izigame.me

I really wish they took these characters and made actual games with them instead.
MOBA isn't a terrible look, though. When you play on your own, it's a very arcade-like MOBA. Every skill of every character has at least two distinct build paths and maybe more depending on how you decide to cross-build them. Provided, most characters seem like they'd have either specific counterpick builds or one catch-all build for most situations.
Every character, in single-player, lets you either spread your upgrades across your three skills and base stats, or you can hyper-focus on one skill. At base for most characters, every skill is in its ideal usable form... although some characters are exceptions. Going Lonestar without tri-namite (+24% damage) seems like you're shooting yourself in the food. Smiles without the inscribed lighter also feels just categorically worse.
However!
Playing with friends sucks. See, the way the matchmaking is coded, 3 player co-op necessitates you get sweaty. You'll be playing against other 3-player teams, and they'll be competitive. If you play like you're all asocial jerks playing alone, you lose, end of story. Not a little, but a lot, almost all the time. Unless you get lucky and get a disorganized wreck for an enemy team, then you might break even or even win, but that's all luck, so it doesn't make you feel like you're accomplishing anything, even if you're trashing people.
This is especially unkind to new players, especially considering the number of 'nauts and the free-to-play currency system. Why do you gain it so slowly? Is this a freakin' mobile game? Why's someone gotta do like 50 matches to get a new freakin' hero? They're restricted so hard from build choices and character choices.
The issue with losing a lot is that players can't experiment and learn. Bots don't teach them the proper aggression, patience, game economy or flow, but players will snowball after your team of incompetent non-MOBA gamers make their very first mistake. And then you, if you have any experience with just Awesomenauts, will want to tear their heads off. You know they're not being provided the right feedback to learn from their mistakes, and even if you know how they failed, you can't just magically gain control of their arms and eyes and give them that experience. And then that directly impacts on you. You have to play ultra-safe, pick ultra-safe, do it all real carefully, 'cause builds that might work if enabled by the single-player environment or by a good team of people carrying you simply aren't gonna work here. Not when you gotta look after teammates feeding 0/15/0 or 2/10 or 0/4 or 0/8 who are allergic to team fights, ganks or looking at the mini-map.
But then you die for the first time. Maybe you just got ganked by an assassin at a bad moment. Maybe the whole team ganked you while your friends were off being dead or clueless and you went "wow, if only my team could ever do that." But now that you've died one time, you know it's all over. Nah, your death didn't cause it, it's just a warning of how it's about to go down. You're not getting stats or economy fast enough, and your teammates can't bless you with a strategic comeback. Meanwhile you'll probably end up with, say, one or two upgrades between now and when you lose.
And this was supposed to be played on a couch with controllers with your IRL mates at one point? Really? Really? This is the furthest thing you can get from suitable for that, even if the graphical design and tone fully checks out.
Even when I'm on the upperhand of a snowballing, stompy game, I don't like it. It's just not that satisfying when I don't feel like my opponents can fight back. It's like I didn't win because I played better, or even because my team cumulatively made less mistakes, but because the result of the game was locked-in. Either we played really well in the first five minutes, or we just got lucky in the first five minutes and now the other team just can't and now we get to wail on them. It's almost like the game is designed to make you think you can sustain and hold a comeback, but it's very unlikely and heavily discouraged by the format.
I think this's the real reason the game is dying. I think, in some ways, league is actually better with this sort of thing. But the singleplayer's pretty cool.
Even though I enjoy it, I can't recommend it. Too much jank, neglect and age. MOBAs are already kinda lame, but competition and marketing and the social element keep the format afloat. Despite that, I think league is unironically a funner party game. Single-player Awesomenauts is categorically not a party game, though it is a fun arcade-like game.