Two cheery teams of three attempt to kill each other while slowly
chipping away at the other team’s turrets. If you aren’t familiar with
action-RTS games, Awesomenauts’ simple side-scrolling approach is a
fantastic place to pick up the basics. Smash the other team’s defences
to bits, then destroy their core so that you can win the game.
The first thing you need to know is that it isn’t safe to attack
turrets without the help of your team’s tiny robots. These droid helpers
march across the map in pairs, and gain a major health boost when close
to enemy turrets. Stand behind these bite-sized soldiers and you’ll be
able to attack turrets without getting hurt, but you’ll usually have to
protect the droids if you want them to get that far.
Killing turrets, players, and enemy droids earns you solar – the
currency you’ll spend to buy upgrades for your character throughout the
game. Gradually overpower the enemy team, and eventually you’re more
than likely to win. There are eight different characters to play as, but
Ronimo tease that there’ll be more to choose from soon. Initially
you’ll have to choose from the standard upgrades, but as you level up in
the game each character will gain access to a choice of 24.
The variety of skills ensures it never feels like there’s one
‘correct’ character build. None of them are so weak alone that they need
support classes in order to survive, but teams of three friends who
play together have got plenty of scope for making tactical builds.
There’s depth here for those who want it, but on the surface
Awesomenauts is relatively easy to pick up and play.
The inclusion of keyboard and mouse controls in the PC version have
forced a few substantial changes to the game, though. The Xbox 360
version only supported eight-direction aiming, while mouse support
upgrades this to 360 degrees.
This massive advantage to ranged characters meant that a lot of the
game needed to be rebalanced, and at this stage it doesn’t feel like
it’s quite there. Playing with a controller still remains an option, but
puts you at a big disadvantage: moving and aiming are mapped to one
stick, which naturally takes away a lot of control. The other problem is
the AI that replaces human players who drop out during a game. Erratic,
dim, and yet often still hard to beat, the AI isn’t much fun to play
against.
To compensate for their lack of tactics, these AI chumps seem to
automatically gain solar at a rate that’s almost impossible to keep up
with – a cheap balancing trick that’s overtly unfair. When you’re
playing against humans it isn’t a problem, but this isn’t reassuring for
new players. It’s a hell of a lot less complicated than other MOBA
games, but many are likely to be turned off after a few practise games
against the evil AI.
Adding a new control scheme changes the game in unexpected ways, and
Ronimo still has work to do if they want to stand out from the crowd.
It’s charming, addictive, and on the verge of being a genuine classic – a
gateway drug and an ideal introduction to the burgeoning action-RTS
genre. But as things stand, it isn’t quite awesome.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
- OS:Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8
- Processor:Any processor with 2 Cores
- Memory:2 GB RAM
- Graphics:ATI or Nvidia Videocard with at least 256MB, or Intel GMA 950 or newer
- Hard Drive:600 MB HD space
- OS:Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8
- Processor:Any processor with 2 Cores
- Memory:2 GB RAM
- Graphics:ATI or Nvidia Videocard with at least 256MB, or Intel GMA 950 or newer
- Hard Drive:600 MB HD space
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