Blow stuff up, in style.

Since Armed & Dangerous first appeared on the radar it hasn't promised much beyond quirky characters, wacky weapons and the opportunity to blow through lots of ammo, but that's enough incentive for most of us to stay up late basking in the warming glow of the TV.

There's very little warming up to the story in the beginning of the game. From the get-go you're given a brief text screen describing a powerful ancient artifact and the next thing you know there are three guys (actually a guy, a mole and a robot) trying to convince a fourth guy (who's blind) to help them recover said artifact before the ruler of their techno-fantasy kingdom gets hold of it and does some bad things.

As an introduction, all of it works perfectly. It's nice to jump into a story that's already running. It feels more real. These characters clearly have a history together and each has a well-formed personality. I don't need all of the details handed to me on a platter at the very beginning in the form of soliloquies and introductions. It's also a nice change of pace to meet the main characters after they've lived a little, instead of the usual confused teenager-with-the-huge-but-as-yet-uncovered destiny or the common-man-thrown-into-uncommon circumstances bits. In A&D; the story unfolds before us and instead of being spoon-fed every character's place in it we have to catch up and figure out what's going on as we go. The story moves fast, so fast it's already moving when the game starts, and there is no narration to set the stage. The characters and settings tell us everything we need to know by their interaction with one another. You just have to pay attention.

The whole game smacks of the British Empire vs. Everyone Else scenario. Your characters are referred to as rebels and have varying degrees of English and Scottish accents. They hang out in and buy their weapons from the pubs scattered across the region. The only thing missing is the proprietor yelling, "If it's not Scottish it's crap!"

The animated cut scenes are where you'll get to know the characters. The scenes range from enjoyable and funny to being pretty hard on the eyes. The first one, for example, looks fine until the camera changes angles and suddenly the whole thing is a blurry mess. I don't remember seeing such variable quality within an animated scene; usually they look good or they don't. Even so, the story is well-written and enjoyable to watch. Humor is a subjective animal, though, and not everyone will be equally entertained by the main characters' antics and bickering.

If that's the case, you'll still have the action to enjoy and it's hard to imagine not getting a kick out of the gameplay. Calling it frantic would be an understatement. Shots are coming from every direction all the time and your best bet is to move as fast as possible and blow up as much as you can on your way. Most of the buildings are destructible and the enemy has a silly habit of leaving hefty powder kegs laying around. It's a little odd that the buildings are otherwise non-interactive. They blow up, sure, but you can't jump on or enter them. Each level has an objective, but most boil down to taking out everything on the horizon. The bad news is there's not much strategy involved. As you tear through the establishment's troops and installations, you're a lot better off if you knock out the alarms that bring even more troops. Other than that you just shoot anything that moves. The good news is that compared to a lot of shooting games released lately, it's nice to have very little else on your mind beyond blowing up as much of the world around you as you can. Most of the levels are pretty hard (there are difficulty settings to choose from) and you'll find yourself being careful and deliberate while doling out destruction. It's not exactly deep strategy, but it's not mindless, either.

A&D; also offers enough interesting weapons to make the destruction more fun than usual. It's clear some creativity went into them. Instead of just making guns that are bigger, louder or throw lightning bolts, these babies push the envelope of reality. The Topsy Turvy Bomb is one of your first acquisitions. It looks like a giant corkscrew with handles. To use it you screw it into the ground and hang on as the whole world flips upside down for a few seconds. When you flip back your enemies will drop like stones, and the effect never got old with me. The Land Shark Gun and World's Smallest Black Hole are two other favorites. The weapons are very representative of the humor found in Armed & Dangerous and should serve as a nice litmus test for those wondering whether or not they'll enjoy the game.

The missions are mostly just run and gun, with more of the same around almost every corner. But there are a few twists as you go - like jetpacks and huge cannons. You'll also have to rescue peasants or defend locations from attack. Defending a wall with a turret, for example, pits you against waves of enemies and if you let too many over the wall you've lost. It wasn't hard to mow down the bad guys, but it was fun and the view was spectacular.

There are tokens to collect, but most of them are pretty easy to find so they don't become an obsessive part of the game. The focus stays on destruction most of the time and that, mixed with humor, keeps the whole experience pretty fresh all the way through.

Your other characters are around most of the time and can be given very general instructions, like staying by your side or clearing out an area. Most of the time I just let them do their thing. There were a few times they got in my way, but they usually died early in the level and weren't much of a factor either way.

The game auto-saves after each level but doesn't allow you to save any time you like. It does, however, let you use the pub (there's one in almost every level) to save as many times as you want. If you want to use it you have to keep running back to it and then running all the way back to where you were, but it's worth it. It's too bad it's so inconvenient to save in mid-level but at least it's possible.

Armed & Dangerous on the PC plays the same as the Xbox version. The graphics are sharper if you have the ability to run it at high resolutions and crank the options all the way up

The bar has been raised inordinately high for an adventure game that involves mostly shooting and has no multiplayer options. It has to have an interesting story, great graphics and be a lot fun to play through by yourself. Armed & Dangerous hits all those notes, with only a few disappointments in graphics and options. Whether you enjoy the story and characters is very subjective and will probably drive how much time you're willing to put into the game. For most with a sense of humor and a thirst for destruction, A&D; is well worth the time. It's a shame it has to end.