30 Minutes in - Smash + Grab

Hi peeps!

I've always been playing with the idea of creating my own game. It would be a browser game, written in the only programming language I know: PHP. I'm planning on picking up on that plan soon enough, if it wasn't for the day job that's actually pretty tiresome on the mind... But more important things first! Gaming itself ;) I've acquired a new game on Steam today! It's an early access MOBA with an exciting twist! Let me tell you my opinion so far...

The Heart

Every character has their own backstory, but the main "story" is simple:

SMASH+GRAB is an underground competition where gangs of the future battle it out for loot, weapons, and infamy inside a corporate urban dystopia. Assemble your crew and team up with other players to fight, loot, and craft your weaponry to come out on top.
Steam Page

In practice, it's a race between the "east-side" and the "west-side" to get the most money. You can do this by looting stores or killing opposing gang members for their bounties.

The Hands

The game plays okay with keyboard and mouse, but I think it might really shine if played with a controller. The controls sometimes feel a little bit unresponsive when trying to do a skill, but that could be because of the latency or the mechanic in general: You can't be moving when hitting that skill key.
The loot and upgrade mechanics are pretty simple as well. You bash in the store display of a store that's lit up and start looting the place dry. You gather money and materials by doing so. There are different kinds of stores as well. Some grant you a new weapon, while others upgrade the weapons of your crew, depending on which "archetype" you've selected as your player character. The different stores also grant you different upgrade materials. An appliance store gives you parts to upgrade your weapon with electricity, while a jewelry store gives you diamonds that can cause bleeding.
There are 3 "rounds" in total that each last about 5 minutes. With each round new stores open and airdrops are scattered across the map that give bonuses to the players that open them.
You're not the only one fighting though, each player is accompanied by a lieutenant and 3 goons. The lieutenant is a tougher npc and is also upgradable through talents. The talents are gained as your character or the lieutenant itself gains a level. These levels are gained from battling and allow your account to progress and unlock talents as well as vanity items for the characters you gained the levels with.
Matches are played 3 vs 3 players. This means that if all the players would meet in 1 small street, it would get pretty chaotic counting all the goons and generals as well. They actively participate in the skirmishes are looting.

The Eyes

The graphics are pretty decent. I've been playing on medium, since my GPU isn't that powerful, but it's all pretty fluent and the animations are quite okay. It feels pretty good to the eyes when you grapple an enemy or unleash a finishing move on one. There's also a difference in looks between the different "gangs". Currently there are 3 gangs and they each look different from one another. There's a gang of biker-looking dudes, a gang of street thugs and another one of, what seems like, industrial type of people. Every character also has dozens of vanity items you can unlock by just playing that character.

The Ears

The sound effects and music are decent as well. They don't feel out of place. I like it a lot when characters talk to each other or tell some one-liners.

The Mind

Overall the game is pretty fun to play. It brings something new and refreshing to the MOBA genre. Being in early access means that a lot of content has yet to be developed. There are more characters still in development. I can't wait to see what the game will be like a year from now. If you like beat-em ups and MOBA's this game is definitely for you.

As always, thank you very much for reading. Take care peeps!

Cheers!

Got a constructive comment or want to play something together? feel free to leave a comment!
Be sure to also check out my girlfriend, @mevilkingdom, who has an awesome collection of toys and my brother in law @steve-walschot, the creator of SteemPay.io and vouched Steem applications developer.
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