One Must Fall Battlegrounds Screenshots   The Final Say! Gameplay 7.8 Graphics 8.4 Sound 6.9 Value 8.0 One Must Fall Battlegrounds - reviewed by Andrew B Review Date: January 2004 Review Score: 8.0/10 Distributed by Manaccom

"One Must Fall has returned... bigger, better and now with online support!" The PC has never had a strong following when it came to fighting games and considering that it is more powerful than all the consoles out on the market at the moment, it is a rea shame. One Must Fall:2097 was one of the first and if not best fighting games for the PC that came out eons ago, 1994 to be exact. With amazing graphics and perfect gameplay, One Must Fall was the most addictive and entertaining games of all time. And now, almost 10 years after the first game, a new saga begins for one of the deadliest fighting games on the PC called One Must Fall Battlegrounds. One Must Fall Battlegrounds (OMFB) is set 20 years after 2097 and once again puts players into the boots of gigantic robots that battle it out in Roman gladiatorial style games. Unlike the previous instalment, OMFB is a 3D on-line fighting game that pits players from around the world in some of the most entertaining and action filled gaming of the year. For those that don't know anything about the One Must Fall series, the game involves gigantic robots that battle it out in huge arenas to the entertainment of the futuristic crowds. These huge robots can perform a variety of manoeuvres from kicks, punches, blocks, spins and a plethora of other special moves to help ensure that they are king of the hill. Although the game doesn't feature a very intuitive storyline, each robot is introduced before the beginning of the match that tells the tale of the mechanical beast and the pilot who controls it. Before engaging in the game, players have the choice of selecting their own personal pilot that must then control 1 of 8 different and unique robots. Each pilot also has various strengths and weaknesses, such as agility, power and endurance that actually work with you or against you while you fight your way through the battlegrounds. The control system of OMFB is rather intuitive and actually works quite well on the keyboard but if you really want to make things more interesting and entertaining than I would highly recommend that you plug in a game pad or purchase one immediately. By using the game pad, players must memorise 6 different buttons such as kicks, punches, blocks and also use the analog stick to control your huge mechanical robots. Super moves are pulled off by pushing various buttons in sequence and I must say that these super moves looks quite simply spectacular. Although the game is a little simplistic in the "single-player" mode by battling CPU controlled opponents, the game really comes into its own when you engage in on-line play that is extremely addictive and before you know it, 2, 3, and 4 hours have passed.

OMFB also features two on-line modes that include  "Demolition" and "Last Man Standing" and allows you to battle with up to 16 different players from world-wide. The connection to gamespy was perfect via my broadband connection but I'm not sure how it would fair with a 56k dialup modem.

Graphically, OMFB is a very nice looking game on the PC that supports a variety of different resolutions and detail modes. Although not as impressive as Soul Calibre 2 or Tekken, the character models are extremely well detailed and contain some very nice texture details such as reflective surfaces and various metallic type textures. Probably the most impressive feature of the game are the various battlegrounds that you fight on that contain quite a bit of detail, are interactive with the players and also have various animation happening in the backgrounds. There are also various special effects in the game from robots getting hammered to smithereens, various weapon effects and of course some realistic flame effects that all come together perfectly. The frame rate of OMFB did stutter on a few occasions but fortunately it was far and few, although older systems (1000Mhz and below) may have some problems playing this title but  I'm sure if you tweak the options enough, you will be able to sort out any frame rate issues.

The musical score of OMFB really helps gets the adrenaline pumping when you are battling it out and uses a variety of techno scores to keep the futuristic and dangerous feel of the game. Each robot also has a variety of sound effects from the dangerous sounds of clanking metal to the impressive super moves (such as Chronos) who pauses time to get the upper hand in the battles. I also suggest that you play this title with the sound high if you want to get the feel of these huge robots pummelling each other to kingdom come.

One Must Fall Battlegrounds is a great sequel to the original game and I would recommend this title to any PC gamer that loves fighting games. The game contains a very impressive gaming engine that contains amazing graphics, addictive gameplay and best of all, on-line fun that will have you playing for hours. Although make sure you have a PC up to specs if you want to enjoy this game thoroughly. Check it out!

- Andrew B