Force Recon

You can't win a war with just one soldier. Well, unless that one soldier happens to be Halo's Master Chief or some other fictional super-soldier, that is.

Force Recon takes such a grounded concept and runs with it, charging you with taking control of three soldiers as they sneak behind enemy lines during World War II to sabotage the Nazis' African assault.

Though the game is scripted in part, you switch between the three characters - each with their own specialisations, whether that's bomb disposal or pure guns and grunt - gradually making your way through the levels.

The idea is to swap who you control either when a character runs out of ammunition or when the hurdles up ahead require a different set of skills.

Rather than simply moving each one around, you set a target marker with a cursor for the character in command to aim for, a tap of the '5' key setting him on his way. His movement will only come unstuck if he's fired upon.

You use the same method to target enemies, the cursor automatically recognising your foes and the '5' key again the key needed to fire.

You can only target enemies within a set area, however. Each gun has a range signified by a green circle. This means you often have to walk into danger before firing, rather than popping them off one by one safely from afar.

Luckily, said foes do take rather a long time to reload. Taking them down while they're preoccupied with their guns is the key to making it through each stage alive. If you happen to miss these windows of opportunity it's often curtains, as Force Recon doesn't allow you to return fire or even move if you're being pelted with bullets.

There are some targeting issues, too, with Nazis stood in close proximity to each other often throwing the system and leaving you unable to fire upon either.

Even disregarding such faults, it's all fairly tame stuff. A modicum of strategy is required in order to employ the right troop for the right job, but there's little here that feels especially new or fresh.

Though the targeting and movement system does set Force Recon apart from some of its more standard shooter-based rivals, it doesn't feel especially suitable when the action really kicks off. The desire to retreat to a safer position isn't really accommodated by such a control system.

All in all, then, Force Recon isn't a battle that'll win the war on its own, but it manages to earn a crumb or two of respect purely for going its own way.