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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No sir, it’s a MOBA hero shooter. You’d think that kind of monster wouldn’t survive outside the lab that hatched it, but Gigantic‘s alive and back to its 2017 tricks. Mixing the colorful characters and third-person action of Overwatch with the base-attacking gameplay of League of Legends is a recipe for greatness. At least, on paper. In practice, server issues and some questionable design decisions throw a wrench into an otherwise orderly machine. Still, if you were a fan of the original before its untimely shutdown, Gigantic: Rampage Edition is the love letter you’ve been waiting for.
Gigantic: Rampage Edition Review
Two teams clash in a 5v5 battle for supremacy, slinging spells and bullets across the battlefield. Ganks and team-wipes aren’t enough to win, however. To claim victory you must capture control points and defeat the other team’s gigantic Guardian. Battles are as swift and (to an untrained eye) chaotic as those of Overwatch, capturing much of what makes that iconic hero shooter great. The game’s MOBA aspects unfortunately struggle to compete. Compromised by an oversimplified economy and a lack of a jungle, Gigantic feels like the appetizer to a main course that never comes.
Story: A Tale of Two Houses
Grenn the Naga (bound to House Devaedra) and Leiran the Griffin (bound to House Aurion) are at war because… reasons. Gigantic‘s limited lore does its best to explain the conflict and the role each hero plays in it, but the plot isn’t the point here. We get fragments of it from the heroes and their collectibles but little more. I’m a bit of a truffle pig when it comes to sniffing out gaming lore, but honestly, Gigantic‘s fine without it. Story in a MOBA is like cake at a salad bar: I’d enjoy finding it there, but it never surprises me when there’s none.
Heroes of the Storm took the shortcut of importing franchises like Warcraft, while LoL started with little lore and expanded as it grew. Since Gigantic never saw the same level of success, it never got the breathing room to grow. It’s a shame. I’d love to know more about little kid / terrifying summoner Aisling. Stories about Griselma, the batty old sorceress whose cane ends in a living monster hand? Yes, please. It’s obvious there’s love and attention behind these characters, but since we’re (for the most part) left with nothing more than their cosmetics and some educated guesses, there’s not much else to say.
Gameplay: Big Bird, Big Brawls
Gigantic consists of two main modes: Clash (the original experience) and Rush (the Rampage Edition newcomer). Rush, true to its name, is the faster experience, with most matches clocking in at just 10 minutes or so. Regardless of mode, your objective remains the same: capture control points and kill enemies to trigger the Rampage phase. Once that happens, your team launches an all-out assault on the opponent’s Guardian while the opposition scrambles to defend.
If you’ve played League, substitute “Nexus” for “Guardian” and you’ll get the gist. Summons and other factors complicate the war over control points but not much. Push, control, kill, and win. If you removed the jungle and fog of war from the Summoner’s Rift and played your main from a third-person POV, you’d get Rampage, more or less. As Arena proved, new modes can go a long way if they’re done right. Clash is classic Coke, but Rush is a Mountain Dew sugar high, ideal for getting newcomers into the game.
Each hero has several skills and two unique skill trees that buff them. You can go all-in with one tree or mix and match for greater build variety. I enjoy the design of the skills and upgrades overall, but they aren’t deep enough to match the complexity of games like DotA or LoL. In some ways that’s a positive, since you don’t need hundreds of hours just to understand the basics of theorycrafting in Gigantic. Unfortunately, this shallowness also removes a big reason that players invest so much time in MOBAs in the first place.
It feels bad to relentlessly compare Gigantic to Overwatch and LoL, but their overwhelming similarities warrant it. With a roster of 25 heroes, counting newcomers Roland and Kajir, there’s plenty of diversity here. Like guns? Swordplay? Stealing souls? Teleporting? Summoning creepy magic hands? There’s a bit of everything, and it’s all fun. I can’t tell how balanced Gigantic is, but it feels balanced, whatever that’s worth. I doubt Oru and T-MAT have been obsessively picked over the way Draven and Yone have, but maybe that’s for the best. Gigantic hasn’t had the joy hammered out of it by Ranked.
