Multiplayer-focused games are a tough animal to “review” since the experiences are so intertwined with the playerbases. At the same time, you can usually tell within the first 30 minutes or so if a game is going to be fun for you or not.
I had a chance to spend a couple of hours with Monday Night Combat today and I’m here to tell you it’s something worth looking into.
In a nutshell, Monday Night Combat is a 3rd person class-based multiplayer action game. You can choose to be one of various classes (such as a sniper, support, assassin etc.), each of which has its own unique powers, weapons, and playstyle. Additionally, anyone can build or upgrade turrets around the map. Think Team Fortress 2 meets <insert your favorite tower defense game here>. There’s two modes of play: Blitz and Crossfire.
Blitz is essentially Halo Firefight or Gears of War Horde or any other 4 player cooperative “survival” mode that’s become all the rage these days in action games. You and three other people try to defend a location from increasingly difficult waves of enemies for as long as you can. The twist that MNC brings to this subgenre is turret building and management, much like a desktop tower defense game. You can build four different kinds of turrets at designated locations around your base to help defend your “Moneyball.”
It’s pretty fun, but honestly got old after a couple of sessions. There’s only one map that Blitz is played on and 5 different “challenges” to conquer (the 5th challenge is infinite waves so there’s really only 4 “winnable” challenges). These challenges are essentially difficulty modifiers, as they involve more rounds and more enemies being thrown at you. We finished the easiest difficulty with no problem, but the next level up took us to the brink of losing on the last wave. The third difficulty kicked our asses fairly quickly. Granted, your mileage may vary with the people you go to battle with. Just be warned, it’s going to take some pretty shrewd teamwork, turret placements, and aiming skill to defeat the harder challenges.
Unless I’ve got a good group of friends who really want to play Blitz, I can’t see myself wanting to play the mode again once I’ve finished the 4 winnable challenges and nabbed the 4 achievements for doing so. This is a mode that could have really used some variety or other incentives to keep playing.
The other gametype is Crossfire and it’s where the meat of the game lies. Here, you actually get to fight against real people! Your goal is to escort enough of your team’s computer controlled bots over to the opponent’s Moneyball to deplete its shields. Once this is accomplished, players on your team can start to damage it. The first team to destroy the other’s Moneyball wins the match.
It’s an interesting dynamic to have to worry about both bots and actual players. Many times I found myself wanting to destroy the hapless AI robots, but as soon as I concentrated too hard on gleefully blowing up bots, I’d get murdered from behind by an invisible human assassin. Or the opposite would happen where I would get into a skirmish with another player and be completely unaware of the giant Jackbot about to pound me out of the arena.
Speaking of interesting dynamics, I love how there’s an element of resource management in the game as well. You gain money for killing robots and people (and from shooting the bonus mascot as well). With money earned you can choose to upgrade your current class, build or upgrade turrets around your base, or use various jump pads/ejectors/annihilator devices around the arena.
Some of the money you earn from each match is added to your overall winnings across all games played. You can use your money to buy custom classes, which allow you to be “sponsored” and attain different perks. There’s definitely a feeling that each game you play progresses you towards something grander. It’s not quite as salient as Call of Duty, but it’s something.
Listen, for $15 Monday Night Combat is a pretty good value proposition. It doesn’t quite have the polish and presentation of Team Fortress 2, but it’s also not part of a $60 retail game. If you enjoy the gameplay, you’ll definitely wring $15 of entertainment from this one.
MNC also fills the void of fantastical team-based shooter on the Xbox 360 that doesn’t involve modern warfare. (I’m not counting TF2 on the 360 because 1: no one plays it and 2: Valve isn’t supporting it) If you’re like me and a bit sick of the whole real gun schtick and want to get back to shooting railguns, this game certainly fulfills that desire.
However, if for some reason your Xbox 360 isn’t online, stay away from this one. It’s not completely multiplayer-only, but if you like playing with AI bots versus AI bots all day… you’re a special person.
Oh, and wouldn’t you know it, the trial version of Monday Night Combat gives you 30 minutes of multiplayer time to figure out if it’s a game for you. Guess Uber Entertainment knows all about the “30-Minute Rule” of multiplayer gaming.
