THIS MONDAY NIGHT COMBAT REVIEW IS BROUGHT TO YOU LIVE, TONIGHT, FROM MY FINGERS! Yes, I may be a little addicted to the bold, bright, somewhat over the top presentation of this game, but it does invade every facet of your senses. Bright oranges, blues and reds make up most of the game, with cartoon robots and combatants that look like a Nicktoons version of Team Fortress 2. Booming audio slaps itself into your eardrums, with the classically cheesy American announcer bursting through the cheers and jeers from the out of sight audience.
Although bright and “cartoon” in design, it’s a very tactical game, combing elements of the tower defence and first-person shooter genres. You have to stop waves of bots from breaching your defence and destroying your prized Money Ball – and thus your characters payment. You can play from a number of different classes – Assault, Tank, Support, Assassin, Gunner and Sniper – each one with a fairly obvious role, especially if you have played the aforementioned TF2.
On single player, or Blitz mode, you can just pick whatever class tickles your fancy as you will probably struggle with all of them. I got through the first few waves with ease but when the computer started to throw an almost limitless amount of bots at me from every angle and then some, I quickly died. And then died again. And again. It’s only when you play either couch co-op (2 player) or online co-op (4 player) that the balancing of the classes comes in to play, and thus your chances of survival are notably increased.
When you play Crossfire, a 6-on-6 adaptation of Blitz, you begin to notice how big an influence Team Fortress 2 is, and where else MNC has taken its influences from. Go the Assassin class, cloak yourself, sneak around behind the enemy and take them out with a swift assassination move. Support can deploy gun turrets and heal other turrets as well as supercharging the health of his squad-mates – similar to the Medic in TF2. You unlock titles like Modern Warfare 2 that hover over your name in the lobby. You earn money throughout the game to upgrade your abilities, like Shadowrun.
As big as the influences are, the game still manages to have a strong identity and this is largely from the use of the bots. As well as kicking caricatured lumps out of the other players you have to keep cutting through the swathes of enemies pouring from the opponents base, and lead your own bots through the enemies defences. Keep killing them and you’ll rack up loads of cash to upgrade your abilities or help your team by upgrading the turrets, similar to the single player. Unlike the single player however, the multiplayer is straight up adrenaline fuelled fun. No frustration to be seen. Well, unless the other team is full of snipers and assassins.
The levels are well designed with multiple routes throughout and a plethora of traps and lifts to make for some interesting duels. The best way to victory is to have a balanced team with a couple of players playing supportive roles and some playing aggressive; and one or two being annoying assassins can help. The games are often drawn out affairs, with each side making pushes into the Money Ball zone and then getting forced back. Rather than end on a draw MNC ends it all on a high note, with an incredibly hectic overtime mode where the Money Ball’s are unprotected and the big bots are let loose.
Monday Night Combat knows its strengths and plays to them well. It has successfully taken elements from other existing titles and mashed them into something distinct, bright and most importantly: fun. Convince a few like minded friends to pick this up and go stomp some Money Balls, you’ll have much more fun that way.
VideogameUK verdict: 8/10
