War World: Tactical Combat Review

War World has been around a little while as a download-able shareware title, before Lighthouse Interactive picked up the retail rights anyway. To briefly introduce it, it's a third person, sci-fi, mech shooter. And for want of some waffle to pad out the review, that's about as much as anyone is going to need to know in order to get a good idea of what we are dealing with. The basic premise of War World is that you are soldier on a planet ravaged by war and remotely control a mech in the war zone from inside a neutral zone, that's pretty much all the story that's needed.

There's a number of different mech's to control, ranging from fast lightly armoured machines to monster mechs with tonnes of armour but all the speed of a sedated sloth. Each mech has a number of hard points, which depending on the amount of money you have can be outfitted with an array of systems and weaponry to aid you in the fight. Firstly, you can equip each arm of your robot with a different weapon which can be configured to fire independently if you so desire, when you consider that you can have either lasers which are great at range or a mini gun which is great close up, you can see that skilled players will probably choose this setup. I didn't, I much prefer to keep my distance and snipe the enemy with two lasers, the choice is obviously yours.

Up to three ancillary systems can be added to your mech's back in addition to an emergency shield which can be vital when your'e in a tight spot. One of these systems are thrusters which speed up your mech when jumping and increase hang time, allowing you to sort of fly over short distances very quickly. The final two are both weapons, mortars/mines and missiles, both could be the difference between victory and defeat, but you won't be relying on them too much.

The main game play mode of War World is an arcade style duels system where money is earned for victories which is then spent on upgrading your mech, a tried and tested gameplay mechanic no doubt but it works well enough in this case. Battles get steadily more difficult and longer as time goes by as you'd expect. In addition there are deathmatch and team deathmatch modes where you can take on AI controlled mech's in a free for all or as part of a team (of course). At the beginning of either of these modes you'll be given a chunk of cash to outfit your mech in your preferred configuration and are then thrown into the arena.

Good stuff

• Fast and furious
• Great fun in small doses
• Runs smoothly
• Good value

Not so good stuff

• Lacks depth and variety
• Limited styles of weaponry



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