Steam has a great deal to not only get into the beta of Monday Night Combat, but also gain access to the early beta.
For any XboxLive veterans, Monday Night Combat is not an unknown title or release. However, with the upcoming PC release, availability in Steam, and ongoing early Beta, MNC is poised to become one of the next best competitive shooters for cooperative team gameplay.
Simply put, Monday Night Combat is a rather unique mixture of varying famous and addictive varieties of gameplay mechanics. But I guess that wasn’t very simply put, now was it?
You could think of Monday Night Combat as a mixture of Tribes meets Unreal Tournament meets Team Fortress 2. Just ask@MG_Randy , One of the lucky sC Sponsored MNC testers. As he states,
“(MNC)… is pretty fun. Definitely a beta, but gameplay is solid!”
And, Randy, we couldn’t agree more. Before we continue, you must understand that MNC is in beta for PC at the moment. It released back in August for Xbox360 as part of the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade. It is slated for a full release on January 17th, 2011.
MNC is a third person, class based shooter. It has Tower Defense elements in the competitive online play giving it incredible potential for competitive online cooperative play (yet another thing we hold dear to our hearts here at SemperCog. Live and die by competition!). From the get go, the very art style is reminiscent of Team Fortress 2, yet in a more futuristic, smoothed out manner. Along with that, MNC has a sense of humor that further helps propel itself forward. Even the information from Uber Entertainment, the developers of the title, contains bits of their own branded humor,
“MNC’s Head of Biomedicine, Dr. Karl Pickering, puts it this way: “We at Monday Night Combat believe strongly in the three C’s: character, commitment and cloning. We also believe in the three B’s: breeding, bionics and bioengineering. Possibly the B’s should come first. Whatever, I’m not a goddam dictionary.
Harold Nix, MNC’s Chief of Pharmacology, puts it this way: “There ain’t a trick in the book I ain’t seen. I’ve tried every performance enhancing drug there is. I know them all. Oh boy, are you seeing what I’m seeing? I sure hope that ain’t real. I better lie down.”
The game itself is a parody of the Monday Night Football fever of the United States, with accompanying fame, fortune, substance abuse and endorsement deals. However, in MNC, the competition centers around combat, bloodshed and all out, visceral carnage.
The main competitive mode, Crossfire, involves teams of 6 v 6 battling to destroy the shields and core of the opposing team’s Money Ball. The Money Ball is a floating, glowing orb at each side of the map, with buildable turret locations allowing for greater defensive construction and decreased penetrability (But THAT’s what she…er, never mind).
Six playable classes are available currently in game. The information for each is as follows.
The Assault is the closest thing Monday Night Combat has to a “big play man”. He is the center of attention always, and the unofficial leader of the pack. He is most often seen driving the attack while dazzling the crowd with his acrobatic plays and daring-do.
Notable DNA:
Riddick Bowe, Princess Diana, David Beckham, Benny Hill
Likes:
Gallery openings, Egyptian silk, VIP rooms, slapping bald men on the head
Dislikes:
art, near white caviar served in anything other than a 24-karat gold ramkin
The Tank is a modern day grunt, a blue-collar warrior who is fearless in battle and who relishes his role as the point of attack. On the field of combat he is gruff, crude and doesn’t care who knows it. Off the field however he is as vulnerable and sensitive as they come. He has a great deal of insecurity regarding his size, looks and lack of social graces especially with the opposite sex.
Notable DNA:
Ray Lewis, Jesse Ventura, Kimbo Slice
Likes:
bar brawls, women with tattoos, compliments
Dislikes:
pretty boys, acid reflux, being alone on romantic holidays
All who take the field of Monday Night Combat fear the Sniper. Even other Snipers fear them. Some even fear themselves.
Snipers in MNC have been designed to be the world’s foremost long distance killing machines, taking their DNA from some of the greatest snipers in video game history.
The Sniper is by far the most enthusiastic combatant on the team. He stays up late at night drawing plays. He watches hour after hour of video, practices relentlessly and does nothing that might jeopardize his performance on game day. During game time he often acts like the coach or quarterback, calling out plays that only he’s familiar with (his teammates ignore the playbooks he gives them) and getting extremely frustrated with the rest of his squad.
