Moonbreaker, revealed at Gamescom Opening Night Live, is the latest game from Subnautica developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment. It's launching in early access on September 29 and is a turn-based strategy game based on tabletop tactics like Warhammer. However, the goal of Moonbreaker isn't to just bring that world into a digital game, but that feeling of sitting down at a table, moving miniatures around, and immersing one's self in a unique world. Unknown Worlds itself describes Moonbreaker as a true digital miniatures experience, complete with accessible turn-based competitive gameplay, ongoing content releases, and deep customization; based on what we saw during a recent preview of the game, we'd have to agree.

Moonbreaker is obviously more in line with Warhammer than something like Dungeons and Dragons, but the feeling of the former can be appreciated by the latter. In it, players will have a crew composed of a captain and 10 other characters, with the Captain dropping in on turn one and the general goal of the game being to reduce the other captain's HP to 0. Special abilities, summoning new crew members, and more use a resource called Cinder, which is harvested from moons (hence the name), and that sets the pace of the game. When it launches next month, it'll feature 3 captains and 50 characters, with more coming through each of the game's seasonal content releases.

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Moonbreaker's Core Gameplay and Worldbuilding

moon breaker gameplay

To fulfill that sensation of a tabletop game, Moonbreaker's character animations are minimal; moving a character looks and seems as rigid as moving a miniature in real-life. That's incredibly appealing and is an immersive choice. There's also no grid system for movement, with players instead having a sort of free-range movement within a green area. There are red lines that come into play with movement, letting players know if they remain in the range of another enemy (since again, no grid).

Summoning Units in Moonbreaker is pretty straightforward, with the characters often being melee or ranged based and possibly having a special ability or two. All Captains have two special abilities, for context. They will suffer from "summoning sickness" on their first turn, meaning they cannot act until the following turn. Although, Unknown Worlds does mention some ways to get rid of that, depending on a player's crew and build. At one time, the gameplay field can have 6 crew members and a Captain, with the map design of every map being made to look as analog and as made from resin as possible.

The worldbuilding is as in-depth as any tabletop game, with Unknown Worlds enlisting the help of Mistborn author Brandon Sanderson. He aided in the design of Moonbreaker's world and universe, with the various cultures players interact with like the Methedori and Cholek, character and captain stories, and more. Specifically, for the captains, it should be noted that the three currently in the game are Extilior, a war bot who gained sentience and seeks to redeem the wrong it has committed; Astra, a young Methedori space roman (for comparison); and Zax, a smuggler who is a hologram without a body (and trying to get it back).

Moonbreaker Has a Roguelike Mode Too

moonbreaker smugglery

Players will be able to engage in battles against AI and other players, but there is a roguelike game mode players can check out too called Cargo Run. It's much more forgiving than some roguelike games like Hades, but essentially a Cargo Run is a series of 5 or so battles. Players are able to save between battles and runs, but in this game mode, each battle pits players against some tough enemy units and miniature boss battles. Players are able to collect resources in these battles to give them an advantage through the run, but all the damage obtained in one battle carries on to the next, and any destroyed units are gone until the Cargo Run is complete.

Moonbreaker Lets You Paint Your Miniatures

moon breaker paint

A game that aims to bring the world of miniatures and tabletop to a digital realm cannot avoid customization, and Moonbreaker delivers on that in spades. Each and every miniature in the game was painted by professionals, hired by Unknown Worlds Entertainment, for their default sets and other paints unlocked throughout the game. But, should players want to make one of their units completely pink for some reason, they absolutely can.

Players are able to paint each and every single one of their miniatures, however they wish, and they can paint them in any number of ways because players can save multiple paint jobs per miniature. These are incredibly in-depth, with base paint, washes, dry brushes, airbrushes, stipples, decals, the ability to mix colors, and save said colors to a personal palette all shine through. It's also incredibly intuitive, meaning players who are worried about the idea of having to paint with such detail on small surfaces shouldn't, as they can essential layer and paint, almost like it's in photoshop but simpler.

Moonbreaker knows its audience, and from everything we've seen, it serves them well. The quality here is up there with Warhammer's best miniatures. With tons of potential, it'll be interesting to see how Moonbreaker moves from its early access to its eventual full release, and what all comes in that period.

Moonbreaker releases in early access on September 29 for PC.

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