Alien Front Online

THE BAD:
Can't chat in the lobby so you limit the hook up with friends online. Voice chat limited to 5 second messages. Single player gets kind of boring.

SUMMARY:
Buy this game if you intend to play online however since it lacks split screen don't count on playing with a friend offline.

THE BAD:
No offline multi-player. (Definetely enough to take the game down a point or I would have given it a 5)

SUMMARY:
I picked up this game about a week ago and have been hooked since. As you can tell by the title a major part of this game is the ability to play it online with other living, breathing people. Most of the time I experience no lag at all unlike games like Quake 3 Arena. Unfortunately the occasional loss of contact with the server can be annoying but that mostly depends on how good of a connection your ISP gives you.

Online you can play in Team Death Matches (Humans vs. Aliens). You can play capture the flag which is kind of this games own version of it. You can play fortress where a team has to destroy certain parts of the other team's base within a certain time limit while the defending team tries to stop them. The ranking system is interesting and will keep you online trying to boost your rank for hours at a time. And voice chat with the included microphone is cool since there is no time to type. The only gripes I have with online play is that you can't make locked games and there is no guild card or buddy list type system so you can't find people you have played with before. But you'll be surprised that in spite of those pitfalls you'll have a real kick-ass time playing this game.

But even offline play is fun because you can play tactics mode where you'll either join the sides of the aliens or the humans in completing challenging and fun missions that will bring your side closer to victory.

You can play Arcade mode where you'll play as hard as you can to get the highest score possible so you can compete with other players on the world-wide scoring table. Your high score from offline Arcade mode is automatically uploaded to the servers every time you play online.

But wait just a minute....WHERE IS THE OFFLINE SPLIT-SCREEN MULTI-PLAYER!?!?!? Thats right it is non-existent in this game which is unfortunate because it almost seems essential to a game like this.

But I don't want to end this review on such a bad note because this game's great graphics, addicting gameplay, and great value make this game a must have for any DC owner. It has an SRP of only $30 so you can probably find it for less and it comes with the microphone for real-time voice chat.