Part League of Legends, part Genshin Impact, part Fortnite: Eternal Return is a MOBA with a difference. While that may sound like quite the genre soup, Nimble Neuron has managed to intertwine Fortnite’s crafting with Genshin Impact’s art style and LoL’s top-down action and create something truly unique. Don’t believe me? Well, Eternal Return‘s stats are hard to argue with.
At its peak, Eternal Return accrued 50,000 concurrent players during its early access bout – a stat that isn’t something to smirk at. Speaking to PCGamesN, Nimble Neuron CEO Seunghoo Kim has confessed that those numbers staggered the team, who didn’t expect anywhere close to that.
“We were truly amazed and grateful for the interest and affection from our early supporters from the early access period,” Kim tells PCGamesN. “At the start, we were hoping to just get 2,000 MCU and were surprised that many more showed up!
“However, when we hit 50,000 concurrent players, we were flabbergasted. We knew we had hit a peak with the help of well-known influencers playing our game; but we also recognized that our game was in early access, and not ready for the spotlight just yet. We had a long journey to make the game we envisioned with a huge fanbase that we never expected.”
Part of that is no doubt down to Eternal Return’s perfect blend MOBA action, anime artwork, and survival game crafting. However, the devs haven’t tried to simply meld them together – Kim stresses that Nimble Neuron is looking to create something new.
“Rather than trying to combine the three aforementioned games, we started with the visuals and the battle royale concept from our original IP ‘Black Survival,'” he tells me.
“We then tried to figure out how to incorporate them into the 3D space. We took inspiration from the gathering, crafting, and survival aspect of the MOBA genre and tried to combine it with the intense combat that AOS and battle royale genres provide.
“Needless to say, it wasn’t easy as we went through seven alpha tests, open betas, and two years of Early Access while listening to our loyal, passionate community. We will still be fine-tuning Eternal Return with our community for some time to come!”
Part of that fine-tuning is the removal of the solo and duo modes, both of which have been benched while the devs figure out how to reintegrate them. They will be back, so don’t worry; it may take a little while.
Even without it, though, Eternal Return is a really, really fun game. I’m far to obsessed with Eleven and her huge hamburger staff, and love smacking fools around in-lane. I’d suggest giving it a spin – it’s a welcome respite from being absolutely massacred in LoL Arena, that’s for sure.
If you love Eternal Returns colorful artwork and cartoon universe, I suggest checking out our list of the best anime games for some more fantastical fun. We also have a rundown of other multiplayer games if you fancy something a little more akin to Fortnite and Apex Legends.