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Control a gang of weapon laden troopers in this game of strategy and extreme violence.

Nothing beats the clean, crisp ozone smell of a discharging laser or the bemused smile on a security droid's metallic lips as you pound it with a dead branch just before it vapohses three foot of your intestinal tract. Welcome to the future, and war. Large armies are a thing of the past when a single trouper carries enough fire power to level cities. When these guys clash, the fireworks fly. As the leader of a trigger-happy squad it is your task to arm and equip the troops.

Using the credits allocated for the mission, you buy a mixture of armour and weaponry. Up to four points of armour can be added each trooper but doing so will inevitably leave vou short of cash. A range of weaponry is available, everything from the humble pistol to the all singing all dancing laser assault cannon (mega death blaster to its friends) plus the ever-popular grenade and a smattering of ammunition. Once armed (and extremely dangerous), you move to an overview of the war zone. Here you place your troops in the drop zones. Once down the action begins. Each trooper has a set number of action points.

These vary from soldier to soldier depending upon the strength of the character, equipment carried and type of being. Many other characteristics, such as stamina and morale, also vary with the exception of droids who maintain a cheerful outlook upon life no matter what the odds. Movement and other actions such as changing or loading weapons, combat and generally interacting with the environment all cost action points.

To select a squaddie you place the cursor over the character and hit the fire button. Once selected, you can run through the options for that. character. For movement, a compass arrangement in the top right of the screen shows the direction the character is facing and the direction he is about to move in. To examine the general surroundings, a map of the battle zone can be accessed which shows the location of your and any sighted enemy troops.

If an enemy trooper is sighted during the opposition's turn you have a chance at reaction fire if the sighting character has enough action points left over from the previous round. When in combat, the screen changes to show all solid objects with troops represented as coloured circles.

To unload your weapon at an enemy you move the cross hair cursor over the target and choose your mode of fire. Three type of tire are possible if your weapon can handle it. Snap and aim cost a different number of action points but aim is more reliable and automatic fire requires you to mark the spread of your bullets with the cursor. One nice touch are the grenades which can be set on timers and hidden in such innocuous objects as plant pots. This one or two player strategy combat with five scenarios ensures some serious thought and some serious blasting.