Previews

It's third-person. It has shooting. It boasts cover mechanics and badass weaponry. But does sci-fi actioner Fuse have what it takes to stand out from (or stand on the shoulders of) Marcus Fenix?

In a word, yes - thanks to some imaginative gun options and squad-based combat, Fuse does enough to feel fresh while not risking scaring off potential recruits by being too different. The scenario is the same-old, same-old - naughty paramilitary group called Robin Raven wants to get its grubby hands on a mysterious alien substance known as... FUSE.

Step in you and your squad of saintly knuckleheads to hold diplomatic talks. Actually, the diplomat must have been kicked out of the nearest airlock because this is a traditional third-person shooter where your four-strong team's ability to exact maximum carnage on your enemy is your only negotiating skill.

Each of your beefcakes (plus one... Cheesecake? Cakette?) has their own special weapon that has been fused with, erm, FUSE to make them proper evil. For instance, team leader Dalton has a mag shield that throws up a barrier covering the entire screen that will protect anyone behind it from enemy fire. Naya's warp rifle shoots out mini-blackholes that rip enemies apart. You can also mix and match Fuse effects to crank up combos as you lay waste to enemy soldiers, leaving them as bloody purees on familiar industrial floors.

Yep, those factories, warehouses and other generic industrial settings are all present and correct alas but offer great opportunities for cover, flanking and tactical play - so who's complaining? Not us. Well, not too much. Also, the ability to seamlessly flick between characters in your squad makes on-the-hoof tactical decisions a cinch too.

Where Fuse really shines though is in its co-op mode where the game stops trotting and breaks out into a full-blown roadie run of murderous mayhem. And with the campaign mode licked, coop-loving gamers in particular will want to plough straight into the Echelon mode.

This sees you and your team emptying rounds of Fuse-laced death into waves of increasingly butch enemies. And with a handful of locations and randomised mission objectives to keep things fresh, it's a mode that really shines when played with fellow psychopaths.

So does Fuse reinvent the genre? No, but it does offer a solid, action-packed frag fest with great co-op options. And for most third person shooter fans, that's probably enough; more than enough actually...