Previous Next

I shuffled casually through the derelict subway train, scattered glass underfoot, the foul smell of death hanging heavy in the air. Ahead the sound of a leg being dragged was accompanied by a desperate rattle of lungs too used to inhaling matter other than oxygen.

I cornered the filth five minutes later, sweat rolling down a scar-crossed face, slumped into a torn, soiled seat. I smelt fear in the air as I pulled out my Uzi and pressed the barrel against his forehead. A twitch of a finger later and what passed for brains decorated the sides of the carriage. Another lackey of crime baron Emilio Bocker wasted but there was still more than enough gun fodder to get before I got to the big boss himself.

The latest CodeMasters release casts you as an avenging streetfighter out to rid the crumbling ruins of Los Angeles of Mr Big, Emilio Bocker. You are a lean, mean fighting machine, a one-person hit squad. In fact, you are four completely different people - say Xena, Robert Redford lookalike Ace, large tree trunk lookalike Stak and slender but deadly Zara. Talk about schizophrenia. Each of the four characters has four potential weapons, which are activated automatically and sequentially on collection of a weapons icon.

You could be handling a pop gun one minute and a flame thrower, burst gun or pulse sword the next. If you are really lucky you could equip yourself with super jet boots which give you the ability to leap tall buildings without having to wear tights.

The objective on each level, as you get closer and closer to encounter Mr. Big, is to collect a teleport token and make your way to the telephone box marked 'Teleport here - have your passports ready. Collecting the weapon icons endows you with progressively better weapons, which vou will can fly and that the other half do not look remotely humanoid.

The graphics are reasonably good, being multi-coloured for once, but you are treated to redrawn screens rather than any manner of scrolling and, although this is a fun blast, it is scarcely state-of-the-art.

A fair measure of entertainment, enough playability and levels to keep you at it, so check Hit Squad and go gunning for someone who really deserves a bullet in the forehead.