Monday Night Combat Review

By Simon Parkin Published 12 August, 2010

Desktop tower attack.

Version tested: Xbox 360

Tower Defense is gaming's youngest genre and it shows: endless waves of clones clog up iTunes, many as irresistible as their inspiration but few displaying much innovation. That's natural. Evolution requires a large gene pool before baby-step iterations begin to generate true diversification.

For that reason, Monday Night Combat's giant leap forward for the genre is exciting. It's like nothing seen before and yet, in its borrowing of game elements from a variety of other well-known titles, it's immediately familiar.

Monday Night Combat is built upon an orthodox Tower Defence foundation. This much is made obvious in the first of the game's two core modes: Blitz. All of the elements of the fixed path Tower Defence form are present here. Your base is known as the 'Moneyball', which you must protect from waves of enemy bots that approach it along fixed paths.

To fend off the attacks, you erect turrets in predefined build locations using what limited funds you have. They automatically fire upon attackers when anything enters their range, and can be upgraded using money you earn from the enemies they take down. Survive a set number of increasingly challenging waves without losing all of your Moneyball base points and the game is won. So far, so StarCraft mod.

'Monday Night Combat' Screenshot 1

The game uses Title Managed Storage to allow developer Uber Entertainment to make tweaks to class balancing without the need for a title update.

The game's first innovation is in casting the player not as some disembodied mouse cursor, clicking on build points like an abstract strategy god, but rather as a soldier, on the ground, running in between and around the turrets and attackers. You essentially act as a turret with legs, able to line up shots on bots as in any third-person shooter, yet also tasked with running up to build points and erecting static turrets to provide back-up.

Your character, as well as packing two projectile weapons, has three unique abilities to use on the playfield. Each of these can be upgraded with money from felled bots. This introduces a new layer of tactical consideration: should you spend your resources on building new static turrets, upgrading existing ones, or turn yourself into a more powerful weapon? Who do you trust more: the AI, or yourself?

All of this is made yet more interesting by the fact the game supports up to four players working together. With six character classes to choose between, each with their own strength and weaknesses, the raw number of different factors in play dwarves that of most Tower Defence games, even as the core objective remains constant.

'Monday Night Combat' Screenshot 2

The combination of AI units and player competitors in battle is unusual yet wonderfully effective, discouraging camping and providing a continual focus.

The game demands its players to organise themselves effectively, deciding who is going to cover which bot path, and on what element each member is to spend their money on. If a multiplayer version of Plants vs. Zombies combined with Gears of War's Horde mode sounds appealing then rest easy: you're home.

Blitz Mode, with its five challenges scaling from ten waves of attackers to infinity, is interesting and well balanced enough to stand alone. However, the package is elevated from fascinating to essential by the inclusion of Crossfire mode.

Here the fundamentals laid out by Blitz remain the same, except two teams of four players are pitted against each other. Now the task is a dual one: defend your base from the waves of enemy bots, and chaperone your own bots as they progress toward the enemy base.

Character classes that previously seemed like a neat, but perhaps unnecessary addition become a core component of the experience, the cat's cradle of factors in play most heavily influenced by the character class composition of each team and each player's efficiency with their character.

There are six classes to play as, each of whom has three special moves in keeping with their build and approach. The 'Assault' is the all-rounder, with moderate offense and defence. His remote-detonated bomb skill is useful for laying traps, while his assault charge can be used to slam opponents from the play area, or just as a plain evasive manoeuvre.

The 'Tank', as his name suggests, is a heavy built entity with a 'Product Grenade' that, when upgraded, plasters advertising over the enemies' screens, temporarily obscuring their view.

The 'Assassin', the most popular character class on the game's servers right now, is lithe and fast. She has a useful cloaking ability to hide her from being seen, which can be used in conjunction with her dash move to sprint into enemy territory undetected.

The 'Support' can upgrade turrets to increase their range and fire rate, while his Air Strike can prove invaluable in laying down a blanket of fire when enemy bots have invaded your base.

'Monday Night Combat' Screenshot 3

Turrets are limited to four types, each with a different build cost and effect.

The 'Gunner' is one of the most useful classes, somewhere in-between a 'Tank' and 'Assault', with a fast, powerful minigun that can be upgraded to a dual version of itself. Using the Gunner Deploy ability, you can set up in a prime spot and (at the cost of being able to move) increase the amount of damage you can take and deal.

