A short but sweet adventure game. Bears the wrinkles of age but it's still with spending your time on. [Feb 2014, p.90]

For all the action, for all the explosions, for all the adamantium-spined squad members, it's really not for the impatient - but if you don't mind fighting the control system as much as the Krauts, it's a refreshingly different take on what was rapidly becoming a tired setting. [Nov 2006, p.74]

With no clear improvement in graphics, it's hard to see this as more than last year's game with this year's roster. [Christmas 2007, p.95]

Remains a pretty and obscure artifact of narrow gaming tastes. [Jan 2007, p.92]

It's hardly the prettiest game ever, and the story is laden with nonsense, but it's a game with a racing pulse - energising, like the best action games are supposed to be. [Oct 2006, p.90]

A good-looking, expansive and bold sim of space-management, almost undone by a horror-interface. [Sept 2009, p.84]

No great shakes, but an awful lot better than "SimCity Societies." [Mar 2008, p.87]

Quickly loses steam thanks to repetition and bland design. [Jan 2012, p.114]

A game so monotonous, it's inspired a new word - 'tediocre'. [Christmas 2006, p.90]

Late, and lacklustre in key areas. [July 2007, p.78]

If D2 came with a level-skip cheat printed in the manual, it would be a lot easier to recommend. [July 2006, p.70]

It's brief enough and silly enough that it never stops being dumb, no-strings fun. Even when your VS becomes capable of barely-steerable flight and unbearably slow-to-recharge energy swords, y'know, it's still a flying robot with swords. Also, a generically Xboxian art style aside, it often looks fantastic, the motion blur and haze of snow especially.

Classical, but no classic. Bread and circuses at their most generic. [Sept 2006, p.105]

Painfully clunky and predictable, but put another way, it's also nostalgic and deeply charming. [July 2007, p.90]

It's almost innovative. [July 2009, p.79]

A relatable game about a common truth: that true happiness is hard to find. [Apr 2014, p.89]

In terms of fulfilling what "Settlers" has always promised - building a city - it's true to its word. It just needs a bit more vim and vigour to it. [Dec 2007, p.68]

An undeniably fun space-combat MMO, with the bones of a rich universe but still plenty of catching up to do. [Apr 2010, p.102]

It's repetitive, mindless, claustrophobically linear, over-stylised and incoherent. [June 2009, p.93]

Custom BFGs keep it more BFE than BFD, but the modern successor to games like Contra and Abuse this is not. [Nov 2011, p.136]

The dark addictiveness of levelling is as strong here as anywhere. [Oct 2007, p.85]

Even if it wasn't catastrophically broken, HAWX 2 would be a hard game to get particularly excited about. [Jan 2011, p.96]

With diplomacy and more resourceful units, Hegemony could have been great rather than good. [Aug 2010, p.102]

Better than the first game, and an amazing technical achievement, but the shooting needs work to fully realise its potential.

The worst thing is that you can't skip the dialogue. [July 2010, p.91]

Unluckily, it costs 20 quid, which is significantly more than it's worth. [July 2012, p.99]

Competent combat and visuals are slightly marred by online irritations. [Oct 2010, p.94]

Comparisons with adventure classic "Psychonauts" are unfavourable. [Oct 2008, p.78]