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

This is an incredibly well-designed mech shooter, period. Genki has a genuinely enjoyable mixture of combat, upgrades and globe-hopping Snow Crash-like dances across servers, and it's a fantastic mix indeed.

It doesn't try to trump "MechWarrior" as the king of the mecha-piloting genre; it just tries to be fast, furious, and fun while offering the player plenty of customizability in order to fine-tune his mech to perfection and give it that special personal flair. In that, SLAI succeeds with flying colors.

The game gives players a fast-paced, fully customizable experience. And, thanks to its fun online capabilities, the action can be shared around the world.

The challenges are a lot of fun and the difficulty is dangled in front of you like a carrot on a stick, it's never forced down your throat making you feel like an inept loser.

There is a massive amount of content and unparallel gameplay opportunities, especially for those who like to tinker in the cyber-garage of the future.

At its best in online multiplayer: the fast, smooth action really comes into its own when you're trying to slap that huge repair bill on other humans.

S.L.A.I.'s fast-paced combat and accessible controls, combined with a lengthy story mode, make it one of the more enjoyable robot-combat games in recent memory.

It's a huge game with a good deal of replay value and a very cool online mode (assuming it ever gets used). Coming to terms with the graphical and gameplay limitations means being able to enjoy a well presented, fresh experience, so at least give this one a try.

Even with its share of problems, S.L.A.I. is able to deliver a mech game that is heavy on the action and loaded with all the things mech fans could ever ask for in a game.

With Mech games being a rare commodity these days, this mech sim provide decent action and customizations, albeit being repetitive in the long run.

Regardless of the number of variations in outfitting, the combat remains simple and unimpressive.

Looking firmly along the line of simple-as-possible, it's clear that the developers, in focusing so much on the presentation of the HAVEN, rather than gameplay faults, have allowed it to stray too far into the bad half.

Just rent "Hackers" again and forget this junk heap.

If tweaking out on robo-parts is your thing, proceed. If serious robo-combat is your thing, abort.

The four-player online play in S.L.A.I. works just fine, but it doesn't make up for the fact that the single-player game wears thin within an hour.

A pointless game with hardly anything going for it. It's hard to believe that this is from the same company that brought us "Metal Gear Solid" and "Pro Evo." A travesty.