Finally, the 'Sniper' makes up for his weak defence with the ability to lay traps around a sniping position and, of course, a long range rifle that can take down most targets in two clean shots.

While the classes appear like carbon copies of those perfected in Valve's Team Fortress 2, a game from which Monday Night Combat also borrows a number of its visual cues, in play there are key differences. Add to this the option to purchase custom character classes as you build your cash reserves through playing the game online and the tactical options available become dizzyingly broad.

'Monday Night Combat' Screenshot 4

Bots come in a variety of shapes and sizes from tiny buzzing irritations, to giant behemoths that plod heavily towards your base.

The metagame is simple but enjoyable. As you meet predefined criteria in play, so you unlock Street Fighter IV-style 'Tags' that can be attached to your gamertag and that pop-up on an opponent's screen when you kill them, in the Modern Warfare 2 style. These tags must first be unlocked, by performing prescribed feats, and then purchased before they can be used, and there's fun to be had in trying to catch 'em all.

Monday Night Combat is far from the most attractive game on XBLA. It's character designs are derivative while the primary colour American gameshow setting is boisterous and noisy, a feeling exacerbated by a witless, jabbering commentator.

But the systems the presentation clothes are nothing short of beautiful. This is a game designer's game, one that cherry-picks ideas from gaming's contemporary landscape and melds them together into something at once fresh and familiar. There will be a need for class balancing as the weeks roll by – that much is true of any team combat game – but even in this initial guise the experience sparkles, offering a worthy distraction no matter what the day of the week and providing a significant step in the evolution of Tower Defence.

9 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Simon.

About Simon Parkin

Simon Parkin is an author and journalist on video games. A regular contributor to Eurogamer since 2005, his work has also appeared in Edge, The Telegraph, Gamasutra and Boing Boing.

Read more articles from Simon by visiting the Simon Parkin archive page.

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Comments (63) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • wizlon #1 2 years ago

    Meant to try this last night, I'll definitely be trying it tonight!

  • Murbal #2 2 years ago

    Me neither... Time to order MORE Live points...

  • muscleblade #3 2 years ago

    Sold!

    Actually i already bought it last night tbh. I kind of new this was going to ba a good one. Just like Limbo.
    Edited by 1 at 12/08/10 @ 11:40

  • andywilkie35 #4 2 years ago

    Took me ages to download the trial version because of my shit net connection so couldnt try it last night.

    Certainly will be tonight though, and if its as good as it sounds then BANG sold

  • mcmonkeyplc #5 2 years ago

    Looked a bit poo in the videos, I'll have to check this out now.

  • Xardan #6 2 years ago

    You dont actually have to buy it to play online though do you? As i discovered last night. Buying it though unlocks custom classes and the tags and things.

  • Whizzo #7 2 years ago

    I didn't venture online with it last night but I've had a lot of fun playing it solo, there's a lot more to the game it appears on the surface.

    As someone who tends to play the support class in online shooters playing the support felt the most natural to me and hacking your own turrets to upgrade them more than normal is quite handy.

    A fun game indeed and beating the shit out of robots with your "grapple" is nice too.

  • Toothball #8 2 years ago

    I was expecting more from Castlevania last week and very little from this one. I'll probably leave it for now and maybe take a look if it shows up on a deal though, as I've no shortage of games to play at the moment.

  • richarddavies #9 2 years ago

    This never really registered on my radar tbh till I read this. I'll give it a goosy ganders tonight now. Cow.

  • ZizouFC #10 2 years ago

    Awesome! Glad I bought this on impulse. Can't wait to get home an try it.

  • Vortex808 #11 2 years ago

    I donwloaded the trial last night and will give it a go tonight. I had no interest in this initially as i thought it'd merely be a generic brawler thing. If it's anything like as much fun as a TF2-like tower defence game sounds, i shall probably be buying it not long after i try the demo!

  • M83J01P97 #12 2 years ago

    9... really? Gave the game a try last night and while it looked nice and had some interesting ideas, it didn't have the fine class balancing TF2 has (some of the classes in Monday Night Combat seemed awfully weak compared to others) or even the lasting enjoyability of TF2. It just felt a like bland really once you had played it for a while...

