What's your favourite game? Are you a World of Warcraft devotee? Maybe a CounterStrike: Source aficionado? A Quake purist? Personally my favourite game series of all time is Unreal Tournament. First the original, followed by the magnificence of its rather sexy sequels. Epic and Digital Extremes were responsible for the first few games, which of course rather endeared my heart towards both developers. Then Digital Extremes released their own game, WarPath, which I obviously decided to try out, being created by one of my favourite developers.

So off we trot into a world of first person shootery, which judging by trailers and screenshots seems to be a pretty hardcore competitor to Unreal Tournament. But imagine the experience of jumping into a gleaming Ferrari, only to find that three of the tyres are missing, the steering wheel doesn't work and the engine is nowhere to be found. That is what happens when you jump into WarPath expecting Unreal Tournament.

The basic premise is as you'd expect, with a handful of standard game modes such as Capture the Flag, Deathmatch, and Assault. There is a single player mode to work your way through, or you can hop straight into online play if you like. That of course raises the question of whether the game mechanics are professional and unique enough to draw your attention away from the big online shooters at the moment. Let's have a look-see, shall we?

First up, the weapons. They are absolutely rubbish, and much as I would love to come up with some helpfully constructive criticism, all I can do is reel in shock of the utter inadequacy. Sure, there are various types of weapons, such as rifles, rocket launchers, and plasma thingummies, but there is simply no skill required in their execution. Accuracy is defiled with a dirty great crosshair, aiming is thus rendered redundant and the only vague attempt at skill is hammering down the attack key whilst shoving your crosshair somewhere near the general direction of your foe. Maybe Digital Extremes learned nothing from their past forays, but to equip us with such unsatisfying tools of destruction is simply unforgivable. The concept behind the weapons is actually quite cool; you gradually upgrade them as you progress through the game, which unlocks more powerful abilities on each weapon. But even so, they still fail to suffice as enjoyable or reliable slaughtering methods. Fragging becomes a chore, rather than a delight, which utterly defeats the whole point of any shooter.

So was that a bit negative for you? Well fasten your seatbelt Dorothy, because Kansas has only just started twirling! Let's have a little discussion about the AI. Of course, WarPath is designed primarily as a multiplayer game, but since it also claims a single player campaign, I am obliged to render judgement on the artificial intelligence that plays as your foes and friends throughout this experience. Imagine you are in a duel to the death. You have to choose some hardcore companions to battle by your side. Do you pick the toughest, hardest, most experienced soldiers you can find? Or do you pick some blind, one-legged, mentally challenged rejects from the Girl Guides? Well of course the answer should be obvious. To everyone except Digital Extremes that is, because to say that the AI players in WarPath ever bear even the vaguest semblance to their human counterparts is an understatement of grotesque proportions.

Quite simply, they just completely fail to react logically to any situation. If they are guarding the flag for instance, they will point in a random direction and leave other directions completely unguarded. Or even more hilariously, they will camp one of the exit corridors, but facing entirely the wrong way. When in deathmatch mode, they have a tendency to group together and for some reason their team bonding takes a higher priority than attacking you. So they frequently trundle straight past you without so much as blowing a kiss in your direction, despite taking your bullets up their artificial backside. The same happens when they have other objectives in other game modes - they'll just ignore you completely.

Having started the game on the second out of four difficulty modes, I initially presumed that the spasticated AI and the incredibly easy victories were owing to the low difficulty. But having ramped the difficulty right up to maximum, I was saddened to find that the AI still flapped about like demented headless chickens, completely oblivious of the fact that they were supposed to present some sort of challenge. I never lost a single map, right up to the completion of the game, with the difficulty on max. Now that is not a good sign for the lifespan of single player.

If you have to draw something positive out of WarPath, I suppose you could nod in the direction of its campaign map. Rather like a board game, each space represents a different map and you slowly have to deplete all your opponents' maps by beating them on it. The slight twist is that there are three warring factions, so you have to be mindful of what both enemy factions are doing. Then again, the whole board game effect is ruined by the fact that you can only leave the game when it is your turn and the maps start automatically within seconds when it is not your turn.

Quite simply, WarPath is a mess. With terrible gameplay, bland graphics, forgettable sound, a whole host of technical issues, and a lifespan shorter than the manhood of a poorly equipped midget, there is little to savour from this game. Some may find a bit of life in the online mode, but with very few players online as I write and with such inferior gameplay to most other shooters around, there really is no saving grace for WarPath. This game is less WarPath, more WarPathetic.

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