Small Arms

Small Arms looks sharp, sounds great and starts out being fun, but unfortunately doesn’t end up having sustaining gameplay - an issue that’s somewhat offset by the low price tag.

The product is better than most other offerings in the Arcade areas, and most of you won’t regret spending money on this. However, with it being a fully focused multiplayer game, the single player feels rushed and unloved, offering you nothing to go back to.

As a multiplayer game it shines, when ignoring the uneven playing field the weapons provide; but its offerings on the single-player front simply don’t do much for it. It’s short-lived and unsatisfying.

Singleplayer is pretty weak yet enjoyable, but the real fun to be had here is with the insane multiplayer action.

It's the ghetto version, which is the polite way of saying it's not quite as good. [Issue 15, p.116]

With its focus on weapon grabbing over weapon firing, Small Arms' shallow gameplay falls flat.

It still feels clumsy, and while it's possible to overcome this in time and reach a decent standard, it robs the game of some of its accessibility - something critical to its multiplayer appeal - and your ultimate proficiency in moving, jumping and firing at the same time is only likely to announce itself long after you've exhausted what depths there are to excavate.

The sound effects are adequate and the music does its job, but it would have been nice to see some of these characters talk or emote a little bit, even if just for laughs.

A good time when taken in small doses. The multiplayer mode is where the action really shines, so here’s hoping the community builds a bit more.