Don't Lose Aggro is a Tank's dream

Oren Koren's Don't Lose Aggro is an MMO sim without the frills.

Have you ever been intrigued by an MMO's gameplay, but were put off by all of the logistics involved in building a character and being a functioning member of a clan? Don’t Lose Aggro might be the game for you. Made by a solo developer, Don’t Lose Aggro wants to deliver the experience of playing a tank, but in an offline, controlled environment.

Don’t Lose Aggro emulates the experience of playing an MMORPG, specifically from the perspective of a Tank. In a traditional MMO raid, Tanks are tasked with soaking up damage and taking aggro (a term meaning the enemy’s focus) away from their softer teammates. It’s a key role in any raid party that requires a good deal of skill and game knowledge.

You still have allies in Don’t Lose Aggro, they’re just bots. As waves of goblins, demons, and other enemies come in, you’ll have to keep the attention on yourself. This can be done by utilizing one of the game’s many abilities, which can be unlocked and applied over the course of a raid. Don’t Lose Aggro features the classic hotbar seen in games like World of Warcraft, where players can see all of their available abilities and their respective cooldowns. As you defeat enemies and earn exp, you can improve your crowd control, vitality, and provide boosts to your teammates.

Like a proper Tank, I fell into a natural rhythm of taunting enemies into pursuing me, using my AoE spell once they were all gathered, and then wailing on them with my melee abilities and auto attack until they were done with.

Raids culminate in boss fights that live up to the scale of what you experience in an MMO. After my first run, I was delighted to learn that the game offers a boss rush mode in addition to a standard wave-based survival mode.

There are also permanent upgrades players can make to their abilities to improve their future runs. Different pieces of gear offer unique effects and stat bonuses.

For me, Don’t Lose Aggro is a great answer to my biggest hurdle with getting into MMOs these days. I just don’t have an appetite for all of the communication and coordination with strangers required to properly invest in one, but Don’t Lose Aggro allows me to scratch that itch without feeling like I’ve got a new part-time job. It also alleviates a lot of the stress, because I’m not letting down anyone but myself when I screw up. Honestly, I’m surprised we haven’t seen more projects like this.

These impressions are based on an Early Access build of Don't Lose Aggro, which is currently available on Steam.

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