    But each to their own I guess!

  • Eraysor #13 2 years ago

    Damn fucking right, this game is AWESOME

  • Badassbab #14 2 years ago

    Now that was unexpected. I thought it was another FPS.

  • hardtech #15 2 years ago

    Another impulse buyer here. Really fun game and really enjoying the Crossfire mode which is very entertaining but does require a few more maps.

  • MiniAmin #16 2 years ago

    The trailer looked brilliant. Great review Simon.

    This is why I love XBLA, lower budgets = more creativity.

  • Monkey_Puncher #17 2 years ago

    Will check this out!

  • butler` #18 2 years ago

    wtf out of no where, buying!

  • bigtechno #19 2 years ago

    My favourit tower defence game is Geo Defense Swarm on iphone

  • ZizouFC #20 2 years ago

    Read like a 10 besides minor issues with the cosmetics.

  • RedSparrows #21 2 years ago

    Summer of Arcade looks shit! they cried.

    Doubters, silence! I shouted.

  • yoomazir #22 2 years ago

    Bought it on a hunch, best summer game for me.

  • lucky_jim #23 2 years ago

    Wow, I'm glad this has turned out good. This year's Summer of Arcade still doesn't reach the dizzying heights of the last two imo, but this and Limbo are enough to make sure it's not the washout I thought it was gonna be.

  • Xardan #24 2 years ago

    I hope it can maintain a healthy online playerbase.

  • Cronan #25 2 years ago

    I wasn't expecting that either

  • Dizzy #26 2 years ago

    Wow... sold! Gonna have some fun tonite.

  • Derblington #27 2 years ago

    There's a lot of talk in the review about it being a giant step in tower defense games, but isn't it exactly the same as WaW's Zombie mode?

  • geeza2020 #28 2 years ago

    @Derblington
    Err, did you read the review? Its so much deeper than WaW's zombie mode, they're not even comparable IMO.

  • Barbellion #29 2 years ago

    Well, I'm sorry, but however neatly designed it may be, it almost completely without charm. In execution the world is like a Poundland version of a Valve game, and this lack of any kind of decent humour or feel is only exacerbated by the fact the game thinks it's funny. Even the classes are clumsily named in an attempt to be generic and self-explanatory - The Assault! Oh, please, it doesn't even make sense.

    And I'm not sure where Parkin is coming from with this review, the game honestly doesn't play that brilliantly and the whole thing whiffs of a publicity brochure with a little bit of a critique thrown in. Very shocked this scored over a 6.

    If only Team Fortress 2 hadn't been so broken on the 360

  • Whizzo #30 2 years ago

    Without charm or humour? Are you sure you've played the game?

  • CaptainQuint #31 2 years ago

    Here's a tip: can't be bothered skipping to the final review score of an XBLA release? Just peer at the number of comments and if it's more than thirty then you can guarantee at least an 8/10 ;-)

  • Eraysor #32 2 years ago

    Calling this game "without charm" is like calling Dead Rising "without zombies"

  • finexi #33 2 years ago

    Better than Red Dead Redemption, Eurogamer?

  • StarchildHypocrethes #34 2 years ago

    Yay! It's taken a while but we finally have the first retarded score comparison of the day.

    Well done finexi. You win a new pair of crocs in a colour of your choice!

  • Accordi0n #35 2 years ago

    Gray Fox!?

  • Pastici #36 2 years ago

    It's a tower defense game? I had no idea ill I read the review. I always thought it was a Team Fortress knock off, bad move PR people, I had no idea what your game was.

  • hardtech #37 2 years ago

    I always agree that I probably wouldn't give it a 9 but I would say a solid 8

  • RobotRocker #38 2 years ago

    Wait wait wait.

    Somehow its a tower defense, despite being very clearly modeled on DOTA which in itself was a rip-off of cult classic Future Cop LAPD's multiplayer mode.

    [link url=http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=W2rPuRDtL_s
    ]http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=W2rPuRDtL_s
    [/link]

    If anyone wants me I will be banging my head in a corner.

  • finexi #39 2 years ago

    Go f yourself StarchildHypocrethes (no offense). I know the games are completely different. But ffs. How can a game like this get a better score than Red Dead, Alan Wake, Halo, Mass Effect,...!


