Pokemon Unite aims to do what no other MOBA has managed to do before — make the genre accessible. Heroes of the Storm has been the most successful attempt so far, but even then, it’s only comparatively simple when placed next to the likes of League of Legends and Dota 2. Pokemon Unite wants to appeal to your little brother/sister, and it’s a tall order considering the many intricacies that have kept the genre’s leaders relevant for so long.
Pokemon Unite follows MOBA tradition by having players fight across lanes, or paths as they’re referred to here. In its ranked mode, two paths make up the map with each featuring two goal zones per team, along with a base. While MOBAs typically require the player to destroy towers and kill minions to progress, here the action is much more in line with a traditional sport. Knocking out the NPC Pokemon that litter the map rewards you with Aeos orbs, which you must then score into your opponents’ goal zones. After a certain number of points has been scored, that goal zone is destroyed, with you then needing to repeat this process until you can attack your opponent’s base.
This concept does away with the last-hitting of hordes of minions in most MOBAs, offering a refreshing change of pace that doesn’t require the player to be so mentally engaged with the on-screen action. I’ve described it to LoL-playing friends as “League of Legends, but if you could turn your brain off while playing.” Some will balk at this description, but as someone who regularly plays LoL and is routinely frustrated by it, it’s nice to experience that same gameplay loop but without the plethora of mechanics that come with it. The sole focus on scoring goals and hitting other Pokemon is a pleasant break from the genre’s conventions.
When you’re trying to score goals, your opponents are inevitably attempting the same thing. As is the case in LoL and Dota, you’ll need to remain aware of map positioning. While you’re pushing one path, the other team might be doing the same to the other, and if you don’t want your goal zone destroyed you’ll need to pivot to ensure you’re keeping your bases covered. However, unlike other MOBAs, there’s a lot more room for creativity in your strategy. Roles are suggested (for instance, the game recommends attackers go in the top lane) but are in no way required. You can still win a game with four Pokemon smashing down the bottom path if you’re quick enough, and as each round is only a forgiving 10 minutes long, you won’t be stuck in a neverending battle of attrition if you’re on the losing end.
Abilities and evolutions
Each Pokemon has two changeable abilities in their arsenal, along with their basic attack and a special ultimate move. As you level up, you’ll be able to select more powerful moves to switch your old ones out with, in a neat similarity to the Pokemon RPGs. For instance, Charmander comes equipped with a basic fire spin move. As he levels up and evolves into Charmeleon, he’ll be given access to other alternative moves, or even a more powerful version of the fire spin. When he becomes Charizard, he gets given a fire-breathing ultimate or ‘Unite move’ that can take on swathes of enemies at any given time.
Some abilities are more complex to figure out than others, but unlike other MOBAs, players don’t need to worry about an exhaustive number of wildly different moves. Instead, Pokemon Unite feels more like the Smash Bros. to League of Legends’ Guilty Gear; there’s certainly depth here, but newcomers will be able to gleefully button mash without feeling overwhelmed.
While each Pokemon is distinctly different both to play as and against, they each neatly fit into their attacker, defender, all-rounder, and support roles. Attackers are squishier but deal a lot of damage, defenders are tanks with crowd control, support aid their team in combat, while all-rounders provide a little bit of everything. I preferred the certified big lads Charizard and Machamp, who both evolve from their weaker forms into their final, monstrous selves. Some Pokemon can’t evolve at all, and while it only serves as a visual indication of a Pokemon’s increased level with no tangible differences, I preferred the “oh shit!” moment of becoming my final evolution and watching as my opponents ran scared.
Microtransactions and ‘pay-to-win’
Unfortunately, while Pokemon Unite does a great job of simplifying a complicated genre, the same can’t be said of its various currencies and microtransactions. There are no fewer than five different currencies here, with Aeos coins, Aeos tickets, fashion tickets, and Holoware tickets being obtainable in-game, while Aeos gems are its premium currency. Unite is free-to-play, though there is room here for pay-to-win. Item Enhancers, which increase the power of your Pokemon’s held items, are distributed by leveling up the Battle Pass, and while many are given out for free those who purchase the Battle Pass will receive more. It remains to be seen just how much of an impact these Enhancers have on competitive play, but it’s not looking good from this vantage point.
It’s also off-putting to see a respected, kid-friendly brand such as Pokemon implementing a gacha system, wherein players can purchase energy with Aeos gems in order to spin a wheel and be rewarded some of the game’s best stuff. The simplification of a complicated genre for a younger crowd followed by an abundance of microtransactions rubbed me up the wrong way, and if you have a child who wants to see what the latest Pokemon game is all about, I’d advise you to proceed with caution here.
Still, the perniciousness of these microtransactions is in question right now. I’ve used Item Enhancers and haven’t noticed an alarming difference in gameplay, and the Battle Pass is only $5 at the time of this writing with plenty of rewards being distributed for free. But as we’ve seen with other free-to-play games, there’s still plenty of room for this to get worse in the future.
As it stands, Pokemon Unite is a surprisingly considered take on the MOBA genre that does the best job yet of making the genre accessible to all players. I’ve been having a lot of fun with it and, unlike League of Legends, it doesn’t want to make me rip my eyeballs out of their sockets whenever the game doesn’t go my way. Its plentiful microtransactions are worrying and players should keep this in mind if they have a penchant for overspending in these types of games, but if you can ignore all of that, this is a solid spin-off.
