When I first booted up Dark Eclipse, I honestly had no idea what to expect. Cynicism drove me as I started my journey into what the game had to offer, and I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw and heard as that journey began. Now to give you some context, Dark Eclipse is a free-to-play VR MOBA developed by SunSoft, Inc. in which two players face off against one another, each commanding three champions.

The objective is simple: you and your opponent each have your own main tower and you lose if your tower falls. As the game progresses, you have to capture mounting points to build smaller towers and eventually push your way to your enemy’s main tower once your champions are strong enough to win. They become stronger by beating neutral mobs of varying strength throughout the map called “eaters” that grant certain bonuses when killed, with the occasional legendary eater spawning that promises a bigger bonus than its peasant counterparts. The game as a whole may be more accurately described as a bit of a MOBA/RTS hybrid, bringing the best of both worlds to the table.

Mechanically, Dark Eclipse does break away from popular MOBAs (Heroes of the Storm, League of Legends, DotA etc.) in a few distinct and interesting ways. The first and perhaps most pronounced way is that it’s not a team-oriented game. For the time being it’s strictly 1v1 and admittedly I like this aspect. It removes a lot of the toxicity you often find in MOBAs and relaxes the experience a lot more. The downside to this is that the game can punish you if you’re bad at micro-management since you control 3 champions by yourself, and this can become frustrating because each champion plays differently.



The game currently has a modest roster of 15 champions to choose from, divided into heroes and dominators. At the beginning of each game you pick one hero and two dominators to be your champions for the match. You have to pay for heroes either with in-game currency or real money, but some are on free rotation each week so you’ll never have nobody to pick. Each champion has a single active ability alongside a single passive effect they benefit from or provide to allied units. This may seem somewhat underwhelming in the context of other MOBAs where heroes have multiple abilities, but it works well thanks to a minion system the game has in place.

Each champion can have up to three upgradeable minions following them, which makes for a total of up to 15 units in play on each side per game. These minions have quite a bit to do with the strategic depth the game has hidden within it. When you start a game, a minion is pretty much a standardized melee unit that’s actually low-key kind of useless when it comes to combat. As you defeat eaters and build towers, you gain points which you can then use to upgrade those minions into increasingly dangerous melee or ranged units. So if you’ve got a champion that dies easily, you can cover for that by upgrading a minion or two of theirs to be on the front lines so they don’t take damage. Got a tanky champion? Give him ranged damage-dealing minions!

The emphasis on composition focus is also highlighted well by another one of the game’s mechanics. As the game progresses, you are required to populate the map with a variety of towers so you can pave your way to your opponent’s main structure.

The fact that champions and minions can complement each other so well, combined with their being no item shop in matches for champions to buy from, makes this feel like a much more Heroes of the Storm-ish experience where you need to focus on champion composition as a cornerstone of your strategy as opposed to getting one champion with the right items to make them super strong.

The emphasis on composition focus is also highlighted well by another one of the game’s mechanics. As the game progresses, you are required to populate the map with a variety of towers so you can pave your way to your opponent’s main structure. These towers are built at certain spots of the map called mounting points and you can reap a variety of different benefits depending on the types of towers you choose to invest resources into, which once again will affect your overall strategy. If you can get a tower of each type onto the map, your main structure will directly begin attacking your enemy’s, which is a major boon, but difficult to achieve.



If there is perhaps a negative thing I’d have to comment on in my time with the game, it’s that I found it got somewhat repetitive as I played more and more. Some degree of ‘sameness’ is alright given to the MOBA style of the game, but despite its best efforts, that sameness was more pronounced than I feel it should have been. This isn’t necessarily a world-ending train smash though. The game is still in Season 0 and has plenty of opportunity for fun content to be added on a regular basis, so I’m not subtracting too many points for this one just yet. I often found myself wondering what the game would look like, as well as what sort of content we would see - should it ever ascend to the competitive realm.

Now when it comes to implementing your grand designs for VR domination, you’re afforded the options of doing it with either motion controllers or a Dualshock 4. I have to admit I found playing with motion controllers to be incredibly intuitive and easy to pick up. I felt the controls with a Dualshock 4 were weird as you only use one half of it, but they weren’t uncomfortable to use. I did, however, prefer the motion controller. You can be a lazy overlord like I was and play with a single one if you wish, but the game does allow for dual controller support. Given the RTS element of the game, I should also mention that controlling the camera felt pretty satisfying and easy as well. Having a bird’s eye view of the battlefield in VR was pretty awesome.

As awesome as it was though… it wasn’t necessarily the prettiest view. Dark Eclipse’s visuals are, in my eyes, its weakest aspect. They’re not atrocious, but when you load into a game, it becomes plain to see that a lot of textures have been downscaled to account for the fact that it’s a VR game and there are a lot of effects that just aren't there. It’s painfully below average as well as not being terribly vibrant, and this is a real shame given how the other aspects of the game come together. That being said, the art for some of the menu options and the champions themselves are pretty awesome, but I do just wish some of that passion carried over into the game itself.

Dark Eclipse’s visuals are, in my eyes, its weakest aspect. They’re not atrocious, but when you load into a game, it becomes plain to see that a lot of textures have been downscaled...

Speaking of passion, my favorite part of my experience with this game was when I first booted it up and got an earful of the main menu soundtrack. It’s absolutely beautiful and I could listen to it for hours on end. Unfortunately, once again, this quality did not carry over into the main experience and this is a pity because it set the bar really high. As you boot into the game, the soundtrack is atmospheric but honestly nothing spectacular, but I did find it to be a nice touch that each champion didn’t speak the same language. Some would speak proper gentlemanly English whilst other would speak Japanese. I thought this was a nice touch because not all the champions are from the same place, and I liked that attention to detail.



If this game sounds like something you may be interested in, you need to be aware that if you’re looking for a single player experience or campaign of some sort, you’re not going to find it here. There is no single player campaign whatsoever, and the only experience you’ll have playing solo is going against the AI for skirmishes. Given that it’s a MOBA, this stands to reason, but I do find it to be a bit of a pity. A mission or three’s worth of campaign may have been a clever way to teach newcomers how to play the game, as well as give us a bit of a narrative for all the interesting looking champions.

There is no single player campaign whatsoever, and the only experience you’ll have playing solo is going against the AI for skirmishes.

Lastly, this game has a cash shop and I feel compelled to address this because it seems to be a trend that makes or breaks a game. Thankfully, I’m pleased to say that the cash shop does not feel invasive. You can buy heroes with real money, but you can also do so with in-game currency that doesn’t take Star Wars: Battlefront II levels of grind to acquire. In-game currency is awarded via quests you do naturally during games anyway, and I never found grinding it out a problem. You’ll mostly be buying cosmetics such as champion skins through the cash shop and I honestly found that it didn’t feel like a pay-to-win model a lot of ‘freemium’ games fall into.

Is Dark Eclipse worth your while? I’m gonna have to say hell yes. It’s a game that shows not all free-to-play games are garbage and, whilst it has its faults, you can see that the developers have put some degree of passion into the game and want to see it grow into something more than a quick cash grab. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience with this title and if you’re sitting on a PSVR and are looking to put it to some use then why not? It’s a small download, it’s fun and it’s free with some really interesting potential to grow. You may just find yourself enjoying it more than you thought you would.