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The future is going to be a very bleak place if games designers have anything to do with it. If they're not predicting a post-holocaust breakdown of civilisation, they're warning of a pre-holocaust breakdown of civilisation... not much to choose between them really.

The latest future shock from Gremlin sees the player become an enforcer - a part-bionic member of an elite police squad. The squad's main enemy is a gang of villains known as the Dean On Arrival gang (DOAs) and with the help of a turbo-charged VMAS vehicle, a magnum pistol, a villain-tracking radar and a net gun (for capturing those villains you might have a good reason not to kill) it's your job to go and round these characters up one by one.

But enough of this scene-setting - let's get on with the bloodshed. That's right - bloodshed, for despite the plot's search and capture nature, this game is only about driving fast and blowing your enemies into a pile of twitching offal.

This may not be the first ever game to feature graphic bloodshed, but it's certainly the most vivid. If computer games were rated in the same way that films are, this would certainly receive an 18.

The first section puts the player behind the wheel of the VMAX, simply driving along the road waiting for a crime to be reported on the police radio. The DOAs are also out for a spin, so in true Road Blasters style it's up to you to "put up or shut up" by either blowing their vehicles to oblivion with your roof-mounted cannon or knocking them off the road.

As soon as a message comes through, it's off to the scene of the crime and out of the car for a spot of pedestrianised searching. The crimes usually take place in multi-storey lifts populated by gangs of gun-toting and whip-cracking villains. Follow your wrist-mounted radar to find the suspect and then deal with him according to your orders.

The ultimate objective is to rise from the position of Rookie through the ranks of the enforcers to eventually become top dog. Acting according to orders is all that's needed to achieve this, while going against the grain can see you remain a rookie for quite some time.

What all of this basically amounts to is two games - one a road-racing shoot-'em-up, the other a Rolling Thunder-style scroller. Neither game is particularly stunning in its own right, but coupled together they just about add up to an enjoyable package - but did it really have to be this violent?