Many people didn?t know what to expect when Ecks Vs Sever hit the shelves of European stores. You take on the role of either the cunning FBI agent Johnathan Ecks or the female NSA agent Sever in a metropolitan game of cat and mouse. Rather bizzarely, the story begins at the end. The seen is set in a trial four weeks after the action takes place where your character is being accused of multiple crimes. Before each mission you are given a very long text, explaining the plot of the level which can be very boring a tedious to say the least. Each character has a different objective; Sever is searching for revenge for an unknown reason and Ecks is sent in to stop her.

The GBA engine offers a very consistent and quick flow in the game play itself. The details shown in both the backgrounds and weaponry certainly do no harm to the games reputation when the arms range from a M16A2 to a 40mm Grenade Launcher. Playing the game gives you the feeling you really are playing the role of a Hollywood movie star. Add to this the very good background music and you have yourself a very good nippy shooter. The game boasts of 24 missions, 12 each for the character you are playing.

In my opinion, the multiplayer is the best 2-4 player action currently available on that little handheld master piece we like to call the Gameboy advance. It offers that little tingle down the back of your spine that most home console games can?t provide while your waiting for your mate to pop round the corner at any minute.

Like every game, Ecks Vs Sever is not perfect. The sound effects of gun fire is very weak to say the least. The game is certainly not for young or inexperience gamers, Ecks Vs Sever is near impossible to complete, one of the hardest games I have ever played to be honest. Probably the worst but unavoidable element of the game is the inability to save. Gamers are forced to remember the passwords given after each level is completed to continue later on in their very sad little lives. Not so Bad? Well when site upon site on the internet is filled with these codes it can be very tempting to take a peak, the result being a very good game ruined once people get stuck on the 3rd level so decide to simply skip to the last and brag to their mates they?ve completed the game.

Flaws aside and you have yourself a very good and enjoyable first person shooter offering both strong levels and exciting multiplayer. The GBA certainly has many of titles for this genre and this is certainly one of the better ones.

Reviewed by: Luke