If looks could kill, Panzar would have a pretty significant trail of casualties to account for. Created in Russia by Moscow-based Panzar Studios, the new MOBA game bearing the name of its makers is certainly easy on the eye.
Brought to life with CryENGINE 3, the Open Beta version of Panzar arrived in Europe this month after having already attracted close to one million registrants in its homeland. Now its creators have ambitions of repeating that success on a broader scale, a feat they believe will be made possible by Panzar’s unique selling points and gamers’ appetite for something different.
“People want to keep playing Panzar,” says Viacheslav Dubikovskiy, the game’s Executive Producer. “They might stop and play another MOBA type game, but they return to Panzar again and again. The art style is really unique, and the gameplay is absolutely unique; you’ll find nothing else like it in terms of character control, abilities and so on.”
Panzar pits two teams of 10 players against each another in classic MOBA scenarios such as Siege, Domination or King of the Hill. Nikolay Borzov, Panzar Studios’ Head of PR describes the action: “There are five different scenarios, but there are 11 different maps based on these scenarios. Different maps have different features to make them distinctive – like mist covering the whole area, or a sandstorm or traps. Every single map is pretty unique, not only in terms of the assets it’s made up of, but also because of these features and how they affect gameplay.”
Perhaps most significantly though, Panzar places a special emphasis on the importance of forging alliances with fellow players.
“There are a lot of ways to cooperate across the classes, and it makes the game really spectacular. Cooperation is essential, and there’s no way to really succeed as a single player,” reveals Viacheslav, who insists there is a simple reason to make teamwork so central to success. “It’s the only way to make a PVP game really interesting. It’s always more fun when you have a good team. It’s possible to start as a single player, but it’s impossible to be a good player if you are going it alone. So you have to find a couple of good comrades who will always help you, and then begin to play as a party. Of course, we are betting on the success of clan systems, so we are trying to involve people in all those clan battles and so on – we want to ‘socialize’ every player.”
As well as making teamwork a key gameplay component, Nikolay says there’s an overall sense of unity surrounding the game. “Actually, our community is really proud that such a good game was created in Russia because, unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of success stories in Russian game development. They specifically say that the graphics are wonderful, and of course we wouldn’t be able to make the game look the way it does without CryENGINE.”
Viacheslav is quick to praise CryENGINE 3 too, stating its advantages on multiple fronts. “It’s the best engine on the market from a graphical point of view. It’s brilliant. Our artists are able to implement a lot of nice assets because of the engine. From scratch, we were also able to make a prototype in a month. This was obviously really helpful for game development, because when you have a prototype you can answer the fundamental questions – which is essential at the start of a project.”
Panzar Studios have now been working on their game for around three years, with their team in Moscow growing to about 50 people. Future plans involve versions for the US and Asian markets, as well as ideas to make sure inexperienced players can quickly forge alliances and get to grips with the game’s distinctive brand of multiplayer action.
For now though, Panzar Studios are looking to grow their fan base beyond Russia for the first time, and hope players across Europe are next to embrace the distinctive charms of a game that is bursting with character and determined to do things differently.
Find out more about Panzar and play the game at www.panzar.com.
