Beat ‘em ups. They offer ‘strategy’ for some, and brainless entertainment for most other people, which is especially nice in these busy days.

We wrote about them in the past, on MakeUseOf. Mind you, not your average beat ‘em ups. No, you can find tons of those on the web already, most often without too much of a difference amongst them.

No, here at MakeUseOf, we like special things. Things that haven’t been done before – like designing your own fighting moves with Toribash.

Today, we’re taking a look at another special beat ‘em child.

Discarded Online – An MMOCCBEU

Discarded Online is, according to their creators, an MMOCCBEU.

- W.. What?

Yes, an MMOCCBEU. It’s an abbreviation for Massive Multiplayer Online Card Collectible Beat ‘em Up, which is at the very least a whole mouthful. We’ll get into the card collecting later on, but the other things should be pretty clear; an online fighting game.

Discarded Online is flash based, which means you’ll be able to play it right out of your browser, without downloading a thing. For those interested, the people behind Discarded Online have even released some of their files, so you can embed the game on your own website.

The Story – Missions

Since the game is an MMO, and an RPG to some extent, one would presume the presence of a story. This gets us right to my biggest dislike about the game – which is that it doesn’t feature a story.

Instead, Discarded Online works through the means of missions; short side-scrolling, quarantined levels that you can play by yourself, or with a party of friends. These missions variate from killing all enemies in a level, to defeating a boss, or remaining alive for a given time.

All missions start and end in the lobby. As of such, you don’t need to expect a free roaming world, like we know in most games these days. However, the missions provide tons of fun – especially when played with friends – and the card collecting system gives this game its extra edge.

Card Collectable

We mentioned Discarded Online being a card collectable game already, but we didn’t provide you with the details yet. The cards system is woven throughout the game, and is what makes it special.

By playing missions, you can earn credits. These are rewarded to you after unlocking certain achievements, like killing ‘that amount’ of enemies, or finishing ‘that mission’.

With those credits, you can buy collectible cards from the card store. All these cards represent items – for advancing in strength, or smirking your character up. Tons of cards are available, ranging from a nice pair of shoes, to the baseball bat of ultimate destruction (yes, I made that name up).

Note that the game is no longer being developed, nor extended. The game also warns for using real money, because refunds are as of such no longer possible.

Deploying Cards

While progressing in the game, you get to assign credits to each of the three different schools: Athletics, Science, and Mischief. These credits can be rearranged at any given point.

Each card, with the exception of clothing, requires a set number of credits, from one or more of the three groups. When deploying a card, it will take the required number of credits from those groups.

Basically, your card collection and credit alignment are what will define your character, both concerning looks and abilities.

If you’re to reach the top, you need to consider deeply how to arrange your credits, and which cards to buy and to deploy.

It’s ironic that a game which is no longer being developed or extended is called “Discarded”. But nevertheless this is a fun game and comes highly recommended.

Tagged: mmo • mmorpg • multiplayer games