Making the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs, and pulling Titan's Turn on my way to your computer screen, I am NoCashReq, This is Flat Broke Gamer Review, and we are coming back again to continue the review of Moon Breakers!
A QUICK REMINDER
The last time we were here, we looked at the Playability (3/5) and Atmospherics (3/5) of the game. My first few trips out of the Hangar Bay were met with a lot of explosions, but having persevered, I found my groove and started pulling hairpin turns and blowing up other pilots.
And now, onwards we go!
BLUF: Continued play has reconfirmed that although this game is lacking a lot of the personalization and variety, it is a lot of fun to play and well worth your time. The Community is rather small right now, so occasionally you will have no one to play against, but the game only released in May and the company is still working to improve the game and expand it, so I would expect it to turn into a great game with a steady following.
Here's the Trailer, most of which is actual screenshot video, so you can see what I'm talking about!
SCORES
Learning Curve: 4/5 The ships are all upgradable, and the skills required for playing truly set apart the Top Guns from the rest of us pilots. Lacking the ability to personalize your play further than the upgrades and the limited number of ships/variety of weapons is the only thing that holds their score from a 5.
Community: 4/5 Although there will be times where there aren't enough people to play with, the people who play have been polite, friendly, and helpful. We'll have to watch as this game expands its player base to see if it stays the same.
Support: 5/5 Even the download was quick and smooth. No issues playing it at all, and the forums (http://moonbreakers.userecho.com/) includes the developer's changes and plans for the future.
Cash Shop: 3/5 Only the ships are available for purchase, and the prices are a little bit higher than I think they should be, but they have it right that the actual play improvements are available only through flying well and earning them.
Overall: 22/30 Still in its infancy, this game has a lot of fun gameplay, and a lot of potential. Hopefully it grows into a great game, as it is already a really fun time.
LOAD UP YOUR PHOTON TORPEDOES
Continuing where we left off, I decided to keep the pedal to the metal, and have logged in several more hours of flight time. There are three types of game styles and three maps.
Seek and Destroy: Kills, kills, kills. This is your typical deathmatch, where the only thing that matters is getting the other pilots before they get you.
Capture the Flag: On the "top" of the carriers are a transmitter that you can fly over to pick it up, and by bringing it to your carrier, your team can shoot for the high score. There is a value to killing the other pilots, but you won't get the highest creds available that way.
Carrier Assault: The easiest way to rid the skies of your enemies is to give them nowhere to go back to. Destroy the turrets and drive torpedoes into the sides of your opponent's carrier to win.
The Broadsides map places the carriers barely separated by an asteroid field. It is a lot of fun for all of the play types, and allows for any type of ship to be effective.
Playing on the Broken Moon map is harder, as there is literally the remains of a moon inbetween the carriers. Light fighters don't do as well near the opponent's carrier, as they are very exposed, but the other types do better.
The final map is called Rockfield, and is similar to Broadsides, save for the distance between the carriers. This is probably my favorite map for Seek and Destroy, but my least for Capture the Flag.
In addition to earning creds, playing well will earn you a bounty. Kill streaks, stealing the flag, blowing turrets and hitting with torpedoes will earn you a bounty that other players can cash in, and the longer you keep the streak going without being blown out of the sky pushes the value up more and more. This is probably the first time I've seen a reward for taking out a hot player that wasn't restricted to your current match, and I like it! It's so fun to see everyone swarm someone when that "BOUNTY" appears over their name.
The longer you play, the higher your level will go, and at the beginning of the game, you will see bars next to your name, giving a rough idea to the other players of your skill.
The game designers have a forum (link here) where they keep you up to date on the new patches, plans for the future, and responses to legitimate posts. The game plays well, and with them listing the future for all to see and respond to, this game seems to be on the right track, support-wise.
The community is still really small, and there have been three times where there were NO other players to strafe, but when there is someone to play with, most of them are freindly, talkative, and will help you get better. If the game expands and grows the way they are talking about, the community should grow too. now, that could be as much good as bad, possibly drawing form wretched hives of scum and villany as much as it brings in true followers of the Force, but we'll have to see.
2,000 UP FRONT, 15,000 ONCE WE GET TO ALDERAN
The only thing you can get in the cash shop is He3, Helium 3, the currency of the universe of the game. You can use this to unlock all of the ships, but in my opinion the ships are too expensive. $50, the largest amount of money they have an exchange rate for, will buy you one of each of the classes, and a few others, but you could buy a new game for that much, and this still leaves you short a few models. If the prices were a little lower, I'd consider it a better price. All improvements for your ships are only available for Creds earned in matches, so they got that part right.
YOU ARE CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF, GHOSTRIDER
So is it worth it? Yes, this game is a lot of fun, if still a little small and limited. Keep an eye on it, and I think you will watch a good game grow into a great one. That's all for this review, come on back next time when we go after Age of Empires Online, until then, keep your six clear of Tie Fighters and your phasers set to stun! See Ya!
[NoCashReq has left the room.]
