Blacklight: Tango Down review

THE MARKET in futuristic first- person shooters in 2010 was supposed to have been sewn up the moment Halo: Reach was announced for release in the next few months.

THE MARKET in futuristic first- person shooters in 2010 was supposed to have been sewn up the moment Halo: Reach was announced for release in the next few months.

But rather than putting down their keyboards and slowly backing towards the door, Zombie Studios have released downloadable actionfest Blacklight: Tango Down (BTD) on XBox 360, PC and Playstation 3 and said 'come on then!'.

BTD takes place 25 years into the future. The player takes control of an elite covert ops team that is sent after missing American Colonel Klein and his personal BlackLight team, bu t you'll only find that out if you scour the menus, with cut scenes a notable casualty of the game's budget status.

OK, so Halo: Reach probably wasn't the target they had in mind, but boasts about the game's ability to rival any full-priced alternatives have attracted the attention (and, in some cases, scorn) of the watching world.

The thing is, those claims actually stand up pretty well.

Players are equipped with the usual weapon-types that do the usual things, albeit with a weapon customization system which allows for a vast number of different configurations.

The game allows four-player co-op, 12 online multi-player maps, seven game types and playability and graphics which would not look out of place in a full-price release.

It also boasts the innovative Hyper-Reality Visor, which gives players the ability to spot all enemies on the map for a few seconds and plan strategy accordingly.

It means the common gripe of enemy spawn camping can be addressed and tackled, rather than tolerated, which is very welcome as the single spawn points mean it will probably happen sooner rather than later.

The game's claims of being a cross between Bladerunner and Call of Duty are probably accurate if you add the word budget in front of each title, but BTD is a budget title (around 10 on each format), and it deserves credit for how much bang it delivers for your buck.

At this year's E3 convention, Blacklight: Tango Down received numerous accolades including a best shooter nomination from IGN.com, best online multiplayer nomination from Machinima.com and BitMob's Jasmine Rae included the game in her top ten games of E3.

The video game is also an introduction to the Blacklight franchise, with a major motion picture from 20th Century Fox, a comic book and novel currently in the pipeline.

But all that's for the future.

For now, the game is fast, frenetic, and worth a tenner of anybody's money.

8/10