So then soldier, think you're ready for war? Well I hope so, because we're about to roll into the hostile territory of Kazakhstan and, believe me, son, this ain't gonna be no cake walk. Now move out, double time!

There has been a strong range of shooters released on Xbox 360 thus far - Perfect Dark Zero for a very distinctive and almost unique take on the genre, Call of Duty 2 for your gritty and realistic WWII fix, Quake 4 if you like a bit of straightforward sci-fi blasting, The Outfit, with its unique third person viewpoint and tactical approach, and more recently Far Cry: Predator, for some tropical island hunting. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, while only being an enhanced version of the Xbox classic conversion of the PC original (phew!) arguably eclipses every other shooter on Xbox 360 and it will take the likes of Gears of War or maybe even Halo 3 to beat this incredible modern warfare title when it comes to online multiplayer gunplay.

Now, a lot of people feel that Battlefield 2 is all about the multiplayer and that the single player campaign is just tacked on and barely worth bothering with. While I will agree that it is all about the multiplayer, and that if you're not hooked up to Xbox Live then you should think twice before prioritising this game over some of the others I've mentioned above, the single player campaign is still one of the most challenging, engaging and varied I've ever come across and will last you for a considerable length of time, at least if you attempt to get all the game achievements and gain the maximum star rating for each mission.

The story is pretty straightforward - US forces are moving into Kazakhstan to fend off China's attempts to secure the country's oil supply for themselves, but what is a neat feature is the way you get to play on both sides of the conflict, starting off winning victories for the US, then gaining some ground back as the Chinese, then back to the US and so on, until the conclusion of the campaign. The presentation throughout Modern Combat is immaculately stylish, with polished video cut scenes playing out key points of the action via biased broadcasts from either the US or China, and strong, clear voice acting accompanying the briefings with complex 3D wireframe models mapping out the combat zone, the final part of which are narrated while the level loads, meaning that there's very little time to get bored. It's also a nice touch that replaying a mission happens instantly - great usage of the hard drive, something that has been greatly lacking so far on the part of most developers.

Whichever side you're playing, there are up to five different soldier classes, with two or more classes present in each mission, which really affects both the gameplay variety and the range of tactics on offer. The Assault class is equipped with an assault rifle, grenade launcher and smoke and frag grenades, Special ops have silenced rapid-fire rifles, C4, stun grenades and a knife, Snipers have smoke grenades, GPS and a laser target designator, as well as the mandatory sniper rifle, Support class have a heavy machine gun and frag grenades, plus auto injectors for healing allies and the power to call in mortar strikes, while finally the Engineers have shotguns, rocket launchers, anti-vehicle mines and a blowtorch for repairing vehicles. Throw in various land based vehicles such as jeeps with machine guns and grenade launchers, and of course tanks, fully armed speedboats and even Apache gunship helicopters, and you've got about as much variety as you could ask for in a shooting game.

The one thing that really separates Modern Combat from the crowd is hotswapping; rather than playing as a single character with an identity and back story, you can at any time leap into the body of any allied soldier on the battlefield. This means that one moment you might be sniping from a tower, only to see a tank approaching, at which point you leap into an engineer and fire his rocket launcher, then while he's reloading you leap into a second engineer and fire his rocket launcher too, getting maximum hits on the tank in minimum time, or use a special forces operative to throw down C4 and hit the detonating trigger at the critical moment. Taking out helicopters with rockets can be very tricky, although supremely satisfying, but using machine gun emplacements or vehicle weapons is definitely the easiest and quickest way to destroy airborne foes.

While a lack of an identity might seem like a bad thing, in reality it's quite the reverse - you're like an unseen force on the battlefield, a commander leaping into the bodies of many different soldiers, making all the difference by your strategic choices, accurate aiming and quick reactions when facing an all-out enemy assault. And if you die, you simply hotswap into the body of a nearby ally, although reinforcements are limited, and there are a number of missions where you will repeatedly fail the mission due to sustaining heavy losses before you figure out a good strategy to overcome the odds.

The graphics in Battlefield 2 are excellent - they're perhaps not as massive a leap from the Xbox version as you might have hoped for, but they're definitely a significant step forward and never fail to look anything other than polished and striking. The variety in terrain and locale is also excellent, from snow-covered villages in the mountains to desert-based towns, complete with authentic looking and fully detailed architecture, to a night based assault on a harbour or a fire fight around an oil rig, including a mission where you have to take out an entire ship. The vehicles and individual soldiers sport great detail too, looking just like their real-life counterparts; they're highly detailed and well animated, with some nice rag doll physics when you blow ground troops high into the air. The sounds for every weapon, explosion and engine are also some of the most ear-pounding and lifelike effects I've ever come across and they do a fantastic job of immersing you into the battle as if you were really there, complete with full surround sound that is a big help for locating incoming threats. The fully orchestral soundtrack is a delight to the ears as well, treating you to a range of rousing and exciting themes that complete the atmosphere and get the heart pumping - they're also present when you're online too, which is a very welcome inclusion.

