Going into Monday Night Combat on Xbox LIVE Arcade, I had some preconceived notions that the game would be disappointing due to its striking resemblance to Team Fortress 2. I was happily surprised to find that while MNC may contain some aesthetics and gameplay elements that mirror TF2, MNC managed to push these notions from my mind with its downright fun modes and the unique universe that is maintained within. MNC is a mash-up of tower defense and 3rd person shooter elements. There are only two modes in the game with a limited number of maps, but each mode holds its own offering a constantly enjoyable experience. The first mode, Blitz can be played alone, or with 3 other players as you fight to defend your “Moneyball” from attacking AI-controlled robots through a set of waves. Each wave consists of enemies that vary from small fleets of robots, to hulking destroyers who may be slow, but tough to topple. Obviously each wave becomes increasingly difficult in the number and size of the enemies within, forcing you to build AI-controlled turrets using money that can be collected a number of ways.
You also have the option to use the currency to upgrade your character’s various specialties. The first couple “levels” can be completed alone, but once you crank up the difficulty a bit, it is imperative that you have other players with you either locally or via Xbox Live. While Blitz can offer entertainment for a bit, the real meat of MNC lies in the “Crossfire” mode. Crossfire is a 6 vs. 6 mode, pitting teams against one another to destroy the opponents Moneyball. The only way that this can be accomplished is by pushing your teams automatically distributed robots to the other side of the map in order to disable the shield protecting the Moneyball. Once the shields are dropped, you can unleash your own personal hell on the Moneyball with whatever weapons you have available. This must all be accomplished while defending your own base. Turrets once again can be deployed and upgraded, plus you have the added ability to deploy drones using your private stash of cash for added effect on the invading team. Battles can get pretty hectic, and you must put yourself out there and rack kills, otherwise your contribution towards defenses and personal upgrades will be scarce.
You’ll eventually become comfortable with one of the six classes whether it be the well balanced Assault class, or the Support class who is tasked with healing team members as well as your Moneyball’s defenses. Each class feels varied and each feels as though it has an important place in a Crossfire match. Lack of the Support class or even the Sniper class can end with a quickly overrun base. Scattered throughout each map are a number of launch pads and traps that can be used to aid your movement through the map, or hinder that of the enemy. They cost money to activate of course, but each trap can be used to turn the tides if used properly. I do wish there were a few more options in terms of weapons. While each class has a set of two weapons at their disposal, the guns are not upgradable in each match. I would have loved to have seen a bit more depth in the firearms for each class. One excellent thing to spend your cash on hand outside of matches is to build a custom class. You can build a custom class with varying specialties such as faster health regeneration or bigger clips. It costs a good chunk of cash to open up a new custom class slot, but well worth the investment to build more depth in your favorite class. Crossfire is really the star of MNC and each match inevitably leads to “just one more.”
Monday Night Combat combat looks great and the design is very colorful with a humorous tone that creates a fun universe that you’ll find yourself lost in. The in-game announcing never grew tiresome or pesky. The one issue I did have, especially in the Blitz modes, was a frame-rate that becomes very unstable in the final waves of enemies. I typically only encountered this in Blitz mode, and seldom saw it in Crossfire, which is most likely the mode you’ll spend most of your time playing. Monday Night Combat, as far as I’m concerned, came out of left field. I received much more entertainment than I had anticipated, putting itself ahead of most of the other Summer of Arcade titles. The eccentric design of the characters and levels, especially the oddball mascot Bullseye, is well crafted. I would be hard pressed to recommend the game to someone looking to play alone, since the majority is developed around playing with friends but it is an exceptional multiplayer experience, surprisingly enough one I will certainly pick up and play from time to time. Monday Night Combat is an absolute blast to play and any resemblance the game has to a certain multiplayer hit is quickly forgotten. I can easily say that I won’t limit my playtime to just one weeknight.
