cliffhanger's game has little in common with other battle arenas at the gameplay level. "We really wanted to create something that combined the tactical depth of a game like chess with the sort of personalized play style you see in a collectible card game. So, each champion has set strengths and limitations, and building your team is one layer of personalization, but then you refine that even further by stacking your deck, so to speak, with abilities from ships and Aether shells," he explained."Aerena is turn-based, but the time limit per turn also adds a speed-chess element to the gameplay. It encourages players to really dig into their teams' potential combinations and develop strategies," he continued. "On the flipside of that, getting hit actually gives an Aether boost, so matches stay competitive until the end. After all, we want people to win through skill, not because they happened to land the first blow."