    GOD IT HAS THE SAME SCORE AS HEAVY RAIN.




    Just a little bit worse than Super Mario Galaxy 2, though.



    :D
    Edited by 1 at 12/08/10 @ 15:15

  • pinebear #40 2 years ago

    Well, for "a wild guess at what all of the other publications will score it", Mr Parkin's quite the soothsayer.

  • technotica #41 2 years ago

    Dang! I want this for PC! :)

  • WinstonChurchill #42 2 years ago

    I guess a reviewer isn't allowed to simply enjoy a game and write it a good review nowadays.

    Standards sure have changed.

  • Dave #43 2 years ago

    So, this is not like Defense Grid? I personally love that game, so I was kinda looking for something similar.

  • KDR_11k #44 2 years ago

    Iron Grip: Warlord also had the player fighting on the ground in a tower defense...

  • Eraysor #45 2 years ago

    Imagine Defence Grid but you're on the ground fighting the incoming swarms of robots along with your turrets, with 3 other people to help out. It is at least as good as Defence Grid; probably slightly better due to co-op.

    Also: don't feed the trolls...

  • beastmaster #46 2 years ago

    Ffs! This game plays nothing like Team Fotress. Those of you who want a new Team Fotress game, go to Valve forums & start up a 'we want a new Team Forteess game on XBLA' thread or something. If they can do Portal then you never know. This game is not it.

    I've really enjoyed it so far. It's fucking suberb IMHO. Looking forward to some serious Crossfire over the next few days. I'm sure if it sells there will be more arenas and game modes etc. as DLC.

    One thing about the tutorial. It's only for Assault type isn't it?
    Edited by 1 at 12/08/10 @ 16:44

  • Vyggo #47 2 years ago

    Bought it last night. Granted I don't have a lot of experience with other multiplayer shooters but I really, really enjoy this one. Like I expected, this is not so much about twitch gaming but more about tactical play, being at the right place at the right time and using your abilities sensibly.

    I can't really say anything about the balance. The first few matches I thought assasins were overpowered but once I got used to them I could spot and kill them most of the time. At this time it's all about learning what all the classes can do and how to counter/avoid that.

    The commentator is definately annoying, I hope they'll add a setting to mute him. The game itself has charm though, it's clear and crisp and the classes are easily identifiable. This game is hectic with robots, turrets and players duking it out, so it makes sense to stick to a very primary easthetic. Animation is very well done as well.

    One worry I have is the number of maps, it seems like there are only a few.

  • Xardan #48 2 years ago

    Oh bugger my trial time ran out! I didnt even know there was one. Its a shame because im still undecided about the game.

  • Eraserhead #49 2 years ago

    I'm more interested in this Title Managed Storage thing mentioned in the caption... what's that all about? Sounds intriguing.

    /geek

  • AdamAsunder #50 2 years ago

    It's similar to Team Fortress in aesthetic only. The more you play it, the more you realise the differences, strategy really plays a much bigger part than you'd imagine.

    In my opinion it's a pretty deep game yet still has responsive controls and feels great to play.

    I think 9/10 is too generous for a game that's fairly light on content but it is a great concept and is a nice little innovation for the fledgling tower defense genre.

    8/10

  • Phishfood #51 2 years ago

    I'm at level 22 now and I've noticed there are a lot of bugs in the game.

  • Vyggo #52 2 years ago

    Could you tell us some, I didn't experience any (only level 8 so far)

  • DanForinton #53 2 years ago

    @Eraserhead

    I think the Title Managed thing is to do with there being certain bits of data that the multiplayer side of the game uses stored on a server somewhere - specifically to do with the various character classes and weapons. This means this data can be tweaked without the need for actually patching the game - so underperformers can be buffed and overpowered combos nerfed very quickly.
    Given Microsoft's torturous certification process on patches, this is an interesting take on being able to update the game and tweak game balance within a short turnaround, something that has, IMO, shafted other games where people give up due to abuses or unbalanced gameplay taking too long to get fixed.

  • Harmonica #54 2 years ago

    Review is spot on for me, and it probably is a kind of 9/10 game in terms of XBLA. It's not quite the same as TF although if you've put 100s of hours into that then I'm not sure you'll see much here that's entirely fresh (although the tower defense + class based FPS combat is a decent gimmick). That said, I have played TF a fair bit and I bought this on a whim and have had a lot of mindless fun with it.

