What grants a game awesome status? We all know having wonderful visuals, a cracking score, a compelling story, inspired gameplay and an abundance of character help, but the answer’s really quite simple. Your game needs to have suicidal ninja robots. Yeah, that sounds about right.

Not to say that Plain Sight, indie developers Beatnik Games’ first game, doesn’t have all those other things. Contained within their nicely furnished studio in Central London is a devoted bunch of eight workers, all hell bent on the idea of creating a kick-ass game for kick-ass gamers. With a seat reserved for a controlled playthrough of the game, first impressions were initially that the game would be too much to handle. However, it didn’t take long to get a grip on the game’s fascinating gameplay mechanic – the ninja robots had been tamed.

Being such a young studio both in terms of the company’s history and the team’s average age, Beatnik Games certainly have a lot to give to the videogame world, and their enthusiasm shines through in Plain Sight.

The game sees you control a ‘ninja robot’. In a style reminiscent of the Timesplitters games, these shiny tin wonders have a lot of character, even if they lack feelings. If you were to put Plain Sight into a genre, you’d be half tempted to create one just for it – or you could chuck it in the elusive ‘third-person-sci-fi-online-multiplayer-combat’ bracket. Combat is very simple, but also satisfying – once you have locked on to an enemy robot you lunge at the bothersome delinquent with your trusty katana, and, provided you correctly steer your robot’s path to that of the opposition, destruction stops being mere fantasy and becomes a delightful reality.

When you destroy an opponent you gain ‘energy’. Now, this energy is all well and good, but if some troublesome schmuck has the audacity to kill you then you lose all the energy you had gained on that life. To convert this energy into something worthwhile – points - you need to kill yourself. Once you have exploded your poor robot friend into molecules then your kills turn into points, and these points can be spent on upgrading your robot, before you return to the battlefield. Do you choose to commit suicide after one kill? Or do you carry on in search of more kills for better overall points? Each kill makes you faster and stronger, but it also makes you bigger, leaving you more open to attack. It’s a risk and reward system that works wonders, and is sure to make gamers both rejoice and rage-quit in equal measure.

Before marching into battle for real a quick and painless tutorial showed the way to success, and has you bouncing all over the playing field like a playful bunny. In this game you can dash, jump, double jump and even fly (once upgraded) across the map, and it is this element of free control and space that should pave the way for some truly epic multiplayer meetings. While this tutorial level appeared slightly desolate it was to be that the main maps would be anything but.

There are thirteen multiplayer maps to be enjoyed in the full game, and judging on the few played in the studio, variety is the spice of life, and you’ll be treated to some real humdingers, including one suggested by a forum member. Taking place on a set of cassettes, this map transcended the realms of cool. The fact the developers have such a close relationship with their forum members shows how important the industry is to these fellows, that they know the kinds of expectations modern gamers have of what a decent game is.

Unfortunately while Plain Sight is an online multiplayer title, the gameplay on offer in the studio represented the offline practice mode. Regardless, it gave a good idea of what to expect when the game goes live with dedicated server software. The bots acted as good katana dummies and at times provided a decent challenge to hone your skills on before heading online. When a decent number of ninja robots are jumping around the screen the experience can become quite euphoric. Each robot leaves a different coloured light trail, which really adds to the visuals and creates a vibrant disco-inferno of strobe lighting.

As the game is due in just over two weeks, gameplay is polished and feels ready for release. Combat is frenetic and addictive, and the game holds well under a considerable amount of action. When you kill yourself, your robot poses motionless in space like a chosen messiah, with light emitting from its about-to-be desecrated body – it’s a wonderful sight that requires repeated views and camera swings to fully appreciate, and it doesn’t suffer from slowdown.

One part of the game that is sure to make the online battles even more hectic is the upgrades you can give your ninja robot. Once you have changed your kills into points after a successful suicide, you can choose to upgrade your robot with new abilities and strengths. There are three main categories for upgrade, and within these there are three different tiered types of upgrade. On top of all these you have a final ‘mega upgrade’ for each category, unlocked after each prior perk has been bought. Upgrades range from a faster lock-on time to better jumping capabilities, with the mega upgrades destined to wreak total havoc on the arena, or at least the suicide mega upgrade will. With this gem you can create a mass vortex that sucks all enemy players around you, just before you kill yourself. Creating a virtual whirlwind of colour and shiny metal robots - and a chock load of points - the effect is quite impressive.

With five separate game modes to try with up to twenty players, it won’t just be deathmatches filling the servers. The ingeniously titled ‘Ninja! Ninja! Ninja! Robozilla!’ is a co-operative mode where you must take down the fearsome Robozilla, whereas ‘Lighten Up’ sees you detonating within a target area for points. Team deathmatch and capture the flag are also available for the more traditional online gamer.

Concerns could be weighted towards the fact there is no real ranking system to be enjoyed in the game – a staple of the genre that can often keep gamers playing for months. Achievements serve to give players challenges to strive for however, and the fun and addictive nature of the gameplay should keep people coming back despite this. Plain Sight officially drops on March 22nd, which is more than enough time to get started on a suicide routine. If only ninja robots were available through retail.