The two most significant Paragon remakes are Paragon: The Overprime (formerly ‘Overprime) by Netmarble F&C Team SoulEve and Predecessor by Omeda Studios.
Now, I’m sure many will love Overprime and others will prefer Predecessor. It’s all about expectations and preferences.
I can only speak for myself here and I can tell you that I did enjoy both Overprime November final playtest and Predeccesor in April and the current playtest.
NOTE: Keep in mind that the devs are currently focusing on gameplay first in early access. The game is still in development as of the time writing this article. Many features are in the works. I share my own opinion based on solely my own gameplay experience and my expectations.
What I love about Predecessor in Early Access:
- Slower more strategic plays (Overprime felt more “brawl-y” with less emphasis on the lane phase)
- I prefer the map design, especially mid-lane and jungle sections (although I love the shadow bushes mechanic in Overprime)
- The game is being developed using Unreal Engine 5
- The map looks beautiful with atmospheric jungle and overall visual appeal (Overprime doesn’t look as appealing)
- Gameplay mechanics and animation seems to be nailed pretty well
- The game felt more well-balanced (Overprime felt way off, but that can be tweaked later on in early access)
- Early access focus on gameplay fun first, which is true for any game, if that fails, nothing else really matters
- Beautiful visual effects
- Controller support (Still needs work)
- Good graphics tweaking settings
- Seems like a good optimization
What I don’t like about Predecessor in Early Access:
- The music and sound effects sound unbalanced, tone-wise, kind of mono-sounding. Like something is totally wrong there and I can’t really point out the exact problems.
- Lots of features missing: hero profile and progression, no rank mode, no store, no cool skins (compared to Predecessor), missing lots of characters from the original game, missing voice lines and sound effects
- Worrying little development progression compared to April’s playtest
- Bad UI design in my opinion (Overprime is MILES AHEAD in terms of quality), I actually really hate it, disconnected from the overall design of the game, is too big, and makes everything appear big, cluttered, and disconnected from the game and in many cases confusing to use. For me, it just shows a lack of professionalism to be completely honest and I hope it will be addressed.
- The weird design of the Practice area. It’s another thing that shows an amateurish design that makes me think whether the company can really pool a complete game off. Functionality is there, but it spread around capsules that you need to hit, I mean, for the love of god, why Learn from Pokemon Unite and Overprime how to do it well.
- No in-game voice support. I’ll probably use Discord myself, but why not have it? Give players an option without relying on a 3rd party software.
- No cool kill mid-screen visual feed like in Overprime (optional but I really like it) and the narration feels flat compared to Overprime. The cool factor and sound immersion are very much missing in Predecessor. Sound is super essential to elevate the experience, aside from having good sound cues. Overprime did it amazingly well, but Predecessor failed to deliver.
- Camera too close when near obstacles, lead to a terrible CQ experience
- Some support characters feel weak
Yes, I look at the little things that as a whole lead to a better gameplay experience. Not just that the Predecessor is missing many key features, but the attention to detail is just not there at the moment.
Usually, I get worried when I see something like that. Because it’s a sign that the team might be lacking the right talents to deliver a very polished product that I expect them to deliver. I’ve seen this in many games where I felt they are going to fail in a certain aspect, and eventually, they did.
It’s a warning sign but I am optimistic and believe that they’ll eventually deliver. At least I very much want to believe that. Having said that, The core gameplay feels great and this is super important.
I pay attention to every single detail, I am very sensitive to those little things that not just in this game, which I can accept to some degree as it’s in early access, but in complete high-budget games are sometimes overlooked.
I also, if I put my naivety aside, I think considering the progress of the game from April 2022, that the devs made little progress. Maybe the focus on gameplay first is just an apology for little progression. You can clearly see what Netmarble F&C Team SoulEve were able to achieve in that time period, already had their eSport tournaments.
Now, it doesn’t mean that Overprime is perfect, far from it. But I had expectations that Predecessor will be at a more advanced stage at this point.
Having said that, I do prefer the map design and core gameplay in Predecessor compared to Overprime.
Overprime’s devs can still work on improving the game and balancing it in early access. So it’s not that I am ditching it, not at all. Although right now they both seem quite far apart, this might change during early access. I think that Overprime will be better balanced to match Paragon’s experience. By that I mean a longer lane phrase time, maybe adding secondary towers or balancing the towers (HP/Damage) and making the game feel less like Overwatch and more like a classic MOBA game.
Overprime has very talented people working on the game. And I do believe that although the core gameplay feels off to me, this is something that can be further balanced using community feedback. They are definitely in the right direction but as I said, both games need that early access to nail it right and community feedback is super important.
Also, it’s very important that they nail the console release right. Making sure that the game plays great with a controller and supports cross-play not to split the player base.
Other than that, I am not a fanboy of no game and the dev that will make the better game is the one I’ll play. Right now, gameplay-wise, I am leaning towards Predecessor. But they have a long way to go. Hopefully, they hire the right people and deliver a great MOBA in the end. I am here to support both projects and give my feedback.
Good luck to both and see you on the battlefield.