Games are all about gameplay - or rather, they should be. Removing gameplay from the equation leaves only graphics, sound and the ability to last a long time, which cannot make an extremely enjoyable game - they do help though! To remind us that gameplay is the most important of a game's qualities, consider Nintendo's Wii with its simple games that lack all the graphical razzmatazz of games like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 but are still extremely popular. This main focus on gameplay, a back to basics approach, has been adopted by City Interactive for Code of Honor: The French Foreign Legion, a straightforward yet highly enjoyable first person shooter.

Going back to basics is a good way to explain the very simple story; there are no complex plot twists, you simply go where you're told and do you job, and that's all there is to it. That job is to kick the heavily armed African Revolutionary Group into next week so they don't get the chance to attack the likes of Europe and America. Mopping up rebels that wish to attack other countries is nothing that the regular army couldn't handle, so to give the French a reason to send in their special Foreign Legion (a French version of the British Special Forces) and get their boots dirty, the rebel scum have taken over enough radioactive waste transports to make a so-called "dirty bomb." Luckily, the rebels haven't yet manufactured the bomb when the game starts, so to keep you updated on their progress and to prepare you for the next mission, helpful briefing text is given while a level loads - not a very unique feature but an excellent inclusion nonetheless. Now you're up to speed it's time to don your green beret and head out into the African heat - and you really do head out into Africa, as all the levels are apparently recreated from satellite photos (although if that's true, it doesn't say much for Africa as most towns look a bit rusty and abandoned!)

Not being abandoned though is the fun gameplay - by far the best element of this otherwise basic shooter. FPS games are more common than pineapples these days and I have found that the gameplay generally falls into two categories; the run-and-gun shoot everything that moves games like Duke Nukem or the more realistic tactical squad leadership of Operation Flashpoint. Snuggled somewhere between these two approaches lies Code of Honor; its realistic environments, weapons and friendly soldiers share traits with Operation Flashpoint but the more linear, arcade feel to the action tends towards the Nukem style. However, the game isn't just a re-packaged arcade game; you do have to employ some simple tactics to survive, such as leaning around corners or crawling through long grass to hide from suppressing fire - you just don't have enough health to rush in guns blazing all the time and a gung-ho assault will see you riddled with bullets or in very serious need of health. Fortunately, health packs, grenades, armour and ammo can all be collected during a mission - a godsend, as missions can last quite a while. Despite the somewhat long but never boring missions, you'll eventually arrive near your objective, placing a small red arrow on the screen so you know where to go, a really well-thought through design feature that removes the need to meticulously search every room for a small bit of paper or the explosive charges required to end the level.

To get to the end of a level you'll obviously need to shoot the African rebels - and you'll have shot an awful lot by the end of the game! To aid you in this task is a whole host of modern French weaponry, ranging from sniper rifles and RPG launchers to SPAS automatic shotguns and FAMAS assault rifles. Even with this impressive array of weaponry, or if filling your enemies with hot lead isn't your idea of fun, there are also the wonderfully named offensive grenades - who wouldn't find it offensive to have one of those thrown at them?! Joking aside, all grenades are straightforward frag grenades (cans of boom for non-military gamers) and unfortunately they are pretty much standard issue for all gun-toting bad guys too. These standard issue frag grenades are quite small and are often hard to see as they arc through the sky so, handily, a little marker pops up on the screen to inform you of their approximate location - both a godsend to avoid nasty accidents and a great way of conveying the terror of having a live grenade chucked at you.

The graphics are less offensive than the grenades, but not what could be referred to as photorealistic - this is no Call of Duty! Even though the graphics aren't going to blow you away, they are reasonable and suit the game nicely - the weapons are easily identifiable, enemy uniforms are sufficiently detailed and grenades explode in a cloud of fire, throwing up slightly square chunks of dirt and even the odd African rebel if they stand too close. Brick-shaped chunks of dirt aren't the only problem though; fairly frequent clipping errors frustrate and rob some of the element of surprise from the rebel scum - when you can see an enemy's knee or gun sticking out of a tent, it doesn't take a genius to work out where he is! With the advantage of knowing where the enemy is, you are sure to kill them all and complete the mission, ready to stride triumphantly into the next one. Before continuing you would expect to be rewarded with an action-heavy cut scene, but it is not to be; Code of Honor has no cut scenes at all of any kind, not even an introductory one to explain the story, which is a huge oversight.

And speaking of oversights, the audio is sometimes tacked onto an already completed game, making it seem disjointed. Thankfully City Interactive has not fallen into that trap; the African rebels may set up traps for you to stumble into like a grenade sent rolling down stairs, thudding quietly as it bounces off the hardened clay, or bursting out of nearby buildings and shouting disturbingly real African mumbo jumbo in your face. When not shouting in your face, they are trying to put bullets in it - with high quality gunshot sounds - or driving armoured vehicles around, never hard to notice due to the hum of their engines. It's lucky that those tanks, personnel carriers and choppers are easy to spot as they can spray out hot lead like water from a hosepipe, which can be seriously detrimental to your health; you'll have no choice but to blow them up, resulting in a rewarding "blut" sound with pieces of armour flying away from the explosion and smoke rising from the blackened shell.

Just a shell of what it could be is the lacklustre AI of your enemies. Part of the problem is that rebel soldiers can see you from unnaturally far away and even through solid objects at times. Having seen you before you see them, it is often quite difficult to know who is shooting at you. The sound of the gunshots gives you a hint as to where the enemy is and if the enemy fire hits you then a red bar on the edge of your view indicates which direction it came from, similar to Half-Life. When you do find a rebel, they often just stand in front of you with their guns trained but don't fire or manage to miss with a shotgun at point blank range. Thankfully most of these problems appear to die away as the game progresses and never really get in the way of the hugely enjoyable gameplay - watching a guy roll out of a tent shouting and then shooting him in the back before he notices you is always a laugh!

You won't be laughing for long though, as there are only eight missions to the single player game and no multiplayer option. A lack of multiplayer spells doom for many FPS games and with a very short single player things are looking grim in terms of lifespan, but to ensure the game lasts slightly longer than saying "cat in a hat", the missions do ramp up the difficulty quickly. In addition to the normal ways of increasing the difficulty - adding more bad guys and making them more accurate - the game also seems to employ a more subtle yet realistic way of upping the challenge. The computer-controlled enemies appear to get smarter after each mission, not really adapting to your tactics but using cover more effectively and strafing while they fire, making them harder to hit.

There is one last mind-blowing fact about Code of Honor: The French Foreign Legion that I haven't mentioned yet and one I usually avoid when reviewing - the price and the whole value for money concept. However, I feel compelled to mention it this time, as Code of Honor only costs £4.99!! Sure, it's not a long game, the graphics aren't great and there are problems with the AI, but the game is so much fun to play that none of this really matters, especially not for the price tag. Fun gameplay should be the main focus of all games and, even though it has nothing exceptional to make a long lasting dent in the crowded FPS genre, I recommended giving Code of Honor the play through it deserves.

Reviewed by Tom Clark for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).