Well, this initially seems quite a bit like Halo. Right trigger shoots one of the two weapons you're allowed to carry, while the left trigger signals a melee attack with a big sword type thing whose power never runs out (and you always happen to be carrying despite the government's much-publicised recent knife amnesty). WarPath has you running about sci-fi bases, shooting big, butch space marines who don't like to show off their faces. But that, unfortunately for WarPath, is pretty much all it has in common with Xbox super-series Halo.

Yet WarPath is faster than Halo. You run about the levels at Quake III speeds, and it makes Halo seem a little slow in comparison. That's the only time we can say something about WarPath is better than Halo, just for the record. You can skip the rest and go straight to the score now, if you like. In fact, the Halo comparisons floating around turn out to be very wrong indeed. WarPath’s weapons are more like your traditional mixture of shotguns and grenade launchers, it plays at a faster pace and requires much more accurate weapon aiming to really get anywhere.

In fact, WarPath takes a hell of a lot of playing to get good at. Yes, if you're a wimp and stick it on easy you can take out enemies because you've made them so stupid they just stand still. On the harder settings, when enemies start to get nastier and more portable, getting an accurate shot lined up is much harder than it ever was in Halo.

You have a stupidly powerful jump, which gives you room for skilful play if you're inclined to learn, with the small, enclosed maps really letting you leap, float and twist your way around them in a very satisfying manner.

Another thing WarPath has going for it is its weapon upgrade system. Ripping the idea out of maker Digital Extremes’ previous game, Pariah, each weapon can be enhanced twice, improving things like its range or hit rate as you progress.

Take the Javelin. It's WarPath's version of the sniper rifle. You can upgrade it one level to give it heat signature recognition abilities, or take it higher still to increase the number of shots you can get off before a reload. Each of the game's six weapons feature a similar upgrade path, making the number of weapon variations in the game - if our GCSE maths is still working properly - something in the region of 18. Which isn't bad.

Maker Digital Extremes is also using the same health recharging gimmick it invented for Pariah too. At any point you can press Black to bring out your little health pump. Holding down the trigger has two effects - it makes a cool powering-up whining, phaser-on-overload sci-fi noise that we never tire of hearing, which, after about five seconds, injects a new section of health back on to your energy bar.

It's a cool twist, one that - like Halo's shield system - encourages tactical play, with balls-out attacking moments immediately countered by the need for you to run away and lick your wounds in peace for a few moments, before leaping back into the fight again. Not that WarPath is really a tactical game for all you stealth players. The weapons are skewed to match the enclosed levels, with the emphasis here firmly on unloading weapons at close range into the faces of the bots. Yes there's room for accuracy, but you'll do far better if you run around mindlessly with the sword out.

You're only allowed to take two proper weapons into battle. There are no bonus guns lying about the place for you to pick up, just ammo packs to refill your existing choices and upgrade modules to level-up your weapon powers. To begin with you're only allowed to pick the default two for your chosen character class, with a further four gun types eventually unlocking themselves as your reward for playing through the missions.

In this single player mode you get a ludicrous story about the three alien races, presented very poorly via cheapo text and still image screens. It lets you know you're in a star system with three distinct races in it. This leads you to the Clan Select screen, where you decide if you want to be an Ohm, a Coalition or Kovos fighter. Each species starts with a different pair of weapons.

The Coalition troops are literally a bunch of Master Chiefs; mysterious soldiers wearing shiny helmets so you can't see their faces. The only difference between these guys and the Ohm and Kovos troops is the starting weapons. Whoever you pick it's then off into the game, which is presented in an Unreal Tournament/Quake III style series of deathmatches and team events that span 15 Conflict Zones. By Conflict Zones they mean levels. There's no progressive story, just you getting chucked into various Hell holes and fighting for your life.

Some of these single player matches are regular deathmatches, while some are the team- based regulars like capture the flag, team deathmatch and one they call Frontline Assault - a battle to take possession of the enemy team's territory. A sort of ‘king of the hill' variant, if you will. Problem is, you always end up playing capture the flag with a bunch of Xbox-controlled goons.

The artificial intelligence is a bit of a mess, really. Often, enemies you're supposed to be at war with ignore you, run past you and don't respond or react when you're firing bullets into their backs. Perhaps it's a clever trick to get you to think you're on their team and to lure you into a cunning trap! But no, they're just slightly dim. Enemies run along the same attack lines each time, stuck to their set routines and not really paying enough attention. It's funny to watch, but we'd rather play a game we can laugh with, not at.

WarPath is meant to be played as a multiplayer game against proper humans who know what they're doing and want to use the levels and weapons properly. You're allowed to practise all of the Xbox Live deathmatches and other games on your own, offline and with bots - bots you can helpfully set to any one of five difficulty settings - and get going.

Again though, the brains of your bots lets you down. When playing alongside an Xbox-controlled team, you always feel like they're waiting for you. In capture the flag, they never capture the flag, they wait for you. While this is handy and gives you something to do, it means you can never play as the one who stays back in your base guarding your own territory - you always have to be the go-getter and the flag-getter, as the Al players simply aren't intelligent enough to do it themselves. The default match time is 15 minutes, which seems an age when you're running around some bots trying to work out where your flag is. It's nice to have the option to play these games offline on your own, but that's just not what they're designed for. So yes, there's all this single player stuff, but it's pretty flimsy and clearly only meant to be treated as training for online slaughter.

Thankfully, all this works on Xbox Live and System Link so you're free to muck around and create your own fun. Things liven up even more when you progress to a map with vehicles in, with the sheer feeling of relief at having something else to do making the game suddenly seem vastly more interesting than it actually is. Although the claustrophobic nature of the maps means you're often a sitting duck when you get into a vehicle.

The main problem is the way WarPath gets quite jerky online, and off when anything vaguely pyrotechnical happens. Start setting off your weapons when several people are running around and you're treated to awkward pauses as the game struggles to catch up with what's happening.

The maps all look the same too. Not just a bit the same, but every one seems to be a slight variation on the last. And even the last one was only a slight variation of something from Halo or Quake III. Dark grey corridors lit with green lights, light grey sides, metal ramps, snowy exteriors - it's like walking around in a constant state of déja vu.

And that's about your lot. WarPath is basic and fairly competent, but it's also amazingly boring. You run through the same tired, old grey space bases we've seen a thousand times before, blast rockets, jump, get killed and start all over again. It pains us to say it, but there’s practically nothing innovative or exciting about it, save for the interesting weapon upgrading system. And that's been so obviously nicked from Pariah‘anyway.

In fact, WarPath is only really worth buying if you're a dedicated Xbox Live deathmatch player, and even then you might be disappointed at the below-par, below-Halo 2 action on offer. There's less to do, fewer maps and game types, plus it's not like the servers are going to be packed with people to play against. Still, if you want some new maps to play around and can convince a few of your friends to get it at the same time, it'll do you for a while. Running around corridors shooting rockets at people is always going to be a bit of fun, even if the corridors are all starting to blur into one big, dull, grey mess.

1. Fast-paced action means you're never left stuck out in the middle of noewhere with no-one to shoot at - it's all there in your face!
2. The levels are all small and tight, which really suits the aggressive style of play. It's non-stop unloading into faces.

1. There are no split-screen multiplayer options, so if you've not got Xbox Live you're stuck playing deathmatches against bots.
2. The bots aren't the cleverest - it's miserable playing capture the flag with a team of Xbox-controlled simpletons who mess up constantly.
3. You almost certainly already have Halo 2, which does all of WarPath's tricks and online match modes better.

Not bad, it works and everything, but there's nothing to get excited about. A generic shooter at best.