Think of every first-person shooter game you’ve ever played. Now imagine those games as classic 2D platformers. Now imagine if the developers of those games were in it for the art, and for the love of creating a quality game as opposed to yet another cash grab.
The game you’re imagining would probably come close to, but still not quite be, Arena.
Developed by Aron Soos, Arena is just what it sounds like – you, and up to 15 bots in heavy combat, the twist being this is a 2D platformer as opposed to the traditional 3D first-person shooters which have dominated the gaming landscape over the past 13 years or so.
Full disclosure before we continue, I became aware of this game upon seeing a post on twitter from the creator asking for people to play test the title – as such I was given free access to the then current version and subsequent releases. The opinions expressed here, however, are my actual thoughts and feelings.
To say Arena is a chaotic game would be an understatement. It isn’t a difficult game per se, but the nature of up to 15 opponents vying for domination and the multitude of weapons available in the game makes for an incredibly intense experience for such cute little blocky sprites as the players and enemies are!
The controls are solid and simple. WASD to move, space to jump, left click to fire your weapon, right click to fire the alternate fire mode of your weapon, and space to initiate a time slow down, a trait that while certainly common enough (thanks to films like the Matrix and games like Max Payne and Dead to Rights) works nicely inside the nightmarish fray that can be the battles in Arena. Aiming is done via the mouse, which works quite well for a game of this nature.
Arena is jam-packed with customization options as well – the ability to toggle on and off the 12 different weapons is nice to help you fine tune the overall feel of war, but there’s so much more. Of course, when setting up the battle you can set score limits, the number of bots, the pace of the battle, and even environmental factors like firestorms and meteor impacts can be toggled to add variety. Then come the mutators, those crazy options like instagib (one hit kills), big head mode (larger sprites, so easier targets), freeze (where the time slowdown function completely freezes time, quite trippy) and more. I can’t even begin to describe some of the combinations but I can safely say once you start to get a feel for the game these add a whole new level of variety to the combat!
Game modes in and of themselves are pretty basic, but they don’t need to be anything crazy – capture the flag, deathmatch, and last man standing are the 3 core modes with team options available to keep things a little more (debatably) fair. Combined with the mutators these few variations on the core gameplay style really add up – I’m certain most players will quickly find a combination that they could play with time and time again and always have a fun time!
Arena does have a bit of a learning curve, and can be a tad difficult – the enemy is generally a keen shooter, but the game is fair – weapons have a bit of play to their accuracy and since you can slow down time you have a major advantage against the AI if, and that’s the key word, if you can figure out just when best to use it. That’s what makes the game fun, really, the fact that you aren’t some super powerful hero, you’re just another block in the arena shooting at everything else hoping to survive, score, and win. You won’t always but when you do, you feel like you’ve earned it!
This isn’t a finished title either, it’s actually in some ways far from it. Arena has almost constant updates which, in fact, have been part of the reason why this review has been delayed for months! Every time I’d think I was ready to begin a review I’d realize there were new additions to the game I hadn’t tried and thus I’d have to download, play and think about the new release! Right now I’m playing on version 1.0.36 but I bet you by the time many of you see this there will be another release adding in something new, tweaking something else, or otherwise fine tuining this awesome little game.
Arena really shows a love for the art of making a game. The music by Agnet 75 works perfectly with the very refined, traditional pixel art by Aron, the constant updates and refinements show that the product is truly cared about, and the actual game experience shows even moreso the detail and effort put in.
I stronly suggest checking out the demo and if you like what you see, give the game a purchase! It isn’t the kind of game you will spend all day with, but that’s the beauty of it – you also don’t need to, you can just fire it up, play a battle or 2 to relax, then get back to your day. For $2 (current price as of the writing of this article) you won’t be disappointed!
Arena is available for Linux and Windows.
https://aronsoos.itch.io/arena
Oh, and if you want gameplay footage, why not check out these tweets from the creator? They really show off how the game can be once you get in to it!
https://twitter.com/aronsoos/status/1055743181923500034
https://twitter.com/aronsoos/status/1055526999693946881
https://twitter.com/aronsoos/status/1055150891966304257
https://twitter.com/aronsoos/status/1054781659306975234