Games

Without Warning

Platform: PS2, Xbox
Price: £29.99
Publisher: Capcom
Buy it now at Amazon.co.uk

Games have tried for many years to compete with the visceral escapism of a great action movie. Especially now the graphical power is in place to replicate the explosive visuals, the games industry really wants to be seen as an entertainment medium with the same potential and legitimacy as Hollywood.

Does Without Warning bring us any closer to that goal? Not quite, but it's a hell of a lot of fun finding out.

In a plot that has been liberally inspired by the Michael Bay blockbuster, The Rock, terrorists have seized control of a chemical processing plant and rigged it with bombs. The army sends in a crack team of special ops soldiers to take it back. Except, as you've probably guessed, the terrorists beat them to the punch and wipe out the invading force.

In most games, this would be the point where you'd take control of the sole surviving soldier and single-handedly save the day. And it's here that Without Warning deviates from the expected norms of action gaming.

Three soldiers survive the ambush, seperated but alive, and they're far from the only rogue elements at play here. Also trapped inside the plant are a security guard, a secretary and a TV cameraman who finds himself stranded at the scene. And you control them all, as the hours tick by.

What this means in practice is that you flip between these characters, getting each of them safely through their next challenge, as the larger story unfolds. Sometimes it'll be something as simple as getting them from one place to another - even the next room. Other times you'll have to achieve key objectives to either speed your own progress, or assist one of the others.

As far as in-game narrative is concerned, it's a cute gimmick and one that is used to fun effect, allowing you to see both sides of a radio conversation, or cause an explosion another character just witnessed.

But at its heart, Without Warning is a game about shooting. Viewed from a third-person perspective, you can crouch, roll and run for cover before targetting an enemy, popping out of hiding and letting rip with your weapon. Each character comes pre-equipped with their preferred weapon (or, in the case of the secretary and cameraman, unarmed) and there's no picking up new firearms or upgrading to something more powerful.

At first this feels restrictive, but it actually lets you concentrate on the firefights - and they can be spectacular. The game requires just enough strategy that you don't feel like you're plodding through a mindless blast, but it's also forgiving enough to let you enjoy the buzz of huddling behind a door, returning fire against a horde of bad guys as bullets ping around you.

The only thing that keeps Without Warning from slipping into the must-have category is the roving camera which can prove annoying, and the sense of repetition that creeps in as you progress.

However, as a solid and meaty action experience, with just enough smart ideas to stand out, this does exactly what it says on the tin.