Alien Arena 2007

Described By Some As like Unreal Tournament but not very good', Alien Arena 2007, sequel to Alien Arena 2006, is a multiplayer FPS which does pretty much exactly what its predecessor did. This time however, it does it a bit better, and people actually seem to be playing it online. Somebody's spat on it. I mean, its got a spit-and-polish - meaning the garish colours now bleed and glow like a radioactive wound. The levels are like something out of Mark Rein's nightmares, and the default weapon shoots slow-moving blue things which I remember hating in Alien Arena 2006. But for everything the game does wrong, it seems to haphazardly make up for it through its economically sensible (read 'free') price point, and an underlying sense of fun hidden somewhere deep, deep inside.

It's this nugget of enjoyableness Alien Arena 2007 keeps dangling in front of you which will keep you playing, if indeed you keep playing. However, you can't help but feel a little ridiculous doing so, when youve got a copy of Unreal Tournament installed. Without wanting to undermine the amount of hard work invested in the Alien Arena series, I can't help but feel the role of these developers should be to produce free titles that publishers wouldnt touch, instead of trying to compete with commercial online shooters.

On the other hand, if you have a decent PC, but somehow cant afford a decent online shooter, Alien Arena will be your backup in that crazy world you obviously live in.