First Impressions: Monday Night Combat
Thu, August 12, 2010 at 10:05 PM Online multiplayer games typically don’t tend to be a big draw for me. I like them in principle, but I lack the dedication to practice enough to become good at them, so my experiences tend to consist of hopping online, getting stomped a few times, muttering to myself that I wish I were better at the game, and then never playing again.
But sometimes a game comes along that can convince even me to hop on its bandwagon. Monday Night Combat is just such a game.
Monday Night Combat is a brilliant mix of well-worn elements that combine to form a captivating whole. Take a large dose of Team Fortress’s class-based team shooter gameplay, mix in a couple of portions of tower defense, and top it off with a pleasingly thick layer of icing in the form of an appealing grandiose sports game presentation. What you end up with is an addictive shooter with high replayability, plenty of depth, and quite a bit of strategy to boot.
Monday Night Combat doesn’t overwhelm you with modes or options. One could cynically say that it feels like a $15 downloadable title rather than a full retail release, but I prefer to think that it simply pared down the experience to only the most necessary elements and then polished them to a fine sheen. What you’re left with is perhaps lacking in quantity, but of a quality that will stand up to just about any full retail shooter you compare it to.