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Does Uber Entertainment keep the fun alive in this free-to-play multiplayer title?
Monday Night Combat has been with us for a while now, but after its success on both Steam and Xbox Live the developers wanted a piece of the free-to-play pie, so with the launch of SMNC they have introduced the well established format of get a lot for free and pay a little for the extras formula that has proven successful for so many free to play games over the last couple of years.
The gameplay focuses on the main principles of many class-based third person shooter / action games, with a full roster this game sports 15 classes from a thespian gorrila, a cyborg and all the way to your simple soldier class, meaning there is plenty to choose from to suit your needs. You'll find about 7 of these available at any one time on a weekly rotation to keep things varied, but you have the ability to purchase any for permanant use via your bank card or by earning credits through playing.
I've been playing this game for a few weeks now and haven't yet felt the need to open my wallet, but for those that do you can tailor the game to your preference by keeping hold of the class you love the most and applying plenty of character customisations, but nothing that's a real game changer, its mostly just for fun.
You can of course earn credits within the game, which can purchase just about anything you can with real money, apart from a selection of cosmetic items, but anything that is a real game changer can be dealt with by just putting in a few hours play time and earning it, or you may even get lucky with one of the games random loot drops, who knows.
A simple 5 v 5 formula is on offer here, each team kitted out with an assortment of bots, turrets and a money ball, the idea is simple, kill the other team, there bots, turrets earns you credits, use these credits to purchase mid game power-ups, more bots, more turrets and level specific boosts, with the aim of getting your bots through the other teams bots and turrets so they can destroy the opposing teams money ball, do this and you win the game.
There are plenty interesting tactics to explore on each level, especially thanks to the varied classes and load outs the game offers, throw in some nutural bots on the upper areas of each level to make things a little more interesting, plus the addition of a weapon called "The Annihilator" which spawns every 5min, which if you capture can destroy all the enemy bots and hurt the enemy team in one blast, making that 5min mark a real moment of madness for both teams.
With two slick TV announcers proving you with coverage of your game, not only for amusement purposes since they are actually rather entertaining, but it also gives you a great level of feedback on what is happening on the playing field, handy since your eyes can't be everywhere at once.
Matchmaking could be a smoother experience, with times up to and including 3-4 mins not uncommon, fortunately the wait is worth it and it does give you time to tinker with your load outs, customisation, chat and statistics, all of which play a big part in this game.
Given this game is free I have to highly recommend it, although if you play it for a few weeks and still love the game then you might want to put a little cash into to get a little more fun out of its customisation options, so what are you waiting for, head over to Steam, download the game and get your frag on in what is easily one of the most fun team based shooters available on PC at the moment.
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3 comments:
Very well written piece and even better looking game for a lad of 16 with hardly any help. Maybe a link to his demo/beta would help.
Don't bother with SMNC unless you enjoy submitting yourself to loads of frustration. Despite the great premise everything about this game is frustrating and terrible.
The matchmaking system is horrible. By appearance it randomly throws anyone in a match together. Every game consisted of a few people with months and months of experience destroying new players, and the rest of the teams filled out with the people that are getting destroyed by them.
They also have several pros that are way overpowered compared to the rest and have remained that way since release despite the general agreement in the forums there. It is bad enough that some guy that has been playing for months and months is killing you every 60 seconds, but that guy is using an expensive pro he purchased that you couldn't kill with your pro even if you were the same skill level.
Want to play with your friend? Too bad. You and your friend are welcome to sit in the queue for 25 minutes waiting on a game if you want since the guys at SMNC have not figured out how to make it so you can pair up with your friend and still work you into matchmaking.
The game issues mentioned above are not the worst part. If you are Ghandi and can suffer through them long enough you will get to meet the worst community in gaming history. PvP communities always are a mixed bunch but this group is the bottom of the barrel. Be prepared as a new player to have them rage at you for being terrible while you die every time you leave base due to bad match making. If you should use the forums be prepared to be called every name in the book and mocked every way possible for having an opinion, so don't bother.
The player base has dropped down to 700 players and that is during prime time. Don't bother with this already dead game unless you just feel like you want to torture yourself for a bit.
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