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This is Blowout - a tense third person shooter that nevertheless doesn't quite live up to the reviews on the box.

When you first enter Blowout, you are placed inside the USS Honor Guard - a ship that has been infested by aliens due to a human bioengineering experiment gone wrong. The only reason I know that, however, is because I read the manual. In the actual game, it doesn't give you any sign of plot or explanation of the alien slaughter. In fact, there isn't much plot throughout the whole game. Cane is simply placed in level after level and told to blow stuff up, and get to the exit.

The action, however, is pretty tense. There are monsters swarming all over each level, and you have to blow through them to get to the exit. Throughout the game, you obtain a variety of weapons to accomplish this, including flamethrowers, machine guns, and needle guns. Ammo for these is located in various places around levels, and found by blowing up crates and barrels. I found that the better weapons I got, the more fun the game was. In the beginning, the weak and boring weapons aren't entertaining - but rocket launchers sure are fun!

Each level in Blowout is basically the same. It consists of Cane, the main character, navigating around the inside of the USS Honor Guard in maze-like corridors, trying to find key cards to unlock doors and eventually get to the exit of the level. There are ten levels in total to play.

"What!?!" You exclaim. "WHAT!?!?! Only ten levels?" Don't worry, its not so bad. You'll only need about three. Although the first couple levels are fun, going through the same ship, blowing up the same fourteen monsters, and looking at the same scenery for ten levels gets incredibly monotonous. From level to level, all that changes are different corridor shapes, and maybe some new weapons or monsters. After the third, you'll be very tired of the same old thing over and over again.

The graphics and sound, however, are amazing. Blowing up explosives produces a wonderful orange blast that looks very realistic. Monsters and bullets are rendered in 3D (even though it is a 2D viewpoint) and look very nice when moving around and in combat. And when burning up from the rocket I just launched at them.

Controls while in combat could use a bit of work. The system used does not allow the player to move in one direction and fire in another. This means that if you want to back up and shoot something, you have to run away as fast as you can (while it's clawing or shooting at you), quickly turn around, and then fire at it. Although this makes the control system easy to use, it does not provide the functionality that is expected from a game of this type.

In addition, combat can get a bit buggy. Some monsters AI is off, and instead of lunging at you, they jump clean over you. I guess I shouldn't complain - I'd rather have a monster play leap-frog with me than land on top of me. When some monsters shoot at you, there isn't any room in the tight corridors to dodge. D'oh - instant hit. A few more capabilities (such as dodging) in the combat system would make the game a lot more entertaining and less boring.

Conspicuously absent in Blowout is multiplayer support. Ah well. I'd have liked to blow apart my buddies 2-player, but I suppose I can do without. There is a nice cheat console built in, in which you can enter cheat codes to make the game easier. I haven't tried this out yet, but it looks pretty cool!

In short, Blowout isn't the best way to spend your Christmas money. It has good graphics and some nice gameplay, but the monotony of its levels will eventually overwhelm you. I myself am a fan of third person action games, and generally love them, but Blowout just didn't cut the cake. With a little added functionality and better levels it might be good, but for now I'll pass it up for other games.