Robot Wars: Arenas of Destruction

"Dirty, underground, futuristic, mechanised mayhem"

- From the back of Arenas of Destruction PS2 version box

Robot Wars: Arenas of Destruction (often abbreviated as RW:AoD) is the second out of a total of four Robot Wars video games. It was created by Climax Entertainment and published by BBC Multimedia. It was released for the PC and Playstation 2 on November 22, 2001. In this game, players fight in many arenas and tournaments in order to earn money and build robots.

The PC version of the game was also distributed in the United States, published by Sierra Online Inc. and released on October 22, 2002. The only change made for the US release was Stefan Frank replacing Jonathan Pearce as the commentator.

Arenas
The game has a variety of arenas that each contain varying degrees of hazards including pits, unexploded mines, car crushing devices and molten metal. The arenas are as follows:


 * The Series 4 version of the Main Robot Wars Arena in London, England.
 * A North Sea Oil Rig.
 * An abandoned Military Base in Siberia
 * A Steelworks in New York, U.S.A.
 * A Dockyard in Hamburg, Germany.
 * A Scrapyard in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
 * A rooftop in Japan.
 * Inside a volcano in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

Buying and Making a Robot
When you first start the game, you start with 2000 credits and a robot called "My First Bot", which is small wedge shaped robot armed with a pickaxe and armoured in wood. You can sell this robot and get an extra 1350 credits to spend on a new one. There are various parts to use when making a robot. The chassis cost 100-500 credits, the locomotion costs 0-1700, the power costs 100-1500, the drive costs 40-3500, the weapons cost 150-9500, the armour costs 100-5000, and the extras cost 10-100 credits, but you can get some items at a lower price in the scrapyard.

Robot Battles
You must enter your robots in Championship mode in order to gain money. In the later tournaments, you need to pay an entry fee in order to take part. There are three tournaments in each of the arenas, with different entry requirements for each event. These requirements usually involve entering a robot of a certain weight, fitted with a certain type of weapon, or within a certain cost.

Besides Championship mode, there are numerous other options depending on what type of battle you want. There is Freeplay mode, where you can battle against up to five CPUs, the CPUs are chosen at random. There are five different types of Freeplay battle. These are:


 * One on Ones - Battle against another robot.
 * Annihilator - Battle against 1-5 robots.
 * Collateral Damage - This is about causing as much damage as possible to a set of objects scattered around the arena.
 * Capture the Flag - This is where you must get the flag and hold onto it until the match ends.
 * Mad Bomber - This is where a robot has a bomb attached to it and the robot must give another robot the bomb. If a robot doesn't get rid of the bomb, the bomb will explode eliminating the robot.

Freeplay mode is both a single and multiplayer mode. You can also choose to not have the House Robots in the arena.

The second mode of play is Vengeance, this can be single or multiplayer. In Vengeance mode you can only go up against a robot that is in your possesion, i.e. a robot you have made or bought. Unlike Freeplay mode, you must have the House Robots in the arena.

The third mode of play is Training Ground. This is where you can practise your skills against three challenges. These challenges are:


 * Slalom - Where you attempt to get your chosen robot through a slalom in quickest time.
 * Robot Battle - This is a one on one battle against a robot of your choice. There is also no commentary in this mode.
 * Ultimate Challenge - This is where you can take any one of your robots and put them up against a House Robot.

Playable Robots and House Robots
There are many playable robots that must be bought in order to use them. Robots are seperated into weight categories which are, lightweight, middleweight, heavyweight and super heavyweight. Robots that participated in reality are very expensive and are classed as super heavyweights, the only exception to this is Chaos 2 which is classed as a heavyweight. The following robots are the "real-life" competitor robots:


 * Behemoth
 * Chaos 2
 * Diotoir
 * Firestorm 2
 * Hypno-Disc
 * Mortis
 * Panic Attack
 * Pussycat
 * Razer
 * Terrorhurtz

In addition to these competitors, there is a robot called Thor, the winning entry from a contest in the original Robot Wars Magazine that was held to design a robot for Arenas of Destruction. Thor is treated as though it were a real-life competitor; it must be unlocked by winning a certain event, and it uses is own unique components. It has no relation to the Thor that did appear in Robot Wars.

Although the setting for this game is around Series 4 of Robot Wars, Refbot does not appear, but Dead Metal, Shunt, Sir Killalot, Matilda and Sergeant Bash do.

Voice Artists
There are two voices in this game, the commentator and the Robot Builder Advisor. Jonathan Pearce is the commentator in the UK version, and Stefan Frank in the US version. Interestingly, Frank's commentary is word-for-word exactly the same as Pearce's (except for the pronunciation of the letter "Z".) Beatie Edney voices the Robot Builder Adviser in both versions.