One of the big casualties of Fortnite's blockbuster success was, unsurprisingly, Epic's own game: Paragon. First released in 2016 after years of development, the epic third-person MOBA failed to find a large enough audience, and once Fortnite got going, Epic decided to pull the plug. Epic did it in an interesting way, however, by closing the game but releasing all $17 million worth of assets for free on the Epic Game Store.

Several games using Paragon's assets have already been released; Fault: Elder Orb has been available on Steam since 2020, and Omeda Studios is working on a MOBA called Predecessor. In short, welcome to Paragon, a game that not only uses all of Paragon's assets, but also has permission from Epic to use the game brand: Welcome to "Over Prime".

Under development by Korean studio Netmarble, PtO is an action-focused MOBA, and needless to say, it's free to play the base game. It also features a candid tagline: "We invite you to Prime, where a space opera with a symphony of heroes echoes through the universe!" . [because my memory of Epic's original is hazy, but this seems to be along much the same lines. Pick a hero, level up each match through skill and item selection, and ultimately help your team destroy the enemy base. We have all seen games make comebacks over the years, most of which have failed.

We'll soon find out if this Lazarus play was worth it; PtO is currently running a "final test" before it goes into Early Access in November, and you can participate by tweeting about how good the game is on social media (yeesh). The game will also be available on the Epic Game Store.

The test includes new characters and a new map, and the big news in the game is an improved item index, a revamped lobby design, and a reworked tutorial/training system for new players. The game impressively uses Paragon's heroes as they are in Paragon, with more heroes layered on top of them. If nothing else, PtO will be a rare gem to end the year with.