One Must Fall: Battlegrounds

"Good, but room for improvement"

One Must Fall: Battlegrounds

The loud clanking of metal hitting metal. The techno soundtrack thumping from your speakers. The sweat on your brow as you worry if you can get in a good combo before your opponent defeats you. This is the experience of One Must Fall: Battlegrounds. While it was hated by most "professional" reviewers for being "buggy" and "unbalanced", this is simply a lie. The build I played had no balance issues, and excellent net code, having little lag even over a 56k modem.

Graphics: 7

Graphics are probably the game's weakest point. The robots have an interesting half cel-shaded, half-realistic look to them, and frankly, it doesn't work. The environments, however, are up to par, as are the various effects. But graphics are irrellavent...this isn't a generic first person shooter.

Gameplay: 8

While most people will probably find OMF: BG's fighting to be clunky at first (as did I), you'll soon find that it flows quite well once you figure out what you're doing. There are 8 "HAR"s (giant robots) to choose from, all possessing different speed, strength, and moves, as you'd expect from a fighting game. One interesting feature is that you can choose from 50 pilots (most unlocked by playing the single-player tournaments) and further influence how your HAR preforms. The designs of the characters are of mixed quality, some being quite cool, such as the shaman Raven, and the Jon impersonator Jean-Paul, but some are rather stupid, such as Dr. Lithius. While the HAR's movelists are rather small, each having only about 4 or 5 normal moves, and 2 or 3 super moves, this is made up for in the diversity of combos and strategies. It's pretty rare to see two pilots who use the same combos, and fight with the same style. So, even if it seems rather sloppy at first, give it a chance, and you'll be in for a pleasant surprise.

Sound/Music: 10

OMF: BG has some of the greatest techno/trance music I've ever heard, in a game or not. Most arenas have their own unique track, and each is pulse-pounding and adrenaline-pumping. One nice feature is that the music changes with the situation, getting happy-sounding if you're winning, serious if you're losing, and dramatic if it's a close fight.

Overall: 8

OMF: BG is a solid fighting game, and one for PC even. Plus, due to it's horrific reviews, you can find it cheap...I got my copy for $10. If you're a fighting game fan with a gaming-quality PC, I recommend picking it up, though don't expect the next Tekken or Guilty Gear. However, if you're a generic tactical shooter fan, stay away and go back to whining about campers.

Pros:
Amazing music
Simple, yet intuitive combat
Good robot design

Cons:
Unpolished Graphics
Some characters poorly designed

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/13/04