System Requirements
Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP
400MHz CPU
64MB RAM
500MB Hard Drive
3D Accelerated Video (Voodoo, TNT, GeForce)
16bit Sound Card Modem/Internet for online play

You are the XCOM Enforcer robot built to save the earth from the incoming alien invasion. The invasion started before you were completely tested but it will have to do, as you have lots of aliens to exterminate and a planet to save!

How do I fight them?

Unlike many third person shooters, you can only carry one gun at a time. As you walk around the maps (destroying aliens along the way), there are many power-ups and weapons for you to grab. When you blast away aliens, they leave data points behind. Collect them because they are needed to purchase upgrades for your weapons and armor. Each level has an unknown power-up; if you collect these you can unlock alien technology to use it against them. There are also the letters B O N U S scattered around every level. When you collect all the letters you can unlock a bonus round where you can collect lots of data points. Some of the bonus rounds have old arcade themes like Pac-Man or Frogger.

What are my missions like?

This is a mission based game with over 20 levels of intense alien action. Your goal is to eliminate the aliens and the transporters bringing them to earth. A few of the levels have you rescue people along the way. The tougher levels have you protect the people and you fail if the aliens kill them. If the aliens aren't tough enough, wait until you meet their bosses! Prepare for a tough battle, or use cheat codes.

What kind of weaponry is there?

When fighting aliens you always have a blaster, as that's your starting weapon. You can later upgrade it to a machine gun. You have your typical plasma guns, rocket launchers, blade launchers, lightning guns, flame throwers, and nukes to name a few others. All the guns can be upgraded to become more powerful.

Tell me about power-ups!

When you're fighting there's a good chance you'll need some health, so there are health power-ups lying around. Other power-ups include invincibility, invisibility, attack bot, data point multiplier, damage intensifier, speed boost, and a nice one that attacks enemies near by!

Graphics

This game was released in 2001 and is using the original Unreal engine. The graphics are dated by today's (2004) standards, but they were good for its time. The maps and monsters look good and are nicely detailed. The maps range from parking lots to shopping malls, crypts, and other locations. They did a very good job on the map variety and detail. The explosions and weapon effects look pretty good too. The camera angling was kind of hard to use on the shopping mall level.

Sound

The sound falters a bit in this game. There is really no background music and what little there is, it's not very memorable. The professor's voice (who you hear the most) is just plain annoying; the voice acting on the people you save are fine though. The weapon effects and alien noises are decent.

Stability

This game does not have any patches for it, but it can use them. It didn't crash much for me but it did stutter a lot. It can alt-tab (switching to the desktop), but it's very slow at doing so.

Multiplayer

There is a multiplayer mode built into the game. It supports death match AND co-op mode. Given this is an older and almost forgotten about title, I wasn't too surprised when I did not see any internet servers or GameSpy sessions for this game. Oh well.

Appropriateness

Well you are destroying aliens so there is violence. However you can turn the extra violence off. Since I played it that way I didn't see any blood, just data points. If you fail a mission the professor will call you names out of frustration sometimes. The final boss does swear (D**m) at you when you defeat him. Other than that I have no complaints on this game. It plays pretty much like an arcade style game.

Final Thoughts

If you happen to see this game for $6 like I did, I would recommend checking it out. It is older and there is no support for it anymore, but it is fun. It does come with an editor so you can add your own stuff. There are also maps and skin packs available from their website. Too bad no one plays it online anymore.

Final Ratings

Game Play A Graphics B Sound C Stability C Appropriateness C Interface A

Overall 71%