War World: Tactical Combat

Hang On A Sec, this looks like a real game, not some archaic bug-ridden nonsense created by bored IT students in the quiet times between wanking and blogging about Stargate - so what's it doing in Indie Zone?

Well, actually War World is about as indie as they come, created by three developers (programmer, artist, musician) with a custom-built engine and next to no budget It's an impressive achievement, especially considering the results are, visually at least, almost polished enough to stand alongside mainstream games.

Unfortunately, War World is a very basic game at heart - a third-person arena shooter with stompy robots and piss-weak jetpacks. The focus is online play, fleshed out by the ability to customise your mech with 50-plus weapon systems. Within this extremely limited remit it plays well, but the arenas are tiny, the single-player game pointless and servers deserted.

We're hardly surprised, as for all its good looks, War World offers about per cent of the gameplay of Tribes: Vengeance. And as that game is now available online for $5.99 (it's true - we checked!), there's really no comparison to be made here.