Lawrence.com

Somewhere out there, there's a mech-obsessed kid that will go absolutely nuts when he gets his hands on S.L.A.I. (or "Steel Lancer Arena International"). There's a seemingly endless amount of customizations and weapons for your mech, but it falls short in just about every other conceivable aspect. It's a great game for those who are extremely interested in mechs, but not so much if you're a fan of decent gameplay.

The actual gameplay is the epitome of repetition. You're thrown into one of several poorly designed and visually uninteresting arenas, and mech after mech comes after you. There's no set number, they just keep coming and coming until you die or leave the arena. Participating in these battles earns you money, which you can then spend on new mechs, intelligence chips, modules, and weapons.

S.L.A.I. features an almost unreal level of customization, and you can truly build the ideal mech for your own personal attack style. Mechs come in a variety of different types and forms. Some are spider-like, some are big, bulky, and powerful, while others are spry and well-suited for melee attacks. All of the PS2's shoulder buttons are used for attacks, while X, square, and circle are used for jumping and evading. The triangle button is used to turn on your optic camouflage, which is extremely useful for shaking enemies and missiles when you receive a lock-on alert. If you're so inclined, you can turn on an advanced control option that allows you to actually rotate the mech's torso as you move. Actually locating enemies can be a chore in some levels, due to the combination of clunky graphics and the lack of a competent radar system. There is a general arrow system to indicate where enemies are, but it's terribly vague and almost completely useless. Combat (or 'rumbling', as the game refers to it) is simply a matter of moving around the uninteresting arenas and madly hitting the shoulder buttons when you find an enemy mech.

While I'm not generally someone who thinks significantly less of a game because of shoddy graphics, I have to make an exception for S.L.A.I. The only reason I say this is because they're bad to the point of interfering with gameplay. There are far too many H.U.D. items and other obstructions on the screen while you're trying to concentrate, including huge unnecessary dialogue boxes that obscure your view. Some levels are dark to the point of annoying, and all of them are bland and utterly boring. Explosions in particular look like they're taken from a PSX title. Audio is similarly awful. During battles, you can barely hear sound effects because of how muffled and dull they are. All you'll hear is the extremely mediocre music. While other games have a habit of including crappy licensed music, S.L.A.I. decides to save some money and get crappy music from no-name bands.

It would be easy to say that S.L.A.I. has a lot of replay value. After all, there are such a huge variety of customizations, the main story mode offers over 50 hours of gameplay, and it features a full-fledged online mode (although I'm willing to bet it's going to be extremely hard to find opponents on a regular basis). The problem is, none of that matters if the actual gameplay is unoriginal and repetitive. Stay away from S.L.A.I. unless you've got an unhealthy obsession with customizing mechs.

Graphics: D

Audio: D

First Play: D+

Last Play: D

Gameplay: D+

Overall: 67% D+