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Picture, if you will, a bicycle. It has the best Shinano parts and the coolest paint job, but the frame is from a Victorian penny-farthing and the handlebars are made from barbed wire and the seat coated with sandpaper. That's what playing Headhunter: Redemption feels like. It ticks along, has high-quality components, but is uncomfortable to play and seems incredibly old-fashioned.

What you'll be paying £40 to ride here is a sequel to the first Headhunter title that appeared about three years ago but, in the intervening time, a lot has changed. For the lead character, Jack Wade, the passing of time has seen him become a hardcore headhunter - that's a cop for hire, willing to take on missions with a high probability of death. Although somehow, of course, he always scrapes through.

In the first game, headhunting duties involved working the beat in a futuristic city, using a motorbike to get from mission to mission, but for Redemption the biking has been dropped (perhaps not such a bad thing... cough... Driv3r... cough), leaving this as a straight-up stealth and action game. The void left by the two-wheeled vehicles has been filled with a new sidekick, an annoying lady headhunter-in-training called Leeza. You play as her for much of the first half of the game, and it doesn't help that she spouts horrid LA-speak. Like, whatever...

So, time has passed - back here in the real world, we've seen the stealth/action genre evolve with recent wonders such as Splinter Cell, Hitman and Second Sight. Redemption, however, hasn't moved anywhere - find hidden keys to open doors, crack into high-tech security systems controlled by Rubik's Cube-like puzzles. True, the graphics are slick and the music verging on the great, but the overall flavour is bland.

Redemption could've perhaps redeemed itself a little if it handled well, but the gameplay is ruined by erratic shooting and camera controls - made worse by the game's one interesting element: a slowly swaying firing sight that gets closer to a bull's eye on the target the longer you hold on to the lock button. Which sounds like a great idea, but multiple enemies and the cramped spaces in which some shootouts take place mean the targeting slows things down. It ends up being more of a hindrance than help.

Shame. Redemption had so much promise, but it's trapped behind a glass wall of frustration and uninspiring design. We've all moved on. If you really want a Headhunter fix, you'd be better off hunting down the original for a replay than wasting your time with its dim-witted brother of a sequel.

Graphics 80%
Nice and smooth, but uninspired.

Sound 90%
Wonderfully done orchestral stuff.

Gameplay 50%
Frustrating, dull, and old-fashioned.

Lifespan 40%
It feels like too much of a slog.

Verdict 60%
Despite its glorious looks and stunning music, Redemption's creaky old gameplay means this is a game out of place in 2004.