    If you enjoy the trial and want to play it more that's probably a good sign.

    This paragraph is also pretty apt: "Monday Night Combat is far from the most attractive game on XBLA. It's character designs are derivative while the primary colour American gameshow setting is boisterous and noisy, a feeling exacerbated by a witless, jabbering commentator."

    Basically if you can look beyond the obviously brash aesthetics (the announcer blends into the background after the while, but the chosen colour scheme and some of the models are a little dodgy), then it's got a solid concept behind it.

  • cloudskipa #55 2 years ago

    @ finexi

    This game is an XBLA game that sells for 1200 points. In this context Monday Night Combat gets a 9/10, is it so hard for you to understand how review scores work? what on earth makes you think it's score should be compared to multi-million pound budget full price retail games?

    Let me guess, I bet you're also one of them types of people that thinks no game should ever get a 10/10 because "no game is perfect"..
    Edited by 1 at 13/08/10 @ 01:40

  • Harmonica #56 2 years ago

    That's why scores in reviewing have their pitfalls, they rely on context, and sites like metacritic have apparently duped the masses into believing that there's no context and you can read straight down the line; that there's such a thing as an according-to-the-letter 10/10 or 9/10 which you can work out by applying a formula to a bunch of wildly ranging review outlets AND game products.

    Not that it's all their fault, the industry has been guilty of buying into it and believing their own hype ever since review aggregate sites got popular. The developers themselves have been savvy growing up with game reviews and scores on box art and pullquotes, they understand what publications mean when they score things.. but that doesn't mean they/their publishers won't take advantage of it for some easy sales.

    It's all a bit tiresome. I like the idea that if a game gets a 10 from EG or EDGE or whomever, or a 90s score from PCG, then it's a special gaming experienc. That's entirely reliable.
    Edited by 1 at 13/08/10 @ 03:22

  • flanker22 #57 2 years ago

    gotta give them credit for mixing up the standard shoot face repeat. the game is a little tower defense, a little dota, a little tf2 good work.

  • cloudskipa #58 2 years ago

    Totally agree with you Harmonica, it's just a shame some people can't read between the lines and see reviews score for what they are.

    It's like this whole 10/10 business, a full score to me doesn't mean a game is perfect, it just means it's one of the best games you can play of it's genre and I always consider the review score in their correct context, which is mainly based on price point (ie. retail or XBLA/PSN/Wiiware), the system's former benchmark set for the genre of the game being reviewed (ie. a great 3D platformer on 360 would likely score higher than on the Wii as the Wii has Mario Galaxy to compare to) and finally the system's own technical limitations (pointless comparing review scores from multiplat games on Wii to 360/PS3 unless they've made a point in the review of doing that).

  • Xardan #59 2 years ago

    Im still undecided about this. Ill probably give in and buy it if they release an update of some kind in the future. At least then ill know if they plan to patch and support the game.

  • Tinrib72 #60 2 years ago

    Didnt realise it was a tower defence game...that'll save me a download then.

  • Phishfood #61 2 years ago

    One of the bugs I kept getting yesterday was after finishing any Crossfire match it would boot me back to the main menu instead of letting me continue on.

    Another was being frozen and unable to do anything at the spawn point.

    Changing class after dying doesn't give you an idea of how long it will take to reapwn again, you're just a floating camera until the game decides to spawn you.

    After finishing one game of Crossfire the screen just stopped on the Monday Night logo and would not go to main menu, I had to exit to dashboard and go back in.

    I tried starting a Scramble Blitz game with 2 friends but when I started it, it kept changing to Playoff Blitz.

  • RaMarcus #62 2 years ago

    Brilliant game, best SoA game yet. I need to spare more time to play it and it's the first game in a while where I look forward to playing it, just a fun game.

  • JayKwon #63 2 years ago

    Bought it on friday, played it all night long with a friend of mine splitscreen based on this review and the trial. He first thought it was shit, he ended up playing it even more than I did, on my xbox! I think it's a fun game, bit pricy though, and I still don't have enough skill to thoroughly enjoy it. But that's just a matter of time I guess.