At first glance, Outernauts: Monster Battle appeared to be your average run-of-the-mill battle game, where you pit your monsters against another.

I enjoy these types of games as long as there is some kind of strategy involved, and I have the ability to train up my monsters somehow. I'm kind of crazy about that. When I play a game where I can build up experience... that's all I do for quite some time.

Hey, I don't like losing... building experience way beyond what any normal person would do practically guarantees me a win. And when I win, everyone in my house is happy.

Much to my surprise and delight, Outernauts: Monster Battle turned out to be so much more than just a battle-based strategy game.

The Story of Outernauts Monster Battle

There really isn't too much to the story. You're a new cadet in the Outernauts program, ready to set up camp and receive your first monster.

You have several monsters you can choose from as your first creature, and I have to say I was charmed by all of them. They were adorable, designed very much like a pokemon. The descriptive copy that went along with each monster was also attractive and, at times, hilarious.

I choose the Equifoal as my first companion. It was described as "Can plant its feet AND run at the same time. Take that, logic."

You know I adore a game that takes the time to really come through with well-written copy, so I was already starting to feel good about my Outernauts experience.

The Graphics of Outernauts

For the most part, the graphics were well done and polished, but what really shone through was the creature design. It was truly superb, and since so much of the game revolved around these little guys, it made the experience an extremely pleasant one.

I found myself looking forward to seeing what my next creature would look like, or the next evolution of my creatures. And you do find yourself getting quite attached to them.

The background graphics were quite lovely as well, once I was able to tear my eyes away from my monsters. The game has a space theme to it so the dark sky filled with stars and your floating space islands were nicely detailed and quite endearing.

The Gameplay of Outernauts: Monster Battle

Outernauts is a great mashup of a battle game and a sim, combining elements from both genres and creating a really entertaining experience that excels in the free-to-play environment.

Typical to a sim game, you have your creatures, which you can hatch, breed, and evolve in your home camp. Here's where you basically gain experience and level up your monsters.

In order to level, you need to spend Lunar, which is the game's main currency. You gain Lunar by farming your creatures and by entering battles.

You can build structures, upgrade buildings, and basically decorate your home camp however you want. Of course, all these things take time, and the only way to deal with it is to either suck it up and wait or use the game's real currency, star gems, which can be purchased for real money, to speed things up.

I have to say, they do give you a healthy amount of star gems to begin with, and there's so much to do, that I didn't mind the waiting.

That's because, while I'm waiting for my camp to be built up, I can just slide into battle mode and fight a few opponents, gaining money and runes, which help evolve your creatures.

You do have fuel, which limits the amount of battles you can do at one time, but as soon as your fuels used up, just go back to camp and play with your creatures for a little. Fuel doesn't take long to recharge.

And this is what I loved the most about Outernauts. You could actually play for an extended period of time without having to shell out money! Imagine that!

The Music & Sound of Outernauts: Monster Battle

The music was decent. It had a very space-age theme to it, but the dramatic cadence was a bit too much at times, and I had to turn it down before my blood pressure was swept away with the rush of oh-so-exciting pulses.

I thought the sounds were a bit much. For example, when your creatures leveled, they would make this loud karate-type noise, which was cute at first, and then got really annoying.

After a few minutes, I turned down the sound... after a few more minutes, I hit the mute button.

Overall Conclusion for Outernauts: Monster Battle

Overall Outernauts was a really great play that captured and held my attention. I enjoyed that mashup and thought the game was extremely well executed, the graphics were adorable, and I loved all my little creatures.

However, the music and sound were a bit over the top for me, and sadly, in order to keep my entertainment levels high, I had to turn down the noise.

Still, if you're a fan of battle and sim type games, you'll really enjoy the unique mashup Outernauts has going for it.