Crytek's newly announced MOBA, Arena of Fate , was playable at E3 this year. We sent some of IGN's biggest eSports fans, with thousands of hours of MOBA time between them, by the booth to get their hands on the game. Here are their takeaways from the one-match demo.

Leah B. Jackson

Mitch Dyer

Brian Albert

Katie Kasarda

My favorite thing about Arena of Fate is the 20-minute time limit on each match. Since everyone starts out with all their skills, the looming timer adds an additional competitive layer to the game, and fosters exciting gameplay from start to finish. Players level up in Arena of Fate, but there's no max level. It's all about scoring enough points before that timer runs out, and that puts a lot of exciting emphasis on me to step out of my normal comfort zone and try to make big plays to rack up points before the game ends, rather than push lanes slow and steadily. I also like the time limit because there's no confusion about how long a game will last. Win or lose in 20 minutes, then move on with your life.Aside from mechanics, I got a kick out of the available characters in Arena of Fate as well. I only had the chance to play one match, but using the badass cowboy Jesse James was a treat, and I liked the banter between characters too. Red Riding Hood is there, along with other famous heroes such as the Lionheart, Robin Hood, Rasputin, and even a Chupacabra. Arena of Fate doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, and while there's definitely plenty of skilled-base play to be found within, I like that casual players will easily be able to pick this one up and enjoy its characters and gameplay without having too much prior MOBA experience.Arena of Fate simplifies the complexities of most MOBAs in a manner more effective and successful than I ever expected. Crytek's layered strategy relies less on understanding hardcore, competitive specifics, and more about how you invest your energy. Each hero enters the battlefield with all of their skills unlocked. Leveling up improves the strength of their hits or the efficiency of their heals, and unlocks access to a small list of items, which grant critical hit bonuses, attack damage modifiers, and other easy-to-understand stat changes.The overwhelming clutter of League of Legends' and Dota 2's in-game item shops can put players off, so Arena of Fate puts less emphasis on the importance of item builds, while still giving each character sufficient upgrades throughout the match. It isn't as satisfying as playing Dota 2 or League of Legends for me, but Arena of Fate is going for something less intimidating -- and it works. It doesn't punish you for going in blind, it shows you the way. Other MOBAs could learn a thing or two from that.As someone who plays a ridiculous amount of Dota 2, my time with Arena of Fate made something very clear: this is a well designed game with a few crucial twists on the MOBA formula. And though it's not built for me, I can see the appeal for players who don't want to spend hundreds of hours researching a competitive game. It's accessible and quick in a way that other MOBAs rarely are. There's a stigma surrounding the genre that tells tentative new players to commit or get out, and if Arena of Fate can chip away at that, even a little bit, that's a valuable thing.Arena of Fate is all about getting you up to speed quickly. You start with all your skills, and there's no need to travel back to your base for items. But most importantly, you have a 20-minute time limit on every match. For comparison, many matches of Dota last 50 minutes or longer. This is about outdoing your opponents and getting kills or knocking towers down as soon as possible -- at least as far as I could tell from my time. I think there needs to be a MOBA that dives into the action immediately and never lets up. Farming the jungle for ten minutes in anticipation of a team fight is fine for some people, myself included, but it's certainly not the only way.I knew nothing about the style of MOBA Arena of Fate was when I first walked into the demo room, and after a brief walkthrough of the game mechanics, I was met with a character selection screen that had me intrigued. Each character in Arena of Fate is someone I'd grown up with, either through fairy tales or history class, and all of them carry specific skills having to do with notable qualities and experiences in their lives. Nikola Tesla understandably specializes in electricity, while the character I chose, Jack the Ripper, is a ruthless stealth killing machine. He was awesome. I love in-depth lore in these types of games, so I can't wait to see what other heroes and stories Crytek will introduce in the future.With my serial killer all ready to go, I was sent into a match that was very different from what I am used to. Arena of Fate is easy to pick up, but it has a fairly fast pace in comparison to other MOBAs. There is a twenty-minute time limit, which adds a whole new level of complexity that I have not seen before. Solely relying on kills to win a match isn't nearly as important as pushing towers, and I learned that the hard way, when my team was completely obliterated in points. Even though I'm a sore loser and my time with Arena of Fate was short, I was seriously impressed with what I played. I'm definitely looking forward to getting my hands on more of it in the near future.

Brian is an associate editor at IGN. He's learning how to play Tinker in Dota 2. You can follow him @albinoalbert on Twitter.