It's late...I'm tired...time for a short review
Fight Zone is the first *competent* FPS game on this list. It's an arcadey free-for all deal similar to Unreal Tournament. Of course, the major emphasis is on customization, which makes this feel more like Eliminate Pro, but I digress.
If you've played any FPS against bots, you've played Fight Zone. There's just one thing slightly different: the customization. Before the round and every time you die, you get to choose which of your weapons will be most effective, how much ammo you have, how high you can jump, etc. Everyone has 100 points to divy up among these attributes as they please.
This mechanic is really what makes this game engaging. There are enough different strategies to keep this game from getting stale for quite a while. I think the thing that makes the mechanic most engaging is that leveling up one particular attribute could serve a variety of strategies. For example, leveling up jump height not only works for sniping because it allows you to get to high places, but also can be employed much differently for a rocket-jumping strategy. There's a lot of overlap between the strategies. Lots of room for tweaking. It's a very basic mechanic, but it works very well. I may be misusing this game design term, but it allows for a lot of depth with very little complexity (don't worry, I'll link the Extra Credits on it so you know what I'm talking about).
Over all else, though, I think the thing I like most about this game is that it's just fun. Look, I hate the new Call of Duty games as much as the next pretentious game analyst, but there's a reason FPS games are generally considered the most fun in the medium. There's just something about them that plays so well to the innate desire to conquer. That said, Fight Zone is the most fun I've had with a DigiPen game yet.
The game is fun, the mechanics are solid, and it's a potentially useful teaching tool for game design students. These three qualities give me no trouble at all in giving this game my seal of approval.
Links
bang pew kaboom: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=532
Extra Crediiit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVL4st0blGU