So then, why exactly is the single player campaign so involving? Well, the variety of level layouts and mission objectives really helps - you might be moving through an area wiping out all enemy forces, holding a position as you're assaulted, planting explosives to sabotage a bridge or refinery, or even going on recon duty against the clock, in a speedy jeep or helicopter. Each mission brings new challenges, and although you could probably blitz through the whole campaign in ten hours or less, there's plenty of incentive to replay levels. You see, at the end of each level you're marked on five aspects of play - score, time taken, weapon usage, accuracy and losses. Each of these has a scale, so you get up to five stars for score, two for time, two for weapon usage and one for accuracy - plus you can lose up to two stars if your losses are high.

Getting the maximum ten-star rating for each level requires you to learn it off by heart and achieving this for the opening level took me a good ten attempts, maybe more. You have to get through the level in a very fast time, keeping your accuracy as high as possible, using a variety of weapons and personally destroying as many enemies as possible to get your score high enough, all without sustaining too many losses. To further complicate matters, to get those high scores you need to keep killing every few seconds in order to build up a combo score multiplier. The key to this is to hotswap between multiple units - take out a few soldiers to get that multiplier up, then hotswap to an engineer to blow up a jeep, or reduce a tank's armour, then hotswap back to an assault troop to get another kill, then to the engineer again to finish off that tank, or even take out a helicopter - the action when going for the big scores really does reach fever pitch and it pushes your skills to the very limit.

There is also a range of challenges that are unlocked as you progress. Hotswap challenges see you hotswapping around soldiers as quickly as possible while also taking out enemy forces and the faster you do it, the more you score. Vehicle challenges again put you up against the clock in a range of vehicles, either racing through checkpoints with tricky bonus areas to hit or picking up and dropping off troops. Finally, each weapon challenge brings something new - use your assault rifle to pick off running soldiers with a limited number of bullets in each round, hotswap between four rocket launcher troops to take out all the ground troops and vehicles on land, sea and air that come your way (bearing in mind that the reload time of a rocket launcher takes a good two seconds), throw frag grenades into groups of soldiers arranged like bowling pins (!) or fly around in a helicopter taking out enemies with a sniper rifle, again with limited ammo. The challenges start off relatively easy but get harder very quickly and, again, getting the maximum rating on each one will take you a long time and a lot of persistence.

The game achievements also add to the challenge - taking out ten enemies without losing the combo as each of the five soldier classes, or in land, sea and air based vehicles, repairing a number of allied vehicles in a game, healing multiple units without dying; there is a range of excellent achievements spread across both the offline and online portion of the game that encourage you to get the most from the experience.

However, as much fun as the single player is, it also has a finite lifespan. Online multiplayer is just the opposite - you could play it for months and never get bored; indeed, the level of skill and variety online means that you will need to invest a significant number of hours just to get good enough to survive! There isn't a huge number of maps on offer, coming in at a baker's dozen, but each one is brilliantly designed and features a range of vehicles and gun emplacements. Like The Outfit, the combat online revolves around two teams battling it out over capturing a number of strategic points, here in the form of flags, and the more you have, the faster your opponent's score counts down towards zero. The first one to hit zero loses, or if you take every single flag on the map then your team has secured a major victory. There's no hotswapping online, obviously, as you wouldn't be best pleased if someone took control of your body, but each time you die you can choose which class to respawn as, plus of course which allied flag to respawn at.

The chaotic, frenetic action and limitless number of options in an online game can be almost overwhelming at first. You could find a good spot to snipe your enemies, or hop into a vehicle to either drive or shoot, take a helicopter if one is available to drop off allied troops at key locations, use the engineer class to lay mines or blow up vehicles while repairing your own, choose support to call in mortar strikes and heal the wounded… the options are literally endless. My advice is to do your best to stick with one class for a while and really get good with it, rather than hopping between classes as you feel the need arises. The requirement for good team communication and canny tactics is here too, and when you get in with a good bunch of players who actually talk and plan, it really is fantastically satisfying to successfully carry out your tactics and keep in contact with your team mates to win the match. There is already a strong following online for this game and I predict that it will last and last, becoming the Halo 2 of Xbox 360 until the biggest shooters like Gears of War come along to steal some (but only some) of its almighty thunder.

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is to my mind the best shooter yet released on Xbox 360 - it really does have everything. The single player is varied and action-packed, with the ability to instantly switch between any allied unit making for a unique gameplay experience and a clever rating system, backed up by tough game achievements and a series of great mini-challenges, to lengthen out what could have been quite a short-lived experience. Take it online though and you've got endless potential, with multiple vehicle types, five varied classes of soldier to choose from and up to 24 players battling it out for supremacy. Make no mistake, to become a strong player online in Modern Combat will require dedication and a significant investment of your time - but if you enjoy shooting games and have the time to spare, then this is without doubt one of the most satisfying, rewarding and engaging games you could put into your 360. So, head over to your nearest recruitment centre and sign up now!

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).