14 DAY TRIAL // 
Combat Monsters is a video game that arrives on the PC after being offered on mobile phones for quite some time, and both the core mechanics of the title and the lack of changes made during the conversion process suggest that it would have been a good idea for the experience to stay in its original home, where its flaws would be a little more difficult to spot.
The structure of the title is relatively simple, but it does offer quite a bit of space for tactical complexity, mixing turn-based strategy, card game and role-playing elements in some interesting ways.
Gamers have to choose a protagonist, who can be selected from a line-up of characters that need to be unlocked by playing and winning currency in order to pay their particular price.
They also have a set of cards they get to choose when Combat Monsters starts and which can be upgraded as more fights are won with new items.
The cards can be anything from individuals, who are melee fighters, archers or mages, to items that can be equipped and spells that can be cast to affect the enemy or the player’s own forces.
Each battle takes place on a small arena that also has some tiles with special properties offering special advantages to those who control them, and the objective is to take out the hero of the opponent side.
Players have access to a limited number of Mojo points each turn, which can be used to summon more troops or launch spells, and each of their units can move and attack once, depending on position and abilities.
They also have special skills that cost more resources to activate and gamers have to pay attention to their limited resources and use them wisely in order to inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy forces.
There are plenty of ways for troops, based on their race and their abilities, to boost each other, and much of the pleasure of the game is linked to discovering what the best combinations are and how they can be used effectively.
Territorial control is very important in Combat Monsters, and while playing as the archers, I quickly found that creating a solid defensive perimeter is important and that I could sometimes win even if I had almost no troops on the board, as long as I used my units and abilities right.
The warriors and the mages offer similar challenges and opportunities, which means there’s plenty of content to explore for those who like the core mechanics.
“The tactical puzzles that gamers have to solve are at times fascinating, but too often they become tedious and it takes time to reach a result that was already clear about 5 to 10 turns before.”
The fact that the game insists on zooming to show each move is another drawback which lengthens the play time without offering any enhancement to the experience.
Combat Monsters also fails to deliver attractive graphics, with a cast of blocky heroes and units that have repetitive animations.
The game uses a lot of color but the interface sometimes fails to help the player navigate the experience, and the developers insist on pushing the real-money payment options at certain points in the game in a way that feels intrusive and unnecessary.
The sound design in Combat Monsters is also mediocre and fails to enhance the battle experience in any way.
The game does offer multiplayer for those interested to take on other humans rather than the Artificial Intelligence, and matches can be engaging, although they often take too much time for the level of excitement they can deliver.
The Good
- Mix of tactics and hero action
- Tactical possibilites
The Bad
- Real money focus
- Small arenas
Conclusion
But the game from Rubicon can also be a frustrating mix of genres that fails to excite after a few hours, before the battle space is too small, and almost each level can be completed as long as the player sticks to a certain formula.
The graphics represent another stumbling block, as a PC game, even if it started life on mobile devices, should try to deliver some upgrades in order to keep potential players interested.
Last but not least, the development team has put the fact that gamers can get access to more content by using real world currency a bit too front and center in Combat Monsters.
The title misses no chance to talk about the Tripler, which can be bought to improve a character’s progression pace, and there are plenty of other moments when real money is presented as a simple way to unlock more content.
Combat Monsters does have some good ideas and mixes genres well, but the move from mobiles to the PC should have brought some updates and changes that have not been implemented, and the experience is poorer because of that.
