My Thoughts on Super Monday Night Combat

I've been wanting to write about this game for a few weeks now, but it's been difficult to find the time. As such, I'm going to keep this short and sweet. "Super Monday Night Combat" (SMNC) is a game you should be playing.

To expand on that a bit, SMNC is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game in the spirit of similar titles like "League of Legends" and "Defense of the Ancients" (DotA). This genre of gaming is generally defined by a few key design motifs that boil down to two small teams of player-controlled "heroes" battling in arenas that are divided into sections (lanes) while being supported and opposed by computer-controlled creatures (creeps).

Most MOBAs are deeply rooted in the mechanics of classic Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games like "Warcraft" due to many of them starting life as mods for such games. The unique and arguably most compelling aspect of SMNC is that it applies the MOBA concept to the core mechanics of a 3rd-Person Shooter. This is a huge boon for folks like myself who are much bigger fans of first or third person shooters than RTS games as a general rule. What can I say? I like running around and shooting things in the face! :)

The tricky thing with MOBAs is that they tend to be fairly dense mechanically and strategically. There's just a ton of stuff happening all the time and it can be a little overwhelming for new players, even those experienced with traditional RTS and/or FPS games to immediately grasp exactly what's happening and how to effectively contribute to the overall success of their team.

SMNC makes some valiant efforts to assist new players by giving them an interactive tutorial area and access to a practice mode against bots. The game also features skill-based matchmaking that in theory should match up new or at least less experienced players with each other, but to me there's one really key feature missing in this regard.

If you look at a game like "League of Legends" and chart the path of its success, it's pretty easy to see how the inclusion of a co-op mode allowing friends to team up against computer-controlled teams went a long way to making that game more accessible and enjoyable for new players. To be clear, SMNC has a practice mode but there are no computer-controlled heroes (or "Pros" as the game calls them) to play against; just the standard creeps, which don't present much of a challenge without Pros assisting them. You also can't practice with friends, instead being grouped with random players, which doesn't allow for training with the people you intend to play with in a risk-free scenario.

Having said all that, SMNC is a game that is constantly evolving. Every week or so, there is a new patch with tweaks to rules, Pros, arenas, abilities, user interface and a host of other variables that quite literally change the game – more often than not for the better. Given the improvements I've seen over the past few weeks, I would not be at all surprised if SMNC eventually adopted a co-op system akin to that found in "League of Legends" or any number of other significant new features and enhancements.

The bottom line is that SMNC is already a great game and with a price tag of "free" and the ability to earn most if not all of the available content simply by playing the game, it's something that anyone with the slightest interest should definitely try.

Super Monday Night Combat (via Steam)