Starbreak is a new Metroidvania 2D side-scrolling MMO, beta is open

StarBreak is a free-to-play 2D side-scrolling MMO from one of the developers (Alexander Carobus) of Realm of the Mad God. This game has just entered Steam Greenlight and is getting a lot of attention thanks to its beautiful hand-drawn graphics, frantic action and impressive boss battles, being something of an homage to classic 32-bit platformers.

While you should definitely give it a look on Steam Greenlight, you can do even better by playing the browser-based beta build on www.starbreak.com – this should be more than enough to give you a good taste of StarBreak and you can run the game on Windows, Mac and Linux.

There are over seven different environments and you can take control of four combat Shells (the soldiers), each with its own style: Wildfire (Long-range combat expert packing an array of high-tech firearms), Duskwing (Excels at air combat (and ideal for quick surgical strikes)), Ironclad (Meant to take a beating and dish it right back to the enemy with a variety of heavy weapons), and Fabricator (enters the fray by creating devastating machinery that can tip the scale at a moment’s notice). You can seamlessly swap between StarBreak’s different character classes and the developers at Crunchy Games say that there's no level grinding; instead “players are rewarded for skill, cooperation, and improvisation though the game’s clever loot system — which features more than 200 items.”

Alexander Carobus, founder of Crunchy Games said: “StarBreak is an MMO take on the Metroidvania sub-genre. Imagine having dozens of players tackling a level simultaneously, fighting bosses, and unearthing the best loot. The game takes things even further with a procedural level generation engine that ensures players never have to play the same level twice. If you’re a fan of 32-bit platformers with hand-drawn graphics — and want to take friends along for the ride instead of playing alone — you’re in for a nice surprise with StarBreak.”