Epic Games discovering Fortnite changed the landscape of gaming in a big way. It also led to a sudden shift in priority for the publisher. Suddenly, everything was about Fortnite and that meant devoting every resource to it. Consequently, this led to the closure of Epic's other project, the third-person MOBA known as Paragon. Now over five years after the original game was shuttered, Omeda Studios has stepped in to give the Paragon-style MOBA a new beginning. On Thursday, the studio announced that players could give their work a look for themselves by launching the open beta for Predecessor.

Predecessor is not Paragon. That should be made clear immediately. If the resemblance looks uncanny, that's because Omeda Studios is building the game on many of Paragon's original visual assets, which were made available by Epic Games shortly after Paragon's closure. With that said, Omeda Studios founder Robbie Singh didn't just set out to make something out of Paragon. His studio's mission was to improve upon the original by enhancing the original 5v5 third-person formula, both mechanically and visually, through Unreal Engine 5.

Shacknews recently had a chance to jump into the game, but I do have a confession to make. It's been so many years since Paragon's closure that I've forgotten most of that original experience, so it's difficult to make a direct comparison. What I can say that is that what Predecessor puts out there feels intuitive and smooth. It looks and feels like some of gaming's best MOBA's, but the third-person shooter-style presentation gives it a unique feeling. I only had enough time to play around with offlane characters, but the combat had so much of what's satisfying about current-day MOBAs, including the movement, speed, impact, and character progression. The game currently boasts a roster of 30 characters, so there's clearly more for me to dive into.

The most important piece of news from Omeda Studios today is that Predecessor's $8.99 USD price tag is going away. Starting with Thursday's open beta, the game will go free-to-play on all of its available platforms, which includes the game's Xbox debut. Plus, full cross-platform play will be available for all players.

There's no word on how long Predecessor's open beta will last, but the removal of the monetary barrier of entry is a good incentive to give it a shot. It's available right now on Steam Early Access, the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 4.

Impressions are based on an early build played via a private Discord meeting with the game's developers.