Look, I'm all for a mote of reality in my videogames — I'm thinking about the likes of 'FIFA' and 'Gran Turismo' here — but this is ridiculous.

Call me a prude but when an animated Russian sniper starts chuckling over how this campaign is "just like Chechnya", that's the point when I start getting the same kind of taste in my mind that one would expect from a week-old snoek sandwich.

The developers haven't gone out of their way to invent a plot — it's ripped right out of the war on terror, complete with a Bin-Laden cloned head villain and AK47-toting Arabs running around shouting "Die, you infidel son of an arthritic pig!", etc. ad nauseam.

You play lantern-jawed special ops agent Gabe Logan as he races against time and rival commie operatives to stop said bearded bad guy setting off a weapon of mass destruction (yes, there actually is one in this game) in this all-action stealth sequel to the smash hit 'Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror'.

From Somalia to Azerbaijan to Syria you'll visit beautifully detailed hotspots and landscapes peopled by implausibly nubile babes and a host of zany characters.

Hiding behind a wall, shooting blind, and rescuing the girl — all the while muttering some snide remark — is all in a day's work for our Gabe.

The graphics engine really is something to crow about and the episodes are interspersed with animated cut-scenes that make full use of the PSP hardware.

The dialogue wouldn't be out of place on the set of a soap opera, what with the romantic intrigues and espionage at every turn. The game probably had a bigger budget than 'Isidingo' too.

Facial animation has come a long way since the days of J/L too. Coupled with suitably atmospheric and astounding attention to detail — especially on the physics angle — and you feel a sense of urgency setting off that batch of C4 with just seconds left on the clock in one of the timed episodes.

It's a crying shame then that the gorgeous cut-scenes and thumping soundtrack can't disguise the fact that the gameplay can only be described as ordinary. The truth is that there isn't a lot for our hero to do.

Memory intensive graphics make for limited levels and the computer has the annoying habit of taking over on the tricky sequences. Apart from the puzzle elements — usually the flip-this-switch-and-all-will-be-revealed variety — point and shoot capers will tire quickly.

There's a huge arsenal of weaponry at your disposal though, but what does it matter when you can fight your way through the legions of doom with nothing more than a pea-shooter?

Then there's the button-bashing — a feature that should have been consigned to the rubbish heap of 8-bit console games ages ago. And I won't even go into the atrocious artificial intelligence...

Here's a typical gameplay sequence: A nasty little piece of work is emptying a few clips at your head from behind a crate. The light is fading so you use your heat seeking goggles and hey, what do you know, he's thoughtfully left his knee cap poking out for you to line up in your crosshairs. (Actually, knees are an integral part of 'Syphon Filter' combat and a useful way of getting around those pesky flak jackets.)

You target your enemy's lower body and he crumples up before painfully getting back to his feet, during which time you can pick him off at your leisure. You almost feel sorry for the morons as you mow down row after row of cannon fodder.

Ultimately, there isn't enough here to keep coming back to, and certainly not enough to set the game apart from your bog-standard run-of-the-mill stealth shooter. And there's no shortage of this genre on the PSP.

For those gamers wanting to work away the weekday stress with a bit of mindless mayhem, this is dead on target, but if you're after a sterner challenge, 'Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow' is a shot in the dark (without those goggles).