The war on terror boils down to a game of hide and seek

Of all the names a cold-blooded terrorist might use against those trying to take him down, calling someone a "wussy" like it's a scrap in the school playground probably isn't in the book of top 100 insults. There are plenty of words that would be more appropriate, most of them with four letters in. But getting branded a wussy is something that'll happen to you a lot in Winback 2, with your anti-terrorist team members spending 90 per cent of their time hiding behind cover. Well, it's the only sensible alternative to getting shot to bits.

You see, there's only one tactic that works in Winback 2, and that's propping yourself up against awall or a solid object and popping up when there's a break in enemy fire to unload a few shots yourself. Save for running out into the open guns blazing and dying an inglorious death, it's the only tactic available in Winback 2. This is a one-trick pony of a game that gives all it's got to offer in the first level, but does it well enough and gets the difficulty balance just right that by the time it's all over you'll at least feel like you've earned the right to see the end cut-scene.

Any given shootout goes something like this: you enter a small room, a handful of enemies scramble to various cover points, and you have a few seconds to get behind cover yourself before they open fire. While in cover you can move the crosshair to target an enemy before stepping out to fire, which is crucial to your survival. Emerge too soon while an enemy is still firing and any bullets that hit you actually knock you even further into the open, leaving you more vulnerable to any fire from other enemies.

It's a game that demands perfect timing and accuracy. Timing the moment to open fire when enemies are either reloading or moving to another cover point, and being accurate enough to take them down in the small window of opportunity. Fortunately, you can target individual body parts such as the head, arms, legs or torso, with one headshot being all it takes for an instant kill and two shots for anywhere else on the body. Hitting his right arm causes an enemy to drop his weapon, while shooting his left arm removes his grenade-throwing ability. If you really want to earn the best score at the end of a mission, a second shot that hits either the arms or the legs of an enemy results in him dropping to his knees and putting his hands on his head, which signifies an arrest.

Although this is pretty much the entire game in a nutshell, Winback 2 tries to mix things up with a so-called 'Route' system, involving two out of the three playable characters in any one mission. At the start of every level you're given a split-screen view of two operatives who begin the mission in the same building but at different spots. You're then handed control of one character and must complete your objectives as normal until the mission resets and you play through it again from the other character's perspective.

The idea is that the first character spends most of his time either clearing out enemies so the other has a relatively safe passage, or unlocking doors and deactivating security lasers located in his team-mate's route. And to a degree it works rather well, with many of the 'Assist' and 'Unlock' objectives pitting you against a pretty severe clock. There's also the occasional neat moment when you can spot the first character in action while you're playing as the second.

That said, the entire concept isn't half as clever or original as developer Cavia seems to think, and for the most part it actually feels underdeveloped. The actual objectives you complete to help your partner are no more imaginative than finding a switch or a computer panel to unlock a door; you can go as far back as the original Doom to get an idea of how many times this kind of puzzle has been done to death. It doesn't help that there's no discernible difference between any of the three characters in terms of their weapons, abilities or even mission objectives - even the second character's route involves finding yet more switches and control panels to operate. Yawn.

You can't help feeling that the game would have been much better and far more interesting if you'd had to use two characters strategically by switching control between the pair more often. Their unique abilities could have been called upon to solve specific puzzles in real-time and work in tandem, instead of playing through a big lump of the game at a time before replaying it with the second character.

At least the first character's success does have a bearing on the second character's progress, beyond being able to enter previously locked doors. Points are awarded based on how quickly you complete the time-sensitive objectives, collect certain items and avoid getting riddled with bullets, which are then carried over to the second character in the form of health. On anything but the easiest difficulty setting, it's vital that you lay enough good groundwork or it's virtually impossible for the second character to get anywhere.

Despite the one-note gameplay, lousy graphics and criminal lack of Xbox Live multiplayer (there are only four split-screen games for up to four players), Winback 2 somehow manages to remain pretty compulsive. There's something very satisfying about popping out from cover to cap a few terrorists in the head then ducking back again before the others can return fire. As simplistic as shooting gallery games like Time Crisis, but just as enjoyable.

1. There's little more to the game than stepping out from cover to shoot a succession of identikit enemies, but it's still good fun.
2. It's certainly difficult, with very little ammo and health available and perfect timing required whenever you open fire.
3. The 'Route' system works well, offering challenging time-sensitive objectives and health being carried over to the second character.

1. On the other hand, it hasn't been exploited to its full potential. Switching between characters in real-time would have worked better.
2. Xbox is capable of much better graphics than this, and the game looks like a five-year-old PlayStation 2 title.

An old-fashioned shooter in both looks and gameplay, but done with enough conviction that you can be forgiving.