Monday Night Combat was a title that originally started out as an Xbox Live exclusive, although it had a bit of a rough time there. After making the jump to PC, however, its popularity jumped, and it became a surprising hit with gamers, seeing regular updates that enhanced the game experience.

Now, Uber Entertainment is ready to take the next step with a full blown sequel, called Super Monday Night Combat. Well, it’s actually kind of hard to call it a sequel, mostly because of all the changes they’ll be making to the game. Oh, and the fact that it’ll be completely free to play.

The lucky jerks at Kotaku managed to get the scoop, and were able to talk to Uber about what changes we’ll be seeing. To start, there will be three new pros taking part at launch, with new characters set to be released in future updates. Each of them comes with a unique playstyle, such as the Veteran, a professional wrestler who uses a grappling hook to reel in opponents, so that he can make them feel the pain. The original classes will also be returning, and they’ll all be getting big changes, both visually, and mechanically. For example, there will be a lot less of the instant death shenanigans than the original version, and all special moves that had these properties (such as Assassin backstabs and Gunner bodyslams) are getting toned down.

The gameplay is also getting a huge revamp, with the developers taking on a more DOTA-inspired approach. While it’ll still be played as a third-person shooter, and the core objective of destroying the enemy team’s money ball will still be present, there will be a heavier emphasis on cooperation and strategizing, especially since the life expectancy of the pros is a bit longer. Turrets will also be redesigned to be more useful as defensive structures, and the various bots will also be seeing their own adjustments (Jackbots, for example, will now only come out when the opposing team’s moneyball shields are down, encouraging a strong final push).

There’s really a truckload of changes that are coming in, enough to make it look like Super will be more like a complete overhaul rather than a true-to-form sequel. The freemium service they’ll be providing also sweetens the deal (I know my wallet agrees with this). No word on a release date yet, though it is confirmed to be on PC.

[via Kotaku]