S.L.A.I.: Steel Lancer Arena International

"Slow to pick up, but ultimately, a great game."

This game, I have to say, is one of the best or better mech games out there. I'm not gonna say it's flawless, that's FAR from the truth.

Introduction: The year is 2071, and people engage in robotic battles...I don't want to go indepth, seeing as how the begining of the game is rather slow, and anything else given can make it even slower. Once you get further in the game though..you slowly start to get addicted to the gameplay, as well as the various money and customizing aspects of the game.

Gameplay: At first, even the tutorials make it seem lackluster. The Tutorial is very slow paced, and basically has the robot you control act very slowpaced. Once you customize your robot enough though, you can basically pull off some incredible kills with incredible skill and precision. It's not Zone of the Enders speed, mind you, but the robots here could run circles around the one in Armored Core.

Speaking of Armored Core, I believe this is what all the new ones should be. There's TONS of customizable options, and you can even tweak the look of your mech by painting, and putting decals on it. You can change things about it you don't like..you can remove two legs and place 6, or even a hover jet, for instance.

Ultimately, it's VERY VERY difficult. This is by no means a piece of cake, unless you get the hang of it extremely fast. I've had the game for 6 hours and have only been able to purchase 3 upgrades, tweak parts of my SV (The mechs are called SV's), and buy a weapon.

Ultimately though, this is a game, that, while the story mode basically has nothing besides "You have to defeat the rank leader of every rank" (Ranging from D - A, then regionals, then world. ) So if you have a playstation 2 modem, this will add alot of replayability. What I've noticed is though, if you don't upgrade at least a good amount, chances are you will be beaten online very easily, unless you run into someone newer then you.

I'd say it's worth a purchase.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/05/05