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Beyond The Law: The Third Wave Review - PC

Organized terror has gripped our cities. Our Capitol is under siege. you are our nation's last line of defence. Ruthless gangs plot to launch three waves of crime, corruption and chaos intended to shut down our country. The First Wave successfully infiltrated our lines of security through bribery, blackmail and blood-tinged control. The Second Wave, using prostitution, money laundering and drug cartels, was only a subtle prelude of what's to come. The most deadly of all, the Third Wave is the ultimate threat - the annihilation of our Nation's capital.

Gameplay

Beyond The Law: The Third Wave is essentially a team-based strategy. Cutting straight to the point, it's not a terribly good team-based strategy - in fact, only if you're a team-based strategy freak should you pick up this title, as it offers very limited gameplay and extremely limited enjoyment as you struggle through the ongoing clobbering that Magnum Games likes to call missions. The first disappointing part of Beyond The Law that should be explained is the controls. Similar to commandoes, you can view the guards' vision by rolling over themw with the mouse and pressing Shift, however this is probably the only useful tactical control that you have. The controls are so simply designed that you'll think you're back in 1997.

Another disappointing part of Beyond The Law is the way the cameras and guards just spot you and start shooting you at the most ridiculous times. Sometimes you can be what you assume to be clearly behind crates or different objects, and yet the guards still spot you and start shooting at you. The cameras work just the same too, and alert the enemy instantaneously instead of having a brief moment of indecision as to whether you're a threat or not. What's even less understandable is the accuracy of the guards. It's like Counter Strike with Aim Bot, and you're dead within 3 bullets hitting you, even though you're clearly wearing presumably protective armour. The game is unnecessarily hard with respect to this, and makes for a not very enjoyable time as you progress through the missions.

Missions can range from a warehouse to a tanker ship and even an old hotel, but it doesn't make for interesting gameplay. Upon starting a mission you get to choose your squad and have limited funding to use. Of course as you progress successfully in the game you'll find that there's more money to spend. Each character has a different variety of skills and therefore cost different amounts. You get to pick between an all-rounder, a bodyguard, a technical and a sniper. There's nothing stopping you from buying all all-rounders though - however you may find that you need different skilled people throughout the course of one mission. The bodyguard is mainly there to be used when you need a technician to do something quickly and he needs protection as he (continued next page)