 What's up everybody, I'm TheMangus, you are awesome and I got to play Project Stamina. This is the one that has nothing to do with Paragon but is instead a fan driven reboot of the game Gigantic. I've been hyped for this one mainly because of how well coordinated the team behind this project is, but I never played Gigantic so I really had no frame of reference for what Project Stamina would be like as a game. Until now. I was invited to participate in testing a very early pre-alpha build, I can't stress that enough. This is a very early pre-alpha build of the game and everything has changed. I mean I still respect the team, that's not what changed, but what I'm saying is the game itself is an absolute blast. It was just so much fun to play. Many of you prompted me to play Gigantic after Paragon was shut down, but I went the smite route instead and I am now realizing what a poor, horrible, terrible decision that was. Smite isn't okay game, but it's really not for me. Project Stamina on the other hand is absolutely up my alley. I did sign an NDA beforehand and good on Project Stamina for that, they're the only ones that have actually made me sign one, however after showing them the footage and talking things through, they decided to let me show you my experiences. We played Team Deathmatch which will not be the main game mode, however it will be available when the game is released if that's what you want to do. The map has so much verticality incorporated into it, you can see the outcroppings of Brock, pillars that jump between, and basically two and a half levels to the playing field. And you can take full advantage of all that verticality. Every hero has a massive amount of mobility and with that mobility comes the opportunity to outplay your opponents. If I had to make a comparison between Project Stamina and Paragon, I would say it would be like playing Sera. Sera's mobility and immunity frames always gave you the ability to outplay anyone no matter how fed they were. That's every hero in Project Stamina. After every engagement, good or bad, you always come away feeling that the outcome was decided by gameplay and not by overpowered items. Your mobility is tied to a stamina bar that gets used up when you sprint, dodge, yes every hero has an ability to quickly dodge in any direction, or use certain abilities. So it becomes a balance of when to use your stamina. If you never use it, you'll never catch anyone. If you use it too much, you'll just be a setting duck. I played all three available heroes, however Kira currently uses a placeholder. You'll see that little green Gumby running around shooting folks. That's Kira. My favorite was R4 bit, aka Rabbit, and while he didn't have big pointy teeth, he didn't have a big-ass two-handed base that he used with one hand because he's only got one arm. As you can see, his attack animations are smooth and due server purpose, each attack in the chain deals more damage than the last. He had a jump attack, kinda like Greystone's Assault the Gates, and a charge that pushed people back like Steel's Bull Rush. And a basic speed boost, which doesn't sound exciting, but it really was quite useful. I was able to speed around people to put their backs to a wall, smash them into it, and then leap onto them. The other character you see is Matani, meant to be a support-style hero. She has an AoE heal, a quick leap to a friendly target, kinda like Mercy in Overwatch, and a ranged wind ability that speeds up allies and slows down enemies. Her attack animations were absolutely beautiful. You really feel like you're doing a dance as you attack. In the final version of this game, each of these abilities will have a branching upgrade system as you level up. This is how Gigantic did things, and this is how Project Stamina will as well. Instead of going to a shop to buy items, you pick different upgrades to your abilities. For example, and I'm just making these up, these aren't official upgrades, but perhaps with R4's charge attack, you can level it to either increase the range of the knock pack, or increase the damage. This allows you to customize your play style. My main takeaway from all of this is that feeling of each encounter being decided by players' skill. Even when I got smashed, it felt like there were things I could have done differently to increase my chances of survival or secure a kill. That is what I think will make this game great and keep people coming back for more. That feeling that you can learn from your mistakes and play better each time, combined with the exhilaration of really outplaying someone and scoring that kill. I approached this game with open-ended expectations and was thoroughly pleased by the experience. The team behind Project Stamina are really creating something special here. The game, even in a very early pre-alpha state, is extremely enjoyable and will only get better as they add in more heroes, mechanics, and modes. I can't wait to see how this one unfolds. If you want to find out more about Project Stamina, I'll have the links to their various social media in the description below. For now, this is the Mangoo signing off. You guys, have a good one. Mangoo!