Moonbreaker Early Access Review
With the popularity of tabletop miniatures booming right now, it’s somewhat surprising that digital recreations of games such as Warhammer, Infinity, and Malifaux have not appeared. That’s what makes Moonbreaker, the new Early Access project from Subnautica developer Unknown Worlds, so appealing. It’s a video game version of the full collect, paint, and play hobby, complete with fun tactical battles and admirably detailed painting tools. Its 1v1 skirmishes are packed with personality as you combine the powers of vibrant sci-fi heroes to reduce your enemy’s own to crumbling plastic fragments. But as I spend more time with Moonbreaker, I’ve begun to question its strategy potential, how it will develop over time, and its deeply concerning approach to microtransactions.
Compared to the often complicated tabletop skirmish games from which it draws upon, Moonbreaker is refreshingly simple. Your sole aim is to defeat your opponent’s captain, a high-HP character with an array of special abilities. It’s a goal that echoes card games such as Hearthstone and the now defunct Duelyst, and that’s not where the comparisons end. Moonbreaker is built on many of the same fundamentals as a typical CCG; you pick a crew of 10 miniatures (your deck), each of which costs Cinder (mana) to deploy from your randomly arranged Bridge (hand). But the presence of a physical arena and the movement of miniatures adds – quite literally – another dimension to that structure. Four different maps provide a variety of obstacles around which you can plan your turns and combat engagements, from choke points that can be blocked off with landmines to steam vents that can be hidden in to provide a cover bonus.
Duking it out on those maps is a colourful collection
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