Interface

It all just clicks

Firing up the game's tutorial, you'll see that the bulk of your controlling is going to be done via the mouse and the keypad - the first to give directions to your men, and the second to control the camera. The mouse control is reasonably intuitive - click on a person to command them, click on items to pick them up, click on bad guys to kill them. The camera interface is extremely awkward, and takes a good chunk of time to get used to if you aren't already familiar with Myth, the game it was borrowed from.

The camera can also be set to follow the active person(s), with unpredictable results. Sometimes it's helpful, especially when trying to find someone or while piloting a vehicle. Other times, it can be a big hindrance; because of the angled-overhead perspective, it's often necessary to change camera positions so that you can see things previously blocked from view. The auto-camera doesn't take this sort of thing into account, so you're generally better piloting the game view yourself.

Songs around the barrel fire

Lots of fences

What gun?

The mercenaries are always in need of supplies; ammo runs out fast when your mission is kill, kill, kill. Medical kits are always useful items, and a well-placed grenade can do the work of ten men. What this means is you'll always have to be nabbing stuff from dead bodies - hey, you can't take it with you. Unfortunately, that camera problem comes into play again. Since the things you'll want to pick up are small and found next to dead bodies (which are large), they're often hard to spot.

This means - that's right kids - a lot of camera maneuvering! Usually, you'll have to pan up overhead your men to get a good look on the ground; since the pointer likes to pick up dead bodies, precision is necessary. This really shouldn't be the case, since dead bodies are useless. Unfortunately, they're there, and that means you gotta look around them, or somtimes even move them out of the way. In fact, you have to move anything on top of a gun out of the way to pick it up, including yourself.

We wish they would've streamlined picking up items a bit more, since it's such an integral part in the game. In fact, you can't even pick up multiple items at once, which means a lot of "click - wait - click" action. Adding all this up leads to a slowed game pace, which is a bit irritating.

Midnight firefight

Surveying the carnage