Moonbreaker: Digital Figurine-Goodness

Strategy games have always had a special place in my heart. When I was younger, I used to get together with my core group of friends and we would play games like Super Smash Bros...which aren't strategy games, but one of the friends in that group and I broke from the crowd. He introduced me to tabletop games like Catan and DND and online games like the Civilization series. It was a wonderful time, and now we have both gone our separate ways, but I kept that love for strategy games with me all these years. This is where Moonbreaker enters the ring.

Moonbreaker is a turn-based strategy game that is designed to be closer to a tabletop tactical game. Set in an expansive universe, you and your roster of captains and crew must fight against others utilizing your team's abilities, ship assists, and objects around the level. Then you have the miniatures aspect and hot damn is it awesome to paint these figurines the way you want and utilize them in the field. Luckily, we were able to get into the playtest before this game goes into Early Access, so join us as we take a dive into Moonbreaker and how it plays on the Steam Deck.

Moonbreaker Gameplay

As stated before, Moonbreaker is a turn-based strategy game. The goal is to protect your captain, the guy with the most health, while taking out the enemy captain. Every figurine/unit you have can move and melee each turn, while extra abilities and calling down more units will cost Cinder. Cinder is essentially the game's version of action points, you get more every turn and use them for the unique abilities each figure has or bringing more allies onto the field.

Each unit has unique abilities, as well as traits that can define how they are used. Some specialize in ranged attacks, while others are airborne melee fighters. With all this information, it is up to you to utilize them in the best ways possible. You could try surrounding your captain with 2 fighters with a ranged unit in the back, or do what I do and hail mary which worked 3 out of the 7 times I tried it.

The playtest featured 2 different modes. Versus, which is just a normal battle and you have the option of PvP or training against an AI, and Cargo Run, which is essentially a series of matches where you fight unique bosses in a string of matches while completing contracts. It is a nice mode to spice things up when you want something more than a PvP fight.

Both the PvP versus and Cargo Run modes count towards your experience in the season pass as well. So far, there has been nothing extra to pay for and it seems to just unlock skins and decals, though this could change when the game is fully released.

The other big aspect of the game is figurines and your ability to fully customize the way they look by painting them! Each figurine/unit can be painted and you have an extensive toolset to utilize! And yes, you can use the touchscreen to paint a bit more easily, so with a working stylus for the Deck, I could see it being incredibly easy to do.

So far, I have been really enjoying the game. For an initial playtest for an early access game a month before release, I was having a good time. There were a couple times I felt like it was a bit sluggish, like when moving figurines into specific locations to set up for an attack, but the actual matches don't last super long so I felt it was forgivable. The painting figurines mechanic is awesome too, I do love seeing my awesome SDHQ figure take out a captain. Overall, I was left with a feeling of satisfaction and really looking forward to the full release.

Moonbreaker's Steam Deck Performance

For a playtest of an early access game, Moonbreaker runs significantly better than I anticipated. For the most part, the game hits 60 FPS during gameplay, though there are some hitches I have seen in these early stages of development.

The game starts itself on the lowest settings, Medium, which can run well. It only has 1 setting to change preset, nothing more specific yet. It also tends to dip in performance to around 50 FPS when changing units or painting, which can be jarring since the game stutters heavily if not hitting 60. I also had to use a custom controller configuration when playing this as the gamepad/controller support was not working correctly.

At these settings, and a TDP limit of 9, the game gives about 2.5 hours of gameplay, hitting an average of 15W - 16W drain with temps staying below 76c. You can see that, compared to max settings, you are getting much better battery life and temps overall too.

Thankfully, these issues are all on the small side and I can easily see Unknown Worlds Entertainment cleaning it up and optimizing for the Deck. Moonbreaker will be released on September 29th, but if you want to try it now, you can request access to their next playtest happening on September 16th to 18th on Steam as well.