Switchblade PC review: Blast your way to victory in this free vehicular MOBA

One of my favorite things to practice in video games has e'er been to drive combat vehicles. Ever since getting into the Warthog for the very first time in Halo: Combat Evolved, I knew that I had found my match made in heaven.

You can imagine, then, how intrigued I was at Switchblade, an upwards-and-coming vehicular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game in Early Access that recently went gratuitous-to-play on Steam. Interested to come across how it blended armored warfare with teamwork strategy, I booted it up — and I wasn't disappointed. Switchblade wonderfully combines the thrill of fast-paced vehicular combat with the tactical team-based objectives of MOBA games, and the effect is something really fun.

Crush the competition

Switchblade

Blast your way to victory

While it lacks some features, Switchblade is an incredibly fun (and gratuitous!) vehicular MOBA game that has the potential to take players by storm if information technology continues to grow.

Pedal to the metallic

In Switchblade, you play with nine other players in two teams of five. The goal of both teams is to destroy the enemy home base past breaking down the opposition's defenses, while simultaneously bolstering your own defenses and protecting your base of operations. In order for attackers to achieve a home base, they have to escort computer-controlled enemies called mobs to the defensive towers that surround it so that they can suspension down their (otherwise impenetrable) shields. Then, the attackers must blow upwards the tower'south core. Once a hole is present in the defenses, the mobs that travel downward that "lane" of the battlefield will attempt to reach the habitation base and the process repeats.

Along the way, there are defensive turrets that shred mobs, and they'll demand to be disabled. Of grade, the largest threats are other players — whether they're destroying mobs, knocking out turrets, or targeting other people directly, at that place's null more dangerous on Switchblade's battlefield than another role player.

Speaking of players, everyone in the match can choose from v different vehicle classes: Armored, Fighter, Artillery, Scout, and Tank. Each class is designed to fill a specific role — for example, the Armored vehicles support others with healing and other utilities, the Artillery class is all about long-range sniping, and the Tank grade is designed to be a front-line damage unit. Learning the strengths and weaknesses of each vehicle course is important, and learning how to play them all is a boom, particularly since there are multiple vehicles within each class and each one of them has unique weapons and abilities.

What really makes the vehicles great, though, is how they all have ways of working well together, also as with the mob units. Lookout vehicles are incredible flankers, for example, and distracting an enemy player with ane can create an opportunity for an allied Artillery unit to open fire on them. These synergies encourage team play, which is a crucial element of MOBA games, so information technology'southward not bad to see Switchblade nail that aspect of the genre.

Performance and features

Since information technology's free-to-play, I was worried that Switchblade'south microtransactions would be invasive and dissentious to the game. That'due south not the case. The majority of what you can buy with in-game currency is cosmetic, and while yous can buy new vehicles, they're balanced well into the game's sandbox and aren't overpowered. Another notable thing virtually Switchblade is how smoothly information technology runs. Many Early on Admission titles are glitchy and unplayable, but Switchblade performs very smoothly, which tells me that polish is a priority for Switchblade's developers. It is worth pointing out that the servers can exist pretty buggy, however, and the game becomes difficult to play with all of that lag.

Additionally, Switchblade has a glaring lack of features that hurts what would otherwise be a near-perfect experience. There currently isn't any form of custom entrance hall you can make with friends, nor is there any course of ranked competitive mode; at that place'south merely standard quick play. Furthermore, the grapheme creator is pretty blank bones, and there isn't even a push button-to-talk key in the settings, which is specially annoying. Of course, the game is in Early Access, and many of these things are being worked on, according to the programmer roadmap. Notwithstanding, equally the game stands right at present, the lack of these things holds the feel back.

Final thoughts on Switchblade

While the lack of basic features is a flake grating, and server mishaps can take abroad from the experience, Switchblade is yet an extremely competent vehicle MOBA. The developers are clearly dedicated and passionate, and if the game continues on its current path, it may become the adjacent Rocket League.

Honestly, I'm surprised past how much I savor this game.

Pros:

Fantastic gameplay.
Well-balanced sandbox.
First-class performance.

Cons:

Spotty servers.
Lack of features.

Switchblade is available now on both PC and PlayStation 4 for free.

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