His genetic make up combined with his solitary profession and intense focus have left little room for people skills. While he means well, the Sniper is brusque and short-tempered, especially when he feels teammates aren’t listening to him during combat. He sports an eastern European affectation that when combined with his shrill voice make for an almost comical effect when barking orders, especially when angered.
The Sniper loves Monday Night Combat and everything about it. He is a huge stickler for the rules and sees the world as being very black and white.
Notable DNA:
Hardcore gamer champions from MLG, WCG and WSVG.
Likes:
Playing Monday Night Combat, practicing for Monday Night Combat, talking about Monday Night Combat, drawing up plays for Monday Night Combat
Dislikes:
Almost everything else.
No team can win consistently without a Support position, whose primary responsibility is to use his extensive knowledge of cyberbiology and medicine to keep his team sharp, alert and on the battlefield for longer periods of time than their opponents.
Notable DNA:
Leonardo DaVinci, Steve Jobs, Sushruta Samhita, Dr. Kinsey
Likes:
gondolas, Ferraris, Swiss chalets
Dislikes:
any type of instant or fast food, sewer rats, hotel paintings
The Gunner is slow and thoughtful, and very rarely gives into any sort of panic or excitement. He is protective of his teammates; often the only way to get any sort of rise out of him is for an opponent to score an especially vicious kill.
Notable DNA:
Sumo wrestler Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, Otis, a prize winning yak, 1988 Washington Redskins offensive line, Lord Byron
Likes:
coral reefs, ukulele jams, poetry of Lord Byron
Dislikes:
large cities, crowds, shopping for pants
Deadly, quiet, invisible. The Assassin has become one of the most popular combatants on MNC due to her acrobatic kills and cool cloaking ability.
While unable (or unwilling) to speak (MNC scientists don’t know for sure) the Assassin carries out her duties with dignity and grace, killing quickly and seldom “showboating” like some of her teammates. Though a menacing and mysterious figure she appears at times protective of her teammates, but never at the expense of a win. Though she seems to have a thorough sense of justice make no mistake, she is not a woman to be crossed, even by a teammate. Most of her fellow athletes keep their distance when off the field, save for the occasional awkward approach by the Heavy Weapons Specialist or Tank.
In recent years there has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding the Assassin. Some scientists in MNC have reported an unusually high number of instances involving insubordination, with some Assassins even taking unauthorized leaves of absence from the team. Some have begun to worry that the Assassin clones are getting more difficult to control. Top management at MNC have downplayed the concerns, reasoning that her popularity with the fans is worth any such inconvenience.
When the Assassin dreams she dreams of a society that throws off its self-imposed shackles, unafraid to live as free men and women without the comfort and safety of a predictable existence. Silent by choice, she keeps mute so that her works will not betray her feelings towards the ruling overclass. Most of all she dreams of living as an Outlander, of raising children with a likeminded male warrior who rather die a free man than be consumerist slave.
Notable DNA:
Mary Lou Retton, Michelle Yeoh, Charlotte Corday
Likes:
independent thinkers, substance over style, being feared, the roar of the crowd, the rush of the kill
Dislikes:
rampant consumerism, cowardice, arrogance, being “owned”
From our first impressions we find the classes to be amazingly balanced with no one class overtly dominating the majority of others. While particular classes are more suited for combat against other classes and situations, such is the nature of the game.
For instance, a well-played assassin can one shot a sniper or other assassin if snuck up on while invisible. However, other varying classes require ranged attacks combined with invisibility and back stabbing to properly take down.
As one might surmise from the above assessment, the current favorite of the author is the assassin class. However, every objective can be handled effectively and enjoyably with every other class involved.
Teamwork is key in MNC, while combo’ed players (sin/sniper, tank/support) rely on eachother and further push the enemy robots and teammates back and destroy the enemy shields and Money Ball.
However, currently in beta form, the server connection and host’s have differing issues. The GOOD news is that once you connect there is usually a steady connection for the duration of the game. Uber Entertainment has announced that not only will dedicated servers be available at launch (currently you can host dedicated and non dedicated from your own PC), there will also be an SDK and map editor available in January.
With Steam behind them all the way, Uber Entertainment is bringing this popular Xbox title into the PC world. With the long-standing popularity of Team Fortress 2, as long as Uber Entertainment continues to support expansion, editability, and the occasional free DLC, they may have themselves a long standing, addictive gaming title in the works.