Black shooter blasts onto consoles

By Neil McGreevy
BBC

Get a gun, blow things up, and then blow more things up

The Burnout team swap cars for Kalashnikovs in a first-person blast that is big, dumb and full of guns and probably the last great shooter for the PlayStation 2 generation.

There is a reason the developers describe Black as "gun porn".

In this four-course feast for the explosion-starved, players fill the hobnails of Jack Kellar, part of the world's most brutal strike force, as he hunts down an ex-CIA operative in the Eastern Bloc.

But just as Burnout threw realism to the wind in favour of pulse-pounding carnage, so Black is devoid of any real strategy, puzzles or needlessly complicated plot.

Instead it favours the most lethal cocktail of weapons ever seen in a game and with the emphasis on blowing up anything that moves.

In fact, even if it does not move, you can pretty much reduce it to rubble, as in the Red Faction game.

Flurry of pyrotechnics

Criterion's tank of a game features great visuals, a cinematic score courtesy of the Hollywood Studios Symphony, ear-shattering sound effects that beg to be cranked up to 11.

BLACK Format: Xbox, PlayStation 2 (reviewed) Graphics: 9 Sound: 8 Gameplay: 8 Enduring appeal: 7 Overall: 8

And the action flick influences do not end there. In a marketing boast not seen since late 1980s cinema, Black claims to have the largest body count ever.

Players can cut through brick and bone amid a flurry of pyrotechnics, creating their own path through open-ended environments in a pure adrenaline rush.

Granted, Black does not do anything new, but you are left with the impression the developers aimed for something unashamedly non-groundbreaking, unless you count the in-game cement.

This is visceral, uncomplicated, tough-as-nails shooting that mugs every last inch of grunt from the quivering geriatric PlayStation 2 hardware.

The obvious downside, apart from the occasionally off-putting difficulty level, is a lack of multiplayer modes. But when the solo game is this fever-pitch, with only the next mission briefing allowing you to gasp for breath, who cares?

While at heart mindless, bullet-sprayed fun, Black is also a thumping piece of powerhouse gaming.

There is almost a poetic grace to the flash-bang ultra-violence, making this the kind of shooter that would have John Woo's thumbs bleeding.

A game that makes you crave red meat, any fan of cinematic fireworks will agree that Black is pure gold.

Black is out now for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox