There are two ways to play Sokbots: PvP, and PvE. They are actually nothing alike.

In PvP, you are aiming to damage your opponent as possible as quickly as you can; the arms race is for damage output and turns into a game of feints and bluffs to drain their shields.

In PvE, you are facing an infinite number of slowly spawning low-level bots; you initially see how high of a score you can get before running out of health, reach a point where you run out of battery instead, and then try to balance the two.

I can't speak confidently about PvP, but in PvE there are two key issues:

1. Most weapons aren't worth their battery drain, and
   
2. Most >$0 parts aren't worth the increase to your repair costs.

This means that unless you're swimming in cash (which you eventually are), you'll opt for a box for your chassis and standard spikes for your melee. This isn't a dealbreaker; in fact this is still a pretty solid game in spite of that. But it's worth pointing out.

Also, the cool arenas in the trailer are only for PvP, sadly. For PvE, you're stuck in a flat boring walled area.

Still, with those caveats - recommended. If you can, buy this one for yourself and a friend, so you'll have a PvP partner to arms race with.

[h1]Budget Battle Bots: B+[/h1] There are two ways to play Sokbots: PvP, and PvE. They are actually [i]nothing[/i] alike. [b]In PvP,[/b] you are aiming to damage your opponent as possible as quickly as you can; the arms race is for damage output and turns into a game of feints and bluffs to drain their shields. [b]In PvE,[/b] you are facing an infinite number of slowly spawning low-level bots; you initially see how high of a score you can get before running out of health, reach a point where you run out of battery instead, and then try to balance the two. I can't speak confidently about PvP, but in PvE there are two key issues: [olist] [*] Most weapons aren't worth their battery drain, and [*] Most >$0 parts aren't worth the increase to your repair costs. [/olist] This means that unless you're swimming in cash (which you eventually are), you'll opt for a box for your chassis and standard spikes for your melee. This isn't a dealbreaker; in fact this is still a pretty solid game in spite of that. But it's worth pointing out. Also, the cool arenas in the trailer are only for PvP, sadly. For PvE, you're stuck in a flat boring walled area. Still, with those caveats - recommended. If you can, buy this one for yourself and a friend, so you'll have a PvP partner to arms race with.