Official Score
Overall - 80%
80%
Omega Strikers always has you thinking "just one more match" before sucking you in for countless more hours. At the low, low price of free-to-play, it is a minimal investment for potentially big fun.
After a couple of successful betas, Odyssey Interactive’s Omega Strikers has fully launched. In an industry full of free-to-play trash, can Omega Strikers shine?
Omega Strikers Review
When you first boot up Omega Strikers, you get a brief tutorial before being tossed into CPU matches (at least, I think they were bots). Think of Omega Strikers as an air hockey MOBA, with three-on-three matches against Strikers with different abilities and power-ups. The goal is to put the ball into the opposing team’s goal before they can score on you. Games go to five points, and typically are over between five to seven minutes.
An ideal team has one goalie and two attackers. The attackers need to try to score, but can also hit enemies with attacks. If you stun and then push someone out of bounds, they are out of play for a few seconds. While that is happening, the other attacker could be getting ready to score, so you need to pay attention. I mostly played goalie, simply because I don’t trust randoms to protect the goal.
Each character has different abilities and skills they can use during the match. One cool thing is the cooldowns don’t reset between rounds. For instance, if one uses their 15-second special right at the end of a point, they don’t get it back at the start of the next point. Most people are learning the ropes since the game is still new, but I felt some characters were overpowered – especially the cat girl.
Outside of the Strikers’ abilities, each map has different buffs for all characters. The different positions also get a free upgrade that they can pick before the match begins. I personally liked to use the increased skill length, but you can get speed boosts, damage boosts, and other buffs. The game also seems to have a character for every type of person – a definite plus
Like any game of this type, people rage quit mid-match. Unfortunately, I didn’t see a penalty for doing this, with matching continuing after it happened. It usually ends quicker because one team is missing a player. Sometimes though, the other team trolls and keeps it going for fun. Of the ten or so hours I played of the game, this only happened a handful of times.
You can buy new stuff between matches, customize your Strikers a bit, and check out the game’s battle pass. So yes, there are microtransactions, but nothing game-changing. If you buy it, you will get some extra in-game cash, new skins, new emotes, and new backgrounds. The Strikers each have their own type of battle pass, but again it’s more skins and other cosmetic rewards. It is primarily there to reward players for sticking with their mains.
I did have one or two crashes and bugs, but they were rare. I also have seen players lag, which really hurts mid-match. It either completely screws them or screws you. However, considering how crap other PC games have been lately, this one runs great.
Honestly, the worst thing I can say about the game is that it picked a terrible time to launch. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor just came out, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom just leaked, and Diablo IV and Final Fantasy XVI are right around the corner.
Omega Strikers always has you thinking “just one more match” before sucking you in for countless more hours. At the low, low price of free-to-play, it is a minimal investment for potentially big fun.
