Time for a little good old fashioned US v Russia action. Black from Criterion, the people behind the not so shabby Burnout games, which is suitable because if Burnout was an FPS it would be Black.

In Black you play as an operative in the Black Tactical Squad, the most covert and highly trained unit that the US doesn't have. Your mission, track down and elimenate the leaders of the Russian terrorist group, Seventh Cell. At the start it sounds like your basic FPS story, and it is. But you're not playing this for the story now are you?

You start out in Black stuck in a small room with just a pistol at your side, but you quickly find your next armament, a nice big shotgun. The only problem is your still stuck in said small room, the door is locked and there are no keys to be found. Oh what is a boy to do. Simple you just found the best key in the game. Point your shotgun at the door and gently remove it from it's hinges with one big bang.

That is Black's big selling point, completely destructible worlds. And I don't me just shooting stuff that is in the room, or on the walls, I mean taking down the walls entirely. The bottom line is if it looks like it can be destroyed then it probably can. Cars, signs, pillars, headstones, cranes, busses, even statues. You name it, you can blow the crap out of it.

Weapoin selection is pretty average throughout Black. Pistols, shotguns, assualt rifles, sniper rifles, rpgs, and an assortment of other items. My favorite by far is the magnum, particulary after you play through the game once and gain silver weapons. Nothing better than a one hit kill small handheld weapon with infinite ammo.

AI is pretty basic. They use cover effectively, even if they are hiding behind exploadable boxes. They run from your grenades, don't stand still, and really lay on the heavy fire. The bad guys with the rpgs are by far the most difficult to deal with. But the explosion they leave behind is quite pleasing.
All in all a good strong game with just one minor flaw, that being game length. With only seven levels you've played through it in a couple of days. Though the length of the missions trys to make up for it. The game also has some minor replay ability, with the small reward of going through with infinite ammo and another secondary objective added on to the missions. I'd give it 8.5 out of 10.

For more info and screen shots check out the Offical Site.