War World - Review

Added October 7th, 2008 by Karmum

It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a decent mech warrior game. Unfortunately, War World isn’t going to satisfy your cravings. The remarkable visuals for this XBLA game will give you the impression that it stands out from the crowd.  However, repetition and generally dull gameplay will leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. If you took the time to play the 45-second trial, you didn’t miss much.

War World is a mech-based objective shooter, and really, this is as descriptive I can be. There are several types of mechs you can command, ranging from small and fast to large and slow. Weapons vary from machine guns to lasers and depending on the size of your mech, you will cause a varying level of damage. This goes for your defense as well; a large mech will have more defense or health than a small mech. The larger one can sustain more damage, but the compensation is the sacrificing of speed.

Every arena has several pick-ups which range from replenishing your health bar to ammo, or your special power (which can be hovering or boosting for speed). Unfortunately, everything is extremely tedious and there is no real difference between the classes of mechs. You will essentially be doing the same thing with each class and none differentiate enough to be noticeable. This leads to the downfall of the gameplay.

 

Repetitive gameplay is only one of the problems with War World.


The offline portion of War World revolves around two modes: Death match and Arcade Game. Your death match mode is standard.  You can customize how long you want the match to be, the difficulty, map type, etc.  In Arcade Mode you labor through 100 levels on each difficulty, battling both progressively harder mechs and larger masses.  You will begin with 2 mechs on screen in the first few levels, with more appearing as you advance. Once you complete a level, your file will automatically be saved, so you can pick up where you left off at a later time. All of the achievements are unlocked in arcade mode, which range from completing levels on different difficulties to progressing through the 100 level system.

You will spend most of your time playing in the online portion of the game. Here, you have several modes to play which includes CTF, Death match (and Team), and Bomb Assault. The problem is there aren’t many people online.  If you decide to purchase this game, the chances of it having legs down the road are extremely slim. The leaderboard system that comes with the game lacks stat-tracking and the only purpose is to compare scores from arcade mode. There’s no option for a party mode, which by now it should be a feature all multiplayer games should have.

Another disappointing aspect of War World is the lack of options to customize your mechs. There are several mechs to choose from, and no customization options to have them stand out at all are a big let down. Mech games before this have had this option, and even though this is an arcade game, the year is 2008. There should have been some customizable options, but there are zilch.

Despite these flaws, War World is a very impressive looking XBLA game. The mechs do look quite nice, and the arenas that you battle through also look good. It is one of the best looking XBLA games on the market, probably resulting from it being a direct port of a two year old PC game. That’s not to say the visuals are perfect.  For instance, I experienced something rather awkward on one of the maps.  I followed an enemy mech through an underground tunnel and was rather shocked to discover my mech was larger than the tunnel. This resulted in my mech glitching underground.  Thus, I lost track of my enemy.

 

War World should be considered as one of the best looking XBLA games out now.


I considered the sound to be average at best. It ranges from rather ritual-like beating of the drums and chanting, to computer-like sounds. I have to admit, it is a bit hard to describe, but it was passable. Hearing the mechs being destroyed is satisfying and the guns sound how they should. However, if you have the option of custom soundtracks on your Xbox, it would be best to stick with that alternative.

As I stated in the beginning, it has been quite some time since we have seen a good mech game. It also appears it will be a bit longer before we see another good one. While the visuals in War World are good, the dull gameplay and no options of customization of mechs are only some of the unimpressive features. If you expect to open up your mech (or in this case, War World) to see this decked-out, snazzy, cool game, you are going to be extremely disappointed.