I was really in to Awesomenauts a year or so ago, it being one of the few MOBA games I can play without a full team of friends and still feel like I'm actually accomplishing anything, but I slowly phased it out as other games came along. What's great however is that even though I forgot it exists, the community in Awesomenauts has been apparently stable enough to warrant an expansion.
So I am happy to let you know that Awesomenauts - Overdrive has been announced bringing with it better graphics, three new heroes, better matchmaking and server stability, a new map and finally, a community designed hero.
The four new heroes showcased are:
- Chucho Krokk, an alien gunslinger with the ability to pull out his hyperbike out of thin air
- Jimmy, Amy and the Lux 5000, two babies piloting a giant and well armed mech, I can't see anything going wrong here
- Professor Yoolip, a silly looking tinkerer with the ability to spawn various contraptions, ranging from bombs to attack robots
- IX the Interloper, a character designed by the community whose spells are all focused around linking together with other heroes and supporting them that way
I'm loving the crazy eyes
Besides the new heroes the biggest change is the improvement to matchmaking. No longer will you be dumped in to the first server it finds regardless of connection quality or skill. The new system will take slightly longer but will try to ensure that you're joined up only with players of similar skill and connection quality, resulting in much better matches.
Along with the matchmaking update the experience and leveling system in update 2.13 adds a whole new layer to Awesomenauts since now comebacks can happen more regularly and easily. I'm not sure Awesomenauts is even a game that needs a leveling system like standard MOBAs but I'll reserve my judgement until I finally try it out.
On the more fun side of things there is a whole new map called Starstorm and its available for play right now in its pre-alpha state so if you don't mind a few bugs here and there you can try out the upcoming map in the custom matches menu. The two big additions with Starstorm are bottomless pits which do exactly what you imagine, as well as wormholes which will teleport you to the very top of the map.
Finally, good old Sheriff Lonestar is the first out of many characters to get a graphical update as well as a brand new attire.
They nerfed his angry snarl!
That's all of the information available right now with the rest teased for early January. Overdrive itself is set to arrive in March 2016 and will set you back €7.99 / $7.99 over at the Awesomenauts - Overdrive website.