Super Monday Night Combat announced
Free-to-play follow up for indie shooter.
Acclaimed multiplayer shooter Monday Night Combat is getting a free-to-play follow-up, developer Uber Entertainment has announced.
Due out late this year or early next on PC, Super Monday Night Combat takes the original's template and adds a little more strategy, bringing it closer in line with the likes of Dota.
According to Kotaku, matches will now be five-on-five rather than six-on-six and weapon balancing has been tweaked to make games last longer.
An expanded leveling system is being added, Overtime Mode is being removed to encourage players to work together and there'll be a bunch of new characters to choose from, alongside all those from the original.
Three new fighters - Combatgirl, The Veteran and The Gunslinger - will be available at launch with more added over time. The trailer below offers a glimpse of what to expect.
While it'll be free to download via Steam, players will be able to purchase new characters, power upgrades, character taunts, skins, weapon effects and endorsements.
However, Uber boss Bob Berry stressed that it's looking to avoid "price gouging" and promised there will be plenty on offer for those who don't want to open their wallets.
"Over time [non-paying players would] have access to the full game experience through a rotation of free characters that rotate every couple of weeks or so," he explained.
"You literally could spend zero dollars and be entertained for a long time. That's really important to us. Free-to-play should mean free to play and not, like, nickel-and-dime the customer to have a good experience. It should be a fun game experience out of the box with no money spent. And if they want to give us money, we're happy to take it."
A beta is scheduled to go live shortly.
Despite the original debuting on Xbox Live Arcade, there are currently no plans to bring the follow-up to consoles - or, as Berry told Kotaku, "none that we can discuss".
The original scored a handsome 9/10 from Eurogamer's Simon Parkin last year. See his Monday Night Combat review for details.