Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport

First-person shooters are a dime a dozen these days (that's one money reference already - yay!), leaving developers with a bit of a problem: how do we make ours stand out from the crowd? While something like F.E.A R. shrewdly slips in horror elements and a bullet-time rip-off, Bet On Soldier is all about the Benjamins. Dough. Moolah. Wonga. Or Cheddar, as I believe it's known in certain circles.

With no health packs or ammo clips lying conveniently around the huge levels (a pleasing mix of open spaces and cramped close-quarters stuff), you must buy your war gear beforehand, occasionally topping it up at the vending machine-style consoles dotted around.

You even have to dip into your wallet to save the game. Money is earned by despatching enemies (headshots and other 'interesting' kills provide a bonus), with the real megabucks available in the mano-a-mano duels against the hardnut Champions.

Sadly, despite this commendable attempt at innovation and the lush graphics, Bet On Soldier's combat and (non-linear) story doesn't engage on the same level as the real shining lights of the FPS genre. Yeah, it's got nice ragdoll effects ancUjjg walker robots, but it's missing that feeling of true quality. Would we rather be playing REAR?

You bet your arse we would.

Nolan Daneworth could only be the name of a videogame character, couldn't it? And yes, it is: Nolesy is the star of the rapidly approaching Bet On Soldier (now with the suitably violent secondary moniker of Blood Sport), and we recently got the chance to guide him through a few levels of first-person action.

So, a little background: it's the future and the world is a shitty place' - Nolan's words, not ours - thanks to the war that's raged for the past 80 years. The only celebrities in this society are the Bet On Soldier Champions, soldiers competing in televised clashes somehow filmed during the real battles of the war. Incidentally, this sounds totally impractical to us (for starters, how do they get the cameras in there?), but designers rarely let logic or plausibility get in the way of a decent excuse for a game, so we'll let it go.

Reality TV

Nolan is looking for the men who killed his wife - men that he recognised from the telly as Bet On Soldier Champions, no less. So as you go through the levels -which are filled mostly with mere foot soldiers - you occasionally face hard-as-nails champions to fight in one-on-one duels. The tougher the opponent, the more money you get if and when you kill them.

And thanks to what Kylotonn describes as hand-to-mouth' gameplay, you need as much moolah as you can get your hands on; there are no pick-ups to be had here. You purchase weapons, armour and up to two Al buddies before a level and then you're stuck with them until that level is over. Ammo and armour can be replenished at certain points along the way, but again you have to splash the cash each time.

No Refunds

It's tough going at times, especially if you select the wrong gear before you start -we had trouble taking down the huge exo walkers without a rocket launcher, for instance - but every enemy you plug yields a small monetary reward. Score a headshot and you even get a bonus.

The Al mercenaries provide capable support, particularly the engineers able to repair your armour. Other options include heavily-armed troopers and snipers, and all can be given simple stay' and 'follow' orders.

We played through work-in-progress builds of three levels (no playtest of the innovative-sounding multiplayer just yet), and it's fair to say that Kylotonn still has a bit to prove. The enemy Al, physics and graphics engine are all reasonably solid, but there seems to be a danger that, should you remove the money system, you'd be left with a shooter much like any other average example of the genre. With the September release date looming large, it won't be long before we find out if this title is a dead cert or an also-ran.