Monday Night Combat

 posting this on behalf of my close friend Kimerex who doesn't have an account here yet.

 The ideas represented in Monday Night Combat aren't by any stretch of the imagination new. If you are looking for something groundbreaking in terms of gameplay, this will not be that game. Honestly not many games out or even coming out will be that brand new, never before seen game. This is starting to make me focus more on the amount of effort put into the "personal touch" side of things. How much effort was put into making the characters seem more alive. Character animations, facial expressions, triggered character statements, any little detail that doesn't need to be there, but if it wasn't, the game would feel like its missing something big. Honestly I don't really know how to describe this. Hopefully some of these scribbles make any sense. If not, it probably won't be as apparent as to why I really like what Uber Entertainment did with Monday Night Combat.

The Classics, Just Upgraded

I'm noticing now that I'm wandering away from my basic breakdown and moving towards the "feeling" side of things, but this can be good. For instance, MNC "feels" really well put together. Finished product? Sure, in so far as more character skins, levels and enemy robots would be welcome but not exactly necessary at this point.

MNC is DotA mixed with TF2 thrown into the realm of a third-person shooter. I imagine that was the pitch made to the team at Uber Entertainment. Thankfully, rather than just slapping those ideas together and calling it quits, Uber grafted what seems like their sense of humor seamlessly into the mix. Granted, TF2 had comedy in it, but the similarities tend to end there in terms of writing and character interactions. Uber seemed to be aiming for a dystopian-comic book-ish-Running Man setting, complete with odd ball mascots, sexy cheerleaders and desensitized announcers, and holy crap did they nail it. Andyb0y and I talked a lot about finding the soul or essence behind every game. That personal touch that pulls the creators potential out into the open for the world to experience. Not every game has it we think, but the ones that do seem just that much better. We saw it when demoing Skull Girls. We saw it when watching the guys at the Shoot Many Robots booth. We saw it in Mortal Kombat, Brink, Firefall and many others. In the 16 hours I've been playing Monday Night Combat, I've yet to not see it. Every minute of this crossbreed game shows it has a personality all its own that comes from none of its predecessors. I really enjoy that. More so than usual. It has an aesthetic that can only be described as a game built for gamers. I know, sounds mad/stupid, but I'm having a hard time putting this into perspective. Its like how "true" gamers have interests in other things like comics, movies, tabletop games and so much more. Whether or not Uber Entertainment picked up on this and actively tried to put these visual and conceptual aspects into MNC is on them, but I feel there is some kind of link between all of this and that it must have formed over the creation process. Come to think of it I am probably just crazy. This is also a possibility.

You Got My Back?

One of the only complaints I have so far is the format in which the server lists show up. For a while there I thought my biggest fear about MNC's release came to pass. It looked like no one was playing the game. So many servers with just one or two people on it. Really made me sad for a while there, then WHAM I realized my mistake. The ones and twos next to the cap person per server listing weren't how many people were in the room, but how many slots were left. Silly me. Its good to see so many people playing, and not all of them are idiots. Hooray. I can be a tank and get heals while pushing through enemy lines, all the while being covered by sniper fire and heavy weapons support. Thank you gaming community for pulling together and not being dicks. It truly is a rare gem. But I guess thats the thing. The hardcore see this game for the potential it can have in tournament play and the casual are given enough of a grip on how to play that they can "seem" hardcore. Everybody wins! Sure, at times I get really pissed at some of the mechanical choices, like how I can be tossed out of the map from the center point by a tank charging at me, but I'm still learning ways around this, and trust me when I say there are many ways out of that situation.

Still Learning

Though I've spent a lot of time in MNC, I'm finding that I still have more to figure out. Only recently did I start killing bots with as much prejudice as other players, and not to long ago I started building up base turrets to help support our base and front lines. This bodes well for the replay value, especially when put alongside the purchasable titles and customization slots. And if new maps are released, the potential for new strats and team builds grows even further.This was a good buy for 10 dollars. Yup. You read right. 10 dollars. That was a sale though, but the full price is just 5 dollars more and even if it was 20 total it would still be worth it. It will be interesting to see which direction Uber Entertainment takes MNC in the future, or even new game titles, but this was a damn amazing entry into the world of indi games.