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Bring on the clones! With Operation Wolf yet to arrive in the office, Software Horizon have taken a steal on the blood and guts brigade with a cheapo replica.

On loading you're offered a nice, if somewhat gruesome, option to choose which weapon you want to cause the carnage with. I plumped for the trusty Kalashnikov and prepared to widow a few wives, and make some mothers very unhappy.

The screen is littered with soldiers, tanks and helicopters all intent on stopping your progress. Things are further complicated by the jerky nature of the game. Your shots seem to register on the enemy very late, by which time you've wasted valuable ammunition which could have been used on another more pressing target. You also tend to lose sight of the crosshair on the screen amongst all the puffs of dust and explosions.

Veteran is also limited in comparison to Operation Wolf because the screen doesn't actually scroll like the Taito game. Instead, the opposition walk into the scene and out again whilst you remain motionless. This means that the background is static and rather drab.

Sound is reasonable with plenty of stuttering machine guns, a few (weak) explosions, and digitised screams of pain. There's also some digitised speech.

Veteran is by no means a poor game, but it's budget and it does show. The test is undoubtedly tough enough, but I think most would rather wait for the real thing than meet the poor relation.