Recent reviews by Scrumpy

Old Review, which can mainly be a TL;DR for it all:
An absolutely awesome side-scrolling MOBA, and probably one of the only ones out there. The community is all relatively pleasant for such a genre, and the devs are pretty good with community outreach.

New Review:
Now, seeing as this game just went F2P, more people are hopefully coming to the game or looking for a solid explanation of what to expect here, so I'll try to provide that.

First of all, this IS a MOBA, in the same vein as League of Legends and DotA/DotA 2. I'm putting this at the front because this can automatically make or break a game for some, so I feel it's worth mentioning immediately. It's a 3v3 team scenario of pushing minions waves, farming exp, buying upgrades for your Awesomenaut, and breaking towers and eventually the enemy's base. So, if you know you don't like this style of game, you might not enjoy it, and that's fair. I just want to make that all clear from the beginning.

That said, if MOBA's do appeal to you, this game actually has a lot to offer you. It is a previously paid-to-play MOBA that recently went Free-to-play, of which there are no downsides to this at all. Those of us who have been with the game for a long time were compensated appropriately (no 'Nauts or skins were lost in the process) and those who are just now joining are perfectly capable of earning everything, maybe minus some cosmetics which were just given to legacy players (no effect on gameplay, they just make us recognizable). This game's community was dwindling, and making the game F2P might give it the revival some of us older players have always wanted. I believe this was the right choice to make for the game, and am super excited to see more players get into it.

Now, as for what to expect when playing the game itself. This is a very simple MOBA in concept, but done in a very unique way that makes the 2D side-scrolling nature of it feel like a very fresh and interesting take on the genre. For instance, just having verticality to the game (i.e. "Is my opponent hiding above or below me?") is change enough to cause interesting new MOBA strategies to form. The shop system is very interesting in that you can buy upgrades for your 'Naut's abilities, but the shop has more options than you are actually capable of buying. This means you can build your abilities into what you need for the given enemy team composition, or to fit the style of your team better. This opens up a world of possibilities for your build path on your character, of which you can unlock even more options in the shop by increasing your skill level with that 'Naut. For those of you familiar with the character level system in Heroes of the Storm, you'll recognize this out-of-game progression system immediately.

Now, I want to make the argument here that there is no "laning phase" in Awesomenauts as you might be familiar with in some other MOBAs. Since levels are kept track of as a team, the team is working together to try to press an advantage, meaning that you're dueling the enemy in the lane more often than you're trying to kill off minions. In my opinion, this makes the game feel a lot more lively, and probably contributes to the drastically shorter game time than most other MOBAs.

What this game pulls off rather well is varying maps. Each map will have not only different mechanics, but different gimmicks as well, which is definitely necessary (can you imagine only having one single map in a 2D side-scrolling MOBA?). Different maps can create new strategies for different 'Nauts, and even better potentials for different team compositions. Objectives vary throughout the maps, meaning that fighting for control of a place on the map or luring your opponents into the sand worm can turn the tides in your favor. Movement around the maps through jump pads or teleports can really reward a team who has good positioning.

Overall, the gameplay is really fun and the game is perfectly structured to deliver on what it wants.

Now, for those of you who are concerned when you see a price tag in the game....
Yes, skins cost real money, but as far as I can tell everything else in the game can be unlocked through steady play and progression. But for the life of me, I can't think of a single MOBA out there currently that does not have microtransactions buried in it somewhere, so this should not dissuade you from playing the game. This game really is F2P now, and it's what the game needed.

With all that, I hope this review helped you figure out if you want to play the game. Honestly, if you're okay with MOBAs, you should try it anyways, because now it has no price tag! Nice! Either way, I hope you enjoy the game, as this is a game deserving of a community revival.

Thanks for reading.
-Scrumpy