Smash + Grab can be summed up by calling it a mash up of Sleeping Dogs, League of Legends and Pay Day. The creators of Sleeping Dogs have released this new game but unfortunately for us it's not Sleeping Dogs 2.
Smash + Grab is described on the Steam store as "an underground competition where gangs of the future battle it out for loot, weapons, and infamy inside a corporate urban dystopia. Assemble your crew and team up with other players to fight, loot, and craft your weaponry to come out on top".
You are placed into a setting where everything has gone to hell and the gangs own the streets. Nothing is safe and everything is there for the taking. In teams of five you will select yourself a leader, lieutenant and three gang member thugs to accompany you around the map. Think of a MOBA map with the likes of League of Legends or Heroes of the Storm and that is similar to what you have here. There are two game modes to choose from where you will need to earn the most amount of cash, either by looting as many stores as you can, or by killing off your opponents. Obviously the leaders and lieutenants yield the most rewards.
As you run around the level you will be able to loot weapons stores to upgrade your weapons which include ranged weapons and melee weapons. There are some good combinations in there too such as the nail gun, machete and a shovel. They may not sound all that amazing but you can get some seriously cool mods to add to them which add burning or freezing effects to them to help with combat.
Unlike the usual MOBA style, Smash + Grab is played in a third person view and plays more like Sleeping Dogs than any MOBA. You can attack, grab, counter and block. All of these moves are kind of like a scissors, paper, rock game where each trumps another and is also susceptible to another. There's a good balance to the combat controls that just feel right for such a game.
Smash + Grab is in early access right now on Steam and is just about to complete its free weekend of play. Although I believe that Smash + Grab is a very fine game, I just don't know how it will go with a price tag of $20US when most MOBA games are free to play. Keeping in mind that Smash + Grab is not your usual MOBA and is so much more fun to play than LoL.
For me, I don't player MOBA games and I actually despise them. Smash + Grab on the other hand is bloody excellent and is something that I would play a lot more of.
Lucas Aurelius
Aussie Gamers Express
