Wrongly convicted of a crime, one or two fugitives scramble to escape the pursuit of a large group of federal marshals intent on their recapture.
Each player has a limited number of lives. Each time they are deactivated, a life is lost. When all of their lives are gone, they are eliminated from the game. The players' goal is to eliminate the other team, while not being eliminated themselves.
Destroying the in-field targets awards bonus lives, and it is recommended that this is done early, to avoid elimination.
Typically, an experienced player is chosen as the fugitive. All other players become marshals. The fugitive gets first choice of battlesuit and enters the arena prior to the mission start (to take up a strategic position). The marshals wait in the armory until the mission begins, but then must enter the arena immediately.
Players must actively search out their opponents. If a player fails to do so, their battlesuit will warn them by saying "Warning, Time low". If they do not find an opponent within a short period (about twelve seconds), their battlesuit will say "Warning, Time critical". If a further twelve seconds passes without them finding an opponent, they will be deactivated and a life will be lost. Thus, players must continuously search out the enemy or they are penalised.
The number of lives each player starts with is determined by a complex algorithm that takes the skill levels of all fugitives and marshals into account. Because of this, even lower level players can be fugitives and still have a chance against twenty marshals. The battlesuit will provide warning messages when lives become low.
Fugitives have the only special ability available, the payback, which costs them ten special points to activate.
