Robot Arena 2

Robot Arena 2: Design and Destroy is a robot action game developed by Gabriel Entertainment, the company that also made the first game and also the company that's infamous for making six games in the John Deere series. The game was released in February 2003 on PC.

As you can guess by the title you have to create a robot and destroy your opponents in the arena. You can also pick one of the standard robots but these robots are very weak, and thus it's very hard to win the tournaments with these ones. However, if you're able to build one yourself with strong weapons like our robot in the video the singleplayer tournaments are very easy. The only problem is finding out how to build a robot that actually works. But when you discover that you'll have a lot of fun with this game. The game offers a lot of customization and freedom when looking at other games of that period.

In this game you play in seasons, and in each season there are nine tournaments. In each of these tournaments you have to win four 1vs1 battles or two battles against three other robots (these are mostly king of the hill battles, get on top of the plateau and keep the other robots away to achieve points, or you can just destroy them all, that also works fine). There are four ways to defeat your opponent: Destroying his robot, immobilize his robot (can be done by destroying his wheels) eliminating his robot (push him in a pit) or when you've achieved the most points in battle (just smash up the other robots) after the time has expired. For each victory you gain points, and when you have the most points after you've played the nine tournaments, you win the season. There are 15 AI teams, each with three different robots. One in each weight class: Lightweight, middleweight and heavyweight. Unfortunately the AI teams are very weak and it's easy to win these tournaments, there is only one robot that is quite hard, and that's the third opponent in the video below.

The graphics of this game have been improved in comparison with the first game, as expected. The arena levels look great, and they didn't forget to put the traps in the game, something that really has to be in a robot battle game. Some of the traps are: spikes, saws, sledgehammers and launch plateau's. There is no ingame music, only in the main menu. A fun sound effect that they've put in is the announcement voice before the battle commences.

This game also has a multiplayer option, but the servers have been shut down two years ago. There is only one forum that's still standing. Their name is GameTechMods, in case you're interested.

The game has some compatibility problems with the latest operating systems, but it's still playable. It's a fun game to unwind after a day of stress. In conclusion: It's quite a fun game, but unfortunately it's a little bit to easy.