Monday Night Combat is a third-person shooter developed by Uber Entertainment and published by Microsoft Games Studios.
The game was first released on Xbox Live Summer of Arcade in August 2010 and is now being released via Steam on PC on 17th January 2011.
It is currently in Beta, which you can get access to by pre-purchasing the game (for a reduced price of £8.99, down from £9.99). And the beta is pretty much finished.
One thing I must point out, is how much the game is being compared to Team Fortress 2 (TF2), which it should be really. Both games are (1) shooters, (2) funny cartoon-ee graphics, and (3) awesome! But surprisingly, MNC has the edge with the class abilities, though they are a bit repetitive between classes, but make a big difference to the game-play. And of course, the storyline – if I can call it that – of MNC is excellent and gives the game purpose.
I’ve been playing the game for a few days now, and it’s great. Not just because of TF2-like graphics, nor the classes or their funky abilities. It’s not even how you jump into the game and pay to level up your abilities to become more powerful (resetting between games). Well, it’s a bit of the last one.
I love the game because it works. As a whole, the thing works. The idea is that Monday Night Combat is the perfect lethal sport of the future. It combines intense combat, character classes and choices, brutal finishes and most importantly: game-show challenges.
It works in the way that, from the commentator to Bullseye (the official MNC Mascot), you feel like you’re playing a game, you’re not immersed in the great graphics or realism, but you’re having fun.
Bullseye is a real treat. He’s the official mascot for Monday Night Combat, and the person behind the suit is the most loyal fans of the MNC, usually competition winners who get to run around the battlefield in the suit. Unfortunately, they usually end up dead, as Pros earn money by whacking ‘em.
“No shirt, no shoes, no cooking bacon!”
The people in Uber seem to like their bacon, as bacon means power. Shooting Bullseye also has a chance to drop bacon, which when picked up gives you a great power-up, regenerating your abilities and healing some health and making you generally more powerful. Similar is the churros, but they’re not as powerful and just replenish health and regenerate abilities.
Also, the game does appear to be pretty much fininshed, but it is still in beta, and it’s in beta because they’re working all the balancing issues and fixing the odd bug. The recent patch notes, updated this morning, can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/24u5fjs
I don’t think MNC plans to change much after release from now, but I’m going to keep my eye on it, and I’ll see ya’ll in the arena!
Mr. Akardo
Gaming and Tech Network 