Quick Review: Monday Night Combat

Monday Night Combat is a third person shooter developed by the minds at Uber Entertainment and released with Xbox Live's 'Summer of Arcade' promotion for this year. The world in the game is set in the future where, thanks to the power of cloning technology, a coliseum-style fight to the death is now the main source of entertainment. It gives the feel of the best TV show the future has to offer; there are breaks for commercials, sponsor messages, and real-time commentary done by an announcer.

At first glance, the game looks very similar to Team Fortress 2, in the sense of loosely-team based gameplay, and quirky character models, but once you start, you start to notice that it isn`t as straightforward as that. You're given the choice between 2 different gametypes, that being Blitz and Crossfire. The Blitz mode has one or more players defending one point (the Moneyball) while waves of enemies spawn for a specific number of rounds. Crossfire is essentially the Warcraft III mod, DotA. Crossfire pits teams of people, the Hotshots (Red Team) and the Icemen (Blue Team), against each other as different character classses that level up individually, to destroy each others main base. Throughout the match, each team has robots that constantly spawn and trek their way to the enemies base, ultimately meeting with each other in the middle and killing each other. It's your team's duty to push your army to the opposing teams base, and destroy their moneyball.

To play the game, you're given the choice between 6 unique character classes, those being the Assault, the Tank, the Support, the Assassin, the Gunner, and the Sniper.

(pictured from left to right; Gunner, Support, Assassin, Assault, Sniper, Tank)

The Assault is the most average class out of the bunch, with moderate firepower and movement speed. The Tank is really slow, but hits like a truck and has a lot of health, and with abilities like charge, he's a great offensive powerhouse. The Support is a really interesting class and the easiest way to describe him is to allude him to Team Fortress 2's Medic and Engineer combined, because his main weapon is called the "Heal/Hurt" gun, which heals teammates and structures and does the opposite for the enemy team. His main gimmick, however, is to build up turrets that do all the fighting for you. The Assassin gets a plethora of abilities that let her both dash at high speeds, jump long distances, and make herself invisible, as well as he natural ability to do insane amount of melee damage when attacking enemies from behind. Her very predictable downside is that she's made of paper and does to almost everyone in one or two shots. The Gunner is very similar to the Tank in the sense of low movement speed/high firepower, but his abilities are more suited for the defensive player, unlike the Tank. The last of the six classes, is the Sniper, which is very self-explanatory; his main weapon is a sniper rifle, and he attacks from long distances. He is also made of paper.

Some of the in-game mechanics are a little similar to a certain popular Infinity Ward title, that being unlockable emblems by completing specific in-game tasks, and custom classes. Custom classses aren`t as flexible as you`d think in Monday Night Combat, the only things you can choose from, is which class you`ll be and which sponsors support you. The sponsors is actually something I really like in particular. You pick a sponsor, and get the various boosts that`s associated with that sponsor, for example, picking Regenitol `Kills Pain Dead` as your sponsor gives you a 2x boost to Health Recovery. It really gives the impression of some sort of Television persona from the future plugging his latest sponsor for more money.


Another mechanic found in Monday Night Combat s the random appearance of Bacon. Bacon is a very rare drop, and once obtained by the player, it gives an increase to all of the stats of your player, from attack power, to movement speed, etc, until the next time you die.

(This summarizes the game well. Ammo high-fiving Bacon.)

Monday Night Combat is 1200 Microsoft Points ($15), but if you already have a game where you can kill other people in a competitive setting, it probably isn`t worth buying. Although, I would encourage everyone to try the trial game for it available on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Overall Score: 7.5/10

Bacon makes everything better.


Image credits: Uber Ent.