Ares Omega (PC) Review

Ares Omega is a strange game in that some areas, really radiates heart if nothing else. Whereas on the other side, some parts of the game feel so uninspired one wonders if there was a direction problem in development. At its root, it has an overhead view where the player controls a soldier sent in to stop a robot uprising on Mars. In typical twin-stick shooter style there is dodging while simultaneously aiming and firing against a horde of monsters…ahem, robots.

From the beginning, the game looks low budget, but this isn't a game killer. When it plays like it has a low budget, that becomes a problem. To start, each robot is fundamentally lacking differences from every other one in the horde. Ultimately there is a lot to control here for this type of game, beyond the somewhat tasking baseline of moving one way but shooting the other, the player must manage weapon changes, reloads, dodging and grenades. It all has potential to be pretty fun, but the simple reality is the controls are mediocre at best and frustrating regardless.

The largest problem is the controls just do not feel clean. The guy never moves as crisp as would be liked, and the aiming is atrocious. There is very little indication to what direction is being aimed at, and with very limited ammo and very strange hit boxes and accuracy calculations it is not a 'spray and pray' as some of these types of games are. When initially tried with a controller, it was far too difficult to aim anyway near effectively, and swapping to the keyboard/mouse was only marginally better. Often the best strategy was simple to bait enemies into long halls, walking backwards in a straight line to minimize as much aiming as possible.

It's too bad, because there are some cool things about this game. There are a lot of weapons all with various stats such as damage, accuracy, rate of fire, and so on. There are RPG elements, such as finding money in the levels to buy weapons, as well as getting experience points to level up skills. Despite there being a lot of skills, most don't amount to much beyond basic things like "increase pistol damage." It's a nice touch, but for being a major feature it feels like it's lacking the needed fleshed out feel.

There actually was potential for story, as Mars has been a great location for games in the past, but like most of the game it just isn't there. This game feels like a late alpha, or perhaps early beta where the graphics can be forgiven and the purpose is to test the engine and allow players to explore and generally feel around. Instead it comes off as cheap and frustrating. It's the type of game the needs a major patch and almost full overhaul to truly make it a decent game. At this point there is some potential left, but there are too many things going wrong to recommend it.