The new heroes are excellent. Roland brings a mix of melee DPS, traps, and mobility, while Kajir is a glass cannon capable of killing (or getting killed) in seconds. Kajir almost unseats Griselma as my favorite, which is a testament to the quality of the new additions. Rush also allows you to swap heroes midmatch, giving you every reason to try the new characters. Swapping to Assassin to gank a troublesome Support feels great, and since Rush starts heroes at Level 10 with all their abilities, you can jump right in.
If there’s one thing Gigantic: Rampage Edition handles better than its competitors, it’s unlockables. Every hero, cosmetic, and emote can be unlocked for free just by playing. No DLC, no LoL-style microtransactions. I have no notes. The devs just did it right. Full crossplay also makes it easy to show off your new threads to your friends. Assuming they still want to play with you after dying to a perfectly timed HK-206 Swarm, that is.
Graphics & Audio: Half Notes
Imani aims her crossbow like a sniper rifle, dialing in her sights on Lord Knossos across pirate-themed Picaro Bay. Before she can send a charged bolt at the minotaur’s head, a smoke bomb erupts in front of him. Kajir. The weasly Assassin nails Imani with a dagger, teleporting in behind the blade and unleashing a flurry of sickle slashes. Before he can finish the job, Uncle Sven pitches a flask of caustic liquid at his head, splashing the battlefield with noxious fumes as Imani leaps away. Gigantic does playful violence right.
Even with its older graphics, Gigantic is a delight. Its exaggerated character designs make every personality clear without devolving into cartoonishness. Look at Xenobia’s Ursula-esque slither or the way Griselma rides around atop her creepy cane like Thing escaped the Addams Family mansion. Look at the way the potions slosh in Sven’s beakers as he runs. Everything feels right. Even characters who’ve basically been done before (compare Gigantic‘s Voden to DotA‘s Hoodwink) have enough personality to set themselves apart.
The multi-level madness of Picaro Bay and the cramped streets of Heaven’s Ward deliver just as much aesthetically as they do in gameplay. As a pirate fan, I’m a sucker for the ramshackle courtyards and overall scumminess of Picaro. Like Curse of the Black Pearl, it’s a Disneyfied take on pirates, but it’s glorious if your teeth can stand the sweetness. Visually, Gigantic‘s only problem is the muddiness of overlapping AoEs and special effects. It’s sometimes incomprehensible, making strategic decision-making impossible.
The game’s OST is fine but forgettable, and the voice acting (though limited) is solid. The sound cues for skills and special attacks are weak, however, which has an unfortunate effect on gameplay. Maybe if you’ve spent 6,000 hours learning to distinguish one Operator’s breathing from another in Siege you can tell the difference between these abilities, but I can’t. Tight PvP gameplay relies on clear context cues, and in Gigantic we don’t get them. Rampage Edition isn’t a Ranked sweat-fest, but if you care about that stuff, it’s worth keeping in mind.
Conclusion: MOBA Maladies
I experienced no crashes during my time with the game, but server issues were plentiful. Gigantic: Rampage Edition reminds me of Baz Luhrmann’s gun-wielding, mafia-war take on Romeo and Julie. It somehow manages to be both too similar to and too different from the work that inspired it. If you enjoy Overwatch or Team Fortress 2, you’ll get your money’s worth. If your tastes lean more toward Teemo and friends, my recommendation sours. Still, knowing the love its community has for the original, I’m glad Gigantic didn’t need Ezren Ghal’s magic to get a second chance at life.
Gigantic: Rampage Edition is available for PC (reviewed), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5,
A daring and difficult mixture of hero shooter and MOBA that draws too much from the former to do the latter justice.
Pros
- Dynamic strategic gameplay
- Excellent hero roster
- Smooth mechanics
Cons
- Underwhelming MOBA elements
- Limited theorycrafting
- Relative shallowness
