Omega Strikers Review – Scoring Big Time

One of the most promising games from last year was a multiplayer MOBA-Sports theme game called Omega Strikers. This game caught the attention of many content creators in the YouTube space due to how simple yet frenetic it is in action. Thanks to the folks at Odyssey Interactive, I was able to experience Omega Strikers from the first beta alongside a few of my buddies who joined me in other reviews in the past. Now, you get to see our impressions just a few days after launch!

Omega Strikers follows a simple premise, players from different backgrounds and worlds are summoned in an epic tournament to test their abilities and push their skills to the limit. Stories are attached to these characters alongside established rivalries and characteristics that stick with you and can resonate with some players as they score goals and team up with their rivals.

So, how does Omega Strikers hold up when analyzed from a critical lens? Let’s talk about the game and what it offers.

Omega Strikers is a free-to-play game with a structure that favors microtransactions for cosmetic skins and characters. While the currency you can earn in-game will let you purchase characters individually as well as emotes and stickers, you will have to use the game’s premium currency to be able to purchase some of the character skins and Goal effects as well as certain bundles.

The game also has a Battle Pass divided into Free and Premium tiers. The Premium tier will have skins and stickers, while the Free tier has some neat goodies. Of course, the Premium tier will have the cool stuff. While the microtransactions are not intrusive, it can feel a bit off-putting to grind dailies, weeklies, and seasonals to get a few emotes and unlock the rest of the roster. This will improve as the game continues on its life cycle, but it can be glaringly obvious where the preference lies in the free to premium stuff early on.

As you probably would expect from this kind of game, there isn’t much in terms of structure. All you have to do is pick the game mode you want to play and… Go. The game can connect to other players in the same region you set for yourself on your profile, and thanks to the power of crossplay, you are almost always guaranteed to have a match. Queue times are also almost instantaneous, with most of my matches in the North American region starting in less than a minute.

Now, for the actual game. As I said earlier, Omega Strikers is a rather simple game to play. It’s complex when it comes to playing more competitively as you learn the ins and outs of each character. The objective is summed up as, there’s a puck in the middle of the field, the goal is to score by hitting the opposite team’s “net”. The goal zone is locked behind two ‘barriers’ that need to be hit by the puck first before it’s unlocked. Afterward, it’s a matter of scoring.

The game does take on a MOBA approach when it comes to its characters. You start off with a perk, and as the match goes on, you will be able to further increase the capabilities of your character. Each round will have you select a new perk. While you’re playing and KOing your opponents, you will level up and eventually unlock your ultimate move and get increased powers for your Primary and Secondary specials.

You might notice the health bars above each of the characters. These Stagger Meters will get emptied should you get hit by your opponent’s special moves. Once that Stagger meter is depleted, you can get knocked out of the field and you will have to wait for a short time before you can play again. So, it’s a matter of taking down your opponents, increasing your capabilities, and ensuring you’re not knocked out.

The role you select is just as important as your character pick in Omega Strikers, as you will have different options depending on whether you pick Goalie or Forward. Theoretically, every character is able to fulfill their function as an aggressive or defensive player should they be built with the right perks.

Once competitive rules are set in, you’ll begin to have to face tough choices such as character bans, turn-based perk selections in which the order is based on the player’s performance during the round, and other more intricate aspects that will only make the gameplay all the more intense. If you and your team are somehow thrown into Round 5, you will be subjected to a very frenetic and chaotic sort of match where every character will be massively buffed in some way.

It should also be worth noting that Omega Strikers follows the Best of 5 rule. So, you and your team must win 3 out of 5 rounds to be declared the winner. Or, if you prefer, you can select Quick Play and be set on a singular round with randomly chosen perks. Since this game is strictly multiplayer, you won’t find much else besides the PvP aspect. The game doesn’t have additional modes of any sort, and matches are strictly 3v3. So, if you’re not much of a team player, you might be better off looking elsewhere.

The gameplay loop of Omega Strikers is so oddly addicting, yet I cannot pinpoint why it’s so fun. My friends who have assisted me in other reviews have joined me on this occasion, and they all have decided to ditch me at this point to play on their own accord. That’s how much fun the game is. Perhaps it’s because the game does a good job with its music and presentation that it hits the right spots whenever you score or the way the game encourages experimentation that it makes you feel like a genius when you manage to find a strategy with your current perks as you go.

That said, this game isn’t without its issues. If you own a screen smaller than 32”, you might be in trouble trying to read your and other players’ meters. My friends have constantly complained to me that it’s hard to read the meter during critical moments due to how small some elements (namely, the blue sub-meter that denotes SPARK, a vital mechanic that lets you stop the puck and shoot it in any direction) are.

Speaking of which, I believe that Nintendo Switch owners will struggle a lot since the game also doesn’t lend itself well to smaller screens, as noted before not just with the HUD elements but also with how easy it is to lose yourself on so many occasions. There were times when even I thought I was moving along when in reality, I was hogging against the wall for no reason. Sometimes, mistakes like that can cost you entire games.

One of my favorite characters to play, Juno, is one of the biggest offenders here, as her slimes can be easily confused with those of the opponents. It was because of that reason that I immediately switched to her alternate skin (which you have to spend premium tokens for, might I add) just to give better visibility to my teammates.

It also is a shame that there’s not much else when it comes to the game itself. You just pop Omega Strikers in to play 3v3 matches. While that’s fine since this is still a F2P experience, I would’ve loved to see additional modes, especially a story mode, since these characters are great and have very well-defined personalities that go beyond the usual player stereotypes when you read their bios. You itch to see them interact beyond some brief lines of dialogue pre-match.

Overall, Omega Strikers is a good recommendation if you are looking for a game to help you pass the time. Its gameplay loop is easy to get into yet tough to master if you wish to take it seriously. The game has done its job of supporting various content creators like Alpharad and Cr1TiKaL through emotes and specialized teams that players can “contribute” toward with wins, so I believe the game will have a good scene for some time.

While the game does have its glaring issues, it doesn’t deter from how fun it is. The character variety is great, the gameplay loop clicks just right, and the presentation is charming and fun. All in all, this is a good game to get into, no matter your skill level. Just be careful not to lose yourself in the game.

Reviewed on PC (code provided by the publisher).

Omega Strikers

Omega Strikers is a fun experience with an excellent presentation. While the game doesn’t have much else besides its standard versus modes, it’s an incredible game that’s very easy to get into and tough to master. The game’s free-to-play structure could use some work in terms of the kinds of goodies you get for free, but other than that, it still can be a fun time for most players.