 What's up everybody, I'm TheMangoose, you are awesome, and today I'm going to bring you my first impressions of the predecessor alpha. Up front I need to remind you that this is an alpha, not the game, but a development tool used by Omega Studios to create the game. As such, it's incomplete and buggy, I'm not going to point out that the scoreboard doesn't work or the minimap isn't functional, they know that, it's something they'll work on and implement without me having to say anything. Also, I should point out that while I'm going to be very critical of some things in the game, its constructive criticism aimed at letting Omega know that there are some things that need some change. Bottom line up front, this game isn't as polished as I expected, there is a lot of work that needs to be done, but it's off to a great start and is an absolute blast to play. Really well done by Omega Studios. Before I get into any of this, yes, the footsteps are way too loud. I know Omega wants to focus on correcting bugs and gameplay issues first and foremost, but for real man, those jackboots gotta go. I'm trying to look for bugs and exploits, but I'm having constant parasile and flashbacks of final drill competition. The rest of the sounds are great so far, several in particular has some B sound effects, but you only really notice them because old tall, dark and scary doesn't have feet. Now on to the gameplay, the game is fun. I've been having an absolute blast playing it, it feels great to get back into Agora. After my initial video where I just ran around like a madman, I settled down and actually played the game like a normal person. I found that old strats actually worked and they felt really good. In this clip where I was playing Gadget, I was able to bully the opposing Gadget out of lane, take out the tower, then let my boy Sockap know I was rotating to safe lane. We ended up pulling off his successful gank on the enemy Muriel. However, right now there is some slight input lag. Added to that, I was on an EU server for this match so you can see where we chased this Murdoch down forever without landing a single basic attack. I can't hit him with anything. I think you got the kill so that's good. I mean I'm not the best player ever but I'm better than that. So that's the first thing I think they need to address. Nearly every one I've talked to has expressed that they have the same problem, about .5 seconds of input lag before a basic attack or ability goes off. Until that gets hashed out, it's going to be a little difficult to test the game well. Everything seems slightly unresponsive. The next critique I have is melee hit ranges. I played quite a bit of Fingmao in Paragon so I was fully expecting that his actual range would not match the visual range. Back in Paragon, the strike wouldn't happen at the tip of his Naginata, it was more towards where the blade started. You could watch your blade sweep through someone without it registering the hit. In predecessor it's the same thing, however it's much closer than that. I feel like I need to be inviting distance of a target for the hit to register. There are also some issues with reaping dash as well as Severog's Phantom Rush. You don't go where you think you're going sometimes and that's a bit frustrating. Range heroes seem spot on, however with the input lag it's difficult to hit your basics. You really need to lead your target and hope that they don't change directions. I had a terrible time trying to land a Serenity with Muriel. I do like that they changed it from a slow to a short knock up and her ultimate is done really well. Once you activate it you get a selection screen showing each hero with appropriate number keys allowing you to forgo the targeting system and simply reversal straight to wherever you want. Murdock is of course 1000% more fun in predecessor than he was in Paragon since he has active abilities. I had the most fun with Gadget. The radius of her mind seemed a little off and the mind itself will sometimes slip under the map but overall the targeting of her abilities seemed very natural. Playing Gadget in predecessor felt exactly like playing Legacy Gadget. The AI functions well, the minions properly retarget an enemy if they shoot you. The towers will also switch to enemies if they shoot you while you're under the tower. The minions look great and the towers look absolutely beautiful. Definitely an upgrade from Paragon's towers. The minions do sometimes have pathing issues though. That's to be expected I think. I mean Paragon minions would do some funky shit sometimes too and I think the pathing issues are somewhat exacerbated here since it is an alpha. The map is beautiful. Fringe really knocked it out of the park. The design is done really well. The jungle camps are arranged in a way that makes sense. It's very clear where safe and offlane are and there are several branching paths, access points and vertical pathways. The jump pad from one side of the jungle to the other is fun as hell however I don't think it currently serves much of a purpose. You have to climb quite a ways to get to it and it's almost just as fast to simply walk across the lane. The time it takes to rotate between the lanes seems spot on and it feels appropriately dangerous if you take the most direct route. The card system was really good. The activatable cards don't work yet, it's a known bug but the system itself works well. The stats are all fairly basic at this point. They'll add more interesting things once they have more data. I found myself having to make the decision of do I get this lesser card now or save up a bit for a more powerful card. I think that's the essence of a good item system forcing you to make that kind of decision. All in all the game is very impressive and fun. There are of course quite a few bugs to work out and honestly it isn't as polished as I expected it to be. I personally will not be live streaming the game anymore in its current state and I think Omid probably should have released the initial closed alpha under an NDA as many people will get the wrong impression from the gameplay. I will say this though, the most recent closed alpha I played was for a spell break and I think predecessor is actually in a far better state than that game was when I first played it. So I think the game is off to a great start but it is just a start. There are many things that need to be fixed or adjusted in the very near future. Before I go I want to let you guys know that there have been at least one alpha key giveaway in the predecessor discord so make sure you're in there discord and keeping tabs on it. Also if you saw my live stream of the game that was actually the very first closed alpha game of predecessor to be played and since I scored the first kill of that game, first first first blood goes to man goose. By the way I know that means absolutely nothing.