Black Hawk Down (PC, MA15+)

By PETER ELEY

(Herald rating: * * * * )

Long before the invasion of Iraq was a twinkle in George W. Bush's eye, the US undertook another mission on behalf of freedom-loving people - the incursion by special forces into Somalia in 1992.

The movie Black Hawk Down provided a horrific snapshot of the ill-fated adventure, intended to remove a warlord who was running the capital, Mogadishu.

It went horribly wrong as the city turned against them, and they sustained heavy casualties, although still managing to outkill the Somalis by about 1000 to one in the process.

The game of the film puts you in the shoes of a Delta Force

soldier charged with undertaking a series of missions in Somalia.

The movie captured the terror and confusion of fighting in a territory where the enemy doesn't wear a uniform and death lurks on every street corner.

Much of the game is along those lines. While it lacks real sophistication as a war game, Black Hawk Down is incredibly exciting. Make no mistake, this is a violent game. You will have shot thousands of Somalis by the end, and the morality of basing entertainment around such events is thought-provoking, to say the least.

If you're okay with that, Black Hawk Down is a good game in single player and multiplayer mode. Its developers are Novalogic, who made the Comanche combat helicopter series, so it seems obvious they would make a game about Black Hawk combat helicopters.

But for much of the game, you will have to leave the relative safety of these heavily armoured killing machines and undertake missions on foot, or sitting exposed as the machinegunner on top of a Humvee.

The game clips along right from the start of the first mission, where you are shot up by a gang of Somali bandits driving pickup trucks fitted with some serious weaponry.

You'll be lucky if you survive this onslaught at first as they are no training missions and the intensity of the fighting will take you by surprise.

It is full-on shoot-'em-up action, much like a swept-up version of those old arcade games where you had a split second to decide if your target was a hijacker or victim.

* Email Peter Eley