Game Review: Soldat

"Soldat is a unique side-view multiplayer action game. It takes the best from games like Liero, Worms, Quake and Counter-Strike and gives you fast action gameplay with tons of blood and flesh. Soldiers fight against each other on 2D battle arenas using a deadly military arsenal. This is what multiplayer was invented for."

There was a time when the definition of a "really good game" was a game that took years in the making, cost a decent bit of money, and was advertised until its final release was more of a national holiday *cough cough*. Now, however, you can find amazing, clever, and free (or pretty damn cheap) games that are highly praised by the people who have played them, few as they may be. Soldat is one of these games. Soldat (french for "Soldier") is an online, 2D multiplayer 3rd person shooter. Now we all know thats like saying "I took the most idiotic idea of a game and decided to market it," but before you stop reading altogether, I thought it would make you all feel better if an actual company rated this game. That being said, let me continue.

The game starts up and has you select an account (you can make more than 1 by paying $10 to "register the game"). Once thats done, you simply join a server or make your own (and yes you can also change game options too). The game looks like a cross-breed between Super Mario Brothers and Team Fortress 2. But the real beauty of the game is the fact that it gives you things you wouldn't expect in a 2D side-scroller shooter: jet-boots, flamethrowers, and invisibility are a few. There are the typical modes of gameplay: CTF, Deathmatch, and Team Deathmatch, but they also added a few new ones like Infiltration, in which one team has to successfully infiltrate an enemy's base and steal their flag (like a one-sided CTF). The game is rather violent: there are times in which I've seen my character's head fly around the map as I waited to respawn. It seems as though the whole 12-year-old "I like watching bloody stumps of flesh" mentality really shoved the game along. Also, my character will, on occasion, fly through the bottom of the map (and subsequentially die) as a result of an explosion, which gets aggravating. However, the addicting gameplay and almost limitless available maps (they hav a nice mapmaker) make up for the problems. Its worth getting. Seriously, go do it. Unless you're busy.

Oh and I don't personally like the game's trailer... I just put it there so everyone could at least see some gameplay.