Closers Is A Fine Beat ‘Em Up

Free-to-play episodic PC action MMO Closers is a complicated game, filled with complicated menus and all sorts of management minutia, but its core appeal is easy to summarize. Anime teens with psychokinetic powers battle an alien invasion. The rest can be sorted out later.

In Closers, a popular Korean game that’s now in open beta in the U.S., mysterious dimensional gates have opened up all over the planet, allowing strange alien creatures to invade. Fortunately those same dimensional gates also woke latent powers within select young humans. Using their powers to shut down the gates, the teens became known as Closers, kickers of alien arse and quite deserving of coffee.

Players start off the game by selecting one of six different anime archetypes, each with their own distinct look and personality.

Once characters are registered, they show up on a very Persona-ish select screen. Just hanging out in a classroom in elaborate uniforms, no big deal. One of them is smoking? Yeah, that happens.

From the character select screen players move to the hub, where they run about chatting with NPCs and taking on missions. Some are official military missions. Others are requests from non-military personnel like Susan, the unauthorised food cart vendor with the outstanding hoodie.

We’re getting off track. Ignore all that for now, and check out this solo mission, starring my ridiculously jacked-up Closer, Stabby.

That’s the good stuff. Combo attacks, flashy skills, even flashier finishing moves. Did you see the bit towards the end, where she dropped a bus on her enemies?

Mmm, bus drop.

Missions in Closers can be played alone or with a group of other players. It’s an MMO, but you don’t have to MMO it if you don’t want to. Later on in the game a player-versus-player element kicks in. I’m sure it’s nice. Did you see the bus?

Come for the action, stay for the everything else. There’s crafting, a deep skill customisation system, evolving battle pets and tons of costume stuff to collect (or buy, it is a free-to-play game). Players get their own house and can rent a maid to go out and find furniture.

They also get a vast garden where they can grow crops.

Or they can spend a half-hour or so trying to make sense of the game’s menu and interface. There’s a beefy help feature, but I’ve been playing on and off for a week and still feel a little confused navigating the game’s menus.

But there’s one thing I am not confused about at all — I really enjoy beating up aliens, certainly enough to try to figure out what the hell else is going on. At its core, Closers is an old-school, arcade-style beat-em up with cosplay. I’m liking that combination.

Out since 2014 in Korea, the Western version of En Masse Entertainment’s Closers just entered open beta. If you want to give it a go or just learn more, hit up the official website.