Don't you just hate it when designs of grandeur and excellence are shattered by their own failings? Crimes of War is a perfect example. The concept it aspires to - and actually partially achieves - is tragically marred by the inferiority of the gameplay it showcases. Okay, so this is just a budget game, retailing at the wallet-soothing price of £9.99, but it still sets some intriguing goals that it never manages to fulfil. Please do accompany me on a verbal exploration of this latest WWII shooter.

Where CoW (heh, just noticed that rather unfortunate acronym, please forgive me if I use it excessively from now on) carves a fresh path is the introduction of emotions; two of them, to be precise. The first is called 'Beserker' and is activated by a number of knife kills within a short space of time. This sets you on some crazy bullet-time-esque spree during which your screen goes a bit fish-eyed and you are invincible for a while. The second emotion is called 'Ubersniper', activated by consecutive headshots, and granting you a very similar experience as Beserker, but you keep your gun instead of using your knife. Unfortunately these emotions are far too forgiving, as I completed a large portion of the game using my knife alone, just keeping the Beserker emotion running. Crowded room of enemies? No problem, just knife them all and that is actually the easiest way to clear the entire room.

Let's stop calling these features 'emotions' though, because in honesty there is nothing emotional about them. What we have is some cool new modes revamping similar ideas from previous games but dressing them in entirely new outfits. And despite my initial reservations, they really do make the game more enjoyable to play. Sure, they're hideously unrealistic, but then the plotline is about undead soldiers, so we'll nudge that idiosyncrasy into the corner for a while.

Now, the problem I mentioned earlier is that while you have these trendy new modes to tinker around with, the gameplay itself makes the experience somewhat less than fascinating. The biggest issue is that you are not fighting Nazis. Sure, they shout stuff about sausages and wear domed helmets over their huge grey overcoats, but you are not shooting humans - you are shooting escapees from the retardation hospital. You see, your enemies have the common sense of a doorknob with intelligence to match. They perform scripted actions to give the illusion of intelligence - like hiding behind a box and spraying fire whilst behind cover - but take them away from their cosy little scripted piece and they flutter around like confused butterflies, heedless of personal injury and without the faintest concept of tactical advancement. When behind cover they pop up and down like sombre cut-outs in a surreal popgun range. When anywhere near you they make the immediate decision that shooting bullets is proving ineffectual and instead try to poke you with the butt of their rifle. Ironically, a jab with the blunt rifle butt actually inflicts more damage than their bullets, which emphasises even more just how broken the gameplay is.

BUT, despite everything, I still enjoyed playing Crimes of War. I never really believed I was in WWII, or that I was fighting humans, but it was still something of an interesting challenge, enhanced by the quirky new modes and the pleasant little RPG system. Yes that's right, you gain XP by using plenty of the 'emotions' and you can upgrade your abilities, such as health, accuracy, and how long your emotion spell lasts for. There is also a weird force-field device that you can activate that soaks up the bullets and then gets the ability to spew them back at the source when upgraded. Not a particularly effectual device though.

Then of course some developers like to pretend they are clever coders by adding special little touches. One of the special touches here is the fact in rainy environments, drops of water land on and roll down the camera lens. Just one problem. There shouldn't be a camera lens! This is a damn first person shooter, not a Hollywood movie - what on earth is that all about? Despite such daft additions the game is visually acceptable, with plenty of decent effects and backgrounds, although the animation is slightly stilted at times thanks to the poor AI.

There are more instances of wasted potential in CoW too. The attention to detail is quite impressive at times; you can blow enemies' helmets off, you can shoot the guns out of their hands and you can even shoot the grenades off their belt. But once again, as soon as you combine this with the overall gameplay, the fun is significantly diminished. I was hoping that the multiplayer modes could offer some decent fun, playing against real humans, but sadly there wasn't a single server up at the time of writing, so I was unable to test out the multiplayer.

CoW just turns itself into a giant arcade shooter. The enemies spawn from all sides and swarm at you from a series of preset locations. You take them down then restock from the abundant supply of ammo and health kits that just happen to litter almost every single room you enter. Shoot, restock, repeat [Sounds like the original Wolfenstein, but not as good! Ed]. Things get ever more predictable as the game utterly fails to deliver any new experience that you haven't seen a thousand times before in other shooters. Okay, I will concede just one scene in the game that made me croak out a startled "Holy Nora" and half fall off my seat, but this is only one notable exception amongst many levels of dreary sameness.

Completing Crimes of War did not give any deep satisfaction, just a slight contentment before I started my next gaming title. Do not expect anything amazing from it, but if you approach it with a light heart and a free schedule, it can idle away some fairly pleasant hours, if not until the cows come home. I can't give CoW a recommendation but I'll give it a wry smile and a gentle pat on the head. You may want to risk that tenner if you have a particularly noticeable hole in your FPS collection that needs filling with something, but like its bovine namesake, CoW is udderly unexceptional.

Reviewed by Adam Shirley for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).