Were Blacklight: Tango Down a full-priced first-person shooter, its combination of generic atmosphere and tacked-on single-player offerings would make it almost superlatively insignificant.
Blacklight: Tango Down
For: Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade, Windows PC, PlayStation 3 via PlayStation Network.
From: Zombie Studios/Ignition EntertainmentPrice: $US15Billy O'Keefe
At $US15, though, it's another story.
Blacklight takes place in environments that look like areas you've seen before, and it's populated by soldiers engaging in battle for reasons that aren't necessarily important.
The single-player (or, with three friends, online co-op) component explains little, but it's for the best, because the entirely unrefined A.I. - enemies mindlessly spray bullets like walking turrets - makes it entirely skippable anyway.
Blacklight's real purpose is as a multiplayer shooter (16 players), and like last year's Battlefield 1943, it provides a healthy return on investment without reinventing anything.
All the usual multiplayer modes are here, the map count is high at 12, and Blacklight looks, controls and sounds like a $US60 game in a $US15 game's body.
Better still, it provides a reason to keep coming back, flaunting an experience system that rewards players with a massive unlockable cache of weapons, accessories and character improvements.
For those who'd rather just play with friends, no worries: Private match support also is available.
