Unfortunately, the gameplay sits squarely in the realm of mediocrity as well. You’re an Armorine, a vastly overpowered bad-ass that has to save the world from the invading aliens. Yeah, you’ve heard it before, and it’s not really spiced up throughout the game. Each mission is basically a fairly linear push-the-button, open-the-area, push-yet-another-button ordeal, with bugs popping out at random for you to blast.
Armorines has serious display issues that really make it difficult to play. Pick-ups on the ground disappear and reappear at will, it seems, depending on just how you squint when you’re looking at it. Enemies literally appear out of nowhere, popping into existence and charging at you. The game gives you four weapons per level -- three standard and one that is level-specific -- but I never once found myself using anything but the unlimited-ammo blaster. It kills just as effectively as everything else, but you never have to recharge it. It also auto-targets, which makes killing little scurrying things a whole lot easier.
The game seems to have strange bugs as well, and not of the crawly type. On multiple occasions, I saw enemies trying to attack through walls, parts of their appendages flailing through the concrete. Huh? I also found my gun tracking enemies through ceilings and floors that I couldn’t even get to yet. This is just plain silly. The enemies themselves are in a very mixed bag when it comes to A.I. Some of them get up close and kick the crap out of you as you try to get a bead on them, and others just quietly waddle up so you can shoot them. Of course, after playing for about five minutes, you’ll probably realize that your gun can shoot really far, even if you can’t auto-aim that far, and you’ll find yourself picking enemies off from halfway across a level.
The game also offers cooperative play, which is somewhat fun, and multiplayer, which is almost no fun. With the exception of co-op, it’s all been done better by Quake 2 -- a prettier, better-controlling, and more entertaining game.
