If I can make it through the rest of my life without having to play another World War II game, I can die a happy man. Alas, I fear such a time may never come, as it's becoming ever more apparent that it's an event in history few developers seem willing to abandon.

The curveball UberSoldier throws at you is the pretence that it's not quite like the other World War II games you've played before, shrugging off any attempt to mimic real events and simply wrapping its setting up in a mishmash of sci-fi nonsense, zombies and experiments gone awry. Realism plays a fairly minimal role and the game wears its arcade styling like war paint, although all this fails to hide just how average a game UberSoldier actually is.

The story here follows the exploits of newly deceased German soldier Karl Stolz who, through the power of some rather dastardly Nazi experiments, is resurrected as part of Hitler's secret UberSoldier programme. In simple terms, he's one tough undead bad ass. In a bizarre and muddled plot twist, Karl is injected with some special science juice that instantly makes him obey the first person who gives him orders, which in this case happens to be a member of the resistance. Seeking to bring an end to the experiments that created him, Karl sets out on a journey of revenge against those responsible for his resurrection (that's gratitude for you) and even takes the time to help the rest of the world by bringing the war to an end. Truly he's the Uberest of all UberSoldiers.

Helping him along is Karl's newly acquired special ability to halt the very fabric of time around him. His Time-Shield, a blue barrier of energy that surrounds Karl when activated, has the rather nifty ability to stop bullets in mid air, allowing you to charge head on those responsible for trying to fill you with lead, and kill them with their own bullets, providing you do this before the energy runs out. Although failing to stop grenades and any soldier brave enough to breach the barrier, it's an ability that proves of great use in trickier situations when facing more resilient groups of Nazis, although it's disappointing that this is Karl's only special ability and one you can easily live without.

The gunplay itself is generally quite fun; avoiding the trappings of realism so lauded over by numerous other historical shooters, the gameplay in UberSoldier is arcade action in its purest form. The AI is never spectacular, but good enough to test your combat skills, flanking and hiding where appropriate, while occasional assistance from AI teammates does lead to a couple of exciting encounters with the enemy, even if they never live long enough to see the battle through to the end. Levels also benefit from being designed solely to exploit the game's rather impressive physics engine, where explosive barrels always seem placed in just the right areas to cause massive, wide scale destruction, sending showers of debris and convulsing bodies through the air.

Mindless and fun it may be, but it's also depressingly repetitive. There's little in the way of variety with puzzles so few and so mind numbingly tedious in their simplicity that they're barely worth noting. There is some hope offered in the form of rewards granted to you for decidedly tricky manoeuvres; for instance, if you can manage to score yourself a succession of three head shots within a few seconds of each other you'll be granted a bonus to your temporal shield energy, while three close range knife kills in much the same manner award you with an increase in health. While such small incentives make the combat that little bit more intense, ultimately it's just as easy to win the game without resorting to these methods than it is with.

Some rather bland and overly bleak levels design that takes you through the usual WWII landmarks of half destroyed towns, secret underground bases, submarine pens and so forth, only adding to how utterly under-whelming the whole experience is, while the absurd voice acting with pretend German accents and thick American voiceovers make what little plot there is so indistinguishable that you'll skip every cut scene just to put an end to the frighteningly awful display of vocal acting.

UberSoldier is not without its merits, it's just that the more remarkable features are the kind that many current first person shooters take for granted, although the budget price tag seems adequate considering that it plays like a budget game. The graphics are functional if never quite breathtaking (though it does make it easily more suitable for lower end PCs) and there's absolutely no multiplayer support, focusing squarely on the single player experience and ultimately there's absolutely no replay value at all. While I could go on about how utterly unoriginal the concept of a shooter based on World War II is, I really can't be bothered. UberSoldier doesn't quite fail because of its overused setting; it fails because it's an undemanding game that lacks of anything remotely challenging or memorable, to make it one that you'll easily forget. Unless you're the type of person who never tires of shooting endless waves of Nazi's, there are better games out there to spend your money on.

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).