Let's get a few things out of the way: Arena Wars does not have a cohesive storyline, good voice-overs, memorable units, enjoyable music, complex maps, or complex gameplay. In fact, it has very little in common with what we would expect from a typical real-time strategy game, but instead has elements we would normally find in first-person shooters like Unreal Tournament 2004.

Arena Wars, developed by the German company ExDream, is a competitive real-time strategy game with a completely different twist. There are no buildings to construct, no giant army to manage, and no resources to harvest. Players are given $1000, and there is no way to gain any more. There are only six units from which to select, ranging from fast buggies, to mechs, to tanks. None of them are particularly spectacular to look at, and all teams have the same units, but these units are very functional . Each have primary and secondary abilities, including a tank that can teleport and a mech that can hover for short periods of time. Should any of these units be destroyed, their full value is deposited back into the player's account. There are upgrade stations available that will (for a cost that will be later refunded) add additional speed, armor, and firepower to a specific unit type. Units can only be upgraded once, and a used upgrade center is susceptible to attack.

There are three game modes: Capture the flag, Bombing Run, and Double Domination - modes that should be familiar to anyone who has played Unreal Tournament. The only twist to the capture-the-flag component is that the player's own flag must be present at the base in order to capture the enemy's. The game can only support up to four people at a time. This game won't win any awards for graphics, but it isn't bad. The colors are vibrant with big explosions. The maps aren't the most complex around, but they do the job. Limited funds and use of teleportation nodes mix things up by helping to prevent a defensive game. Adding to this are the power plants, which are the only buildings that can be destroyed. Destroying a power plant not only stops the opposing player from constructing units for a short time, but causes massive explosions around areas the player owns, destroying all nearby units. If a player is using a lot of units to protect a site, attack the power plant and force him to split his defenses.

The only real resources to speak of are power-ups that are strategically placed around the map. They are each color coded: green heals and protects units; yellow increases abilities like speed or damage; red disables or hurts units; blue are global attacks. Players can only hold a total of six power-ups at a time, and they will periodically reappear on the map after a short period of time. In an emergency, a well-timed power-up can easily turn the tides of battle.

The single-player experience is very shallow and for the most part, pretty unrewarding. Players will take on a list of AI opponents in a game mode across a series of matches on different maps. Winning a match gains you a new icon to add to your collection for use, none of which are very flashy or carry any kind of "gotta-have" quality. AI range from pathetic to "Insane" and differ in the amount of aggressiveness they possess. There is no way to change the unit AI mode from aggressive to passive, so they have a tendency to attack anything within range, whether you want them to or not. The units require some babysitting, which is hard to do when things get hectic.

Arena Wars' strongest point comes from its multiplayer, which supports both voice and video technology. Now you can scream directly at your opponents from around the world and make rude gestures toward them. Multiplayer has generally been a positive, lag-free experience, although we did experience a few game drops. The game replay feature captures a played game in its entirety, including all voice and video communications. Not only that, but you can switch the replay perspective to the opponent's to see what he was looking at and doing at any point of the game.

The map editor is intuitive and fun. The feature that we enjoyed most was the fact that you can import your own digital photographs and the editor will automatically convert them into a terrain or texture.

Arena Wars'presentation could have used some significant work. The voice-overs in particular sound like they were recorded in someone's garage or basement, with numerous mispronounced words. The announcer will shout (more like politely inform you) about things like double kills in a semi-UT2004 style, but doesn't go over the top to make it more exciting. Some aspects of the game's textual components have not been translated from German to English. The music, some sort of techno, is lackluster and utterly forgettable. Yet, all these flaws are easy to deal with. The game rises above it by offering fast-paced multiplayer fun.

With an incredibly low price and low system requirements, Arena Wars offers significant value to anyone looking for a fast-paced strategy game, even as a sort of guilty pleasure. Hardcore gamers mayfret over the limited gameplay, or what it lacks in comparison to higher-priced titles, but Arena's Wars' flawed presentation is more than made up for by its gameplay.