I'll try and keep the technicalities to a low for my review. You see, G.R.A.W. is a game that can easily get bogged down in details and the whole experience certainly contains more jargon phrases and acronyms than Y.C.S.A.S.A. (you can shake a stick at). I'm not a military man, I admit, so a lot of the idiosyncrasies in the game certainly went way over my head. All I know is that the pointy end of the bang stick kills people...

And there are certainly plenty of things that go bang in G.R.A.W. From the moment you brown your undies mid way through the second mission (when an entire building that you're walking towards explodes) you'll be locked into an epic struggle between good and evil, and not just metaphorically. You'll also struggle with the controls and other aspects, but I'll get to them shortly.

The setting is Mexico City. The year: 2013 baby! Your Mission: To look after a few world leaders and stop Nicaraguan rebels in their tracks. There's a new treaty on the scene – the North American Joint Security Agreement (N.A.J.S.A.) but as the American, Mexican and Canadian presidents gather to have tea and scones it all turns a bit pear shaped. Enter you (Scot Mitchell), who's ‘Scot' all the right moves to make things right and put a big band aid over the situation. Actually, no, instead of a band aid you're more likely to blow the hand off, plant C4 on the stump and then blast the arm off with a highpowered sniper rifle, but, you know, it sounded cool.

But seriously, G.R.A.W.'s story plays like one of those 80s movies that you grab for the simple fact that there's a guy on the cover with big muscles and you think the MA sticker is actually covering the bit that says there's female nudity in the film. It's big, it's fun and in the end there's so many strange names and whirlwind events that you don't really care if there isn't any nudity as long as you get to blow shit up.

G.R.A.W. is a tactical shooter first and foremost. Think Full Spectrum Warrior on steroids. There's no point in playing the game if you're a quickfix action junkie. While there's plenty of action to be had, it's all too easy to get killed if you don't progress through the game hugging walls, cars and any other cover available. The enemy is mean and accurate and there are plenty of snipers just waiting to take your scalp. Hugging a wall or vehicle is as easy as pushing up against it with the thumbstick, then pressing Y when you wish to disengage. Whilst protected, you can then shimmy along and fire at threats, and there are several guns that allow for various levels of zoom and accuracy – as well as one awesome weapon that allows you to shoot around corners.

You very quickly get the feeling that you are a soldier of the future. This is due to a real time HUD that features your CrossComm (which is a virtual Command Centre) and Narcom Window (which is basically a miniature television in your visor). There's also advanced enemy recognition and damage indicators which you actually have the option to disable – at your own peril. Believe me, with these turned off you'll be seeing a lot of the Game Over screen – but at least there's the option.

The missions in G.R.A.W. are quite varied. You'll operate both alone and with a team, which you control via button presses or on the tactical map. You'll control eyes in the sky and even tanks to blow targets up on command. All up, you'll really feel like you're in charge of serious missions with the full backing of the U.S. government. The offshoot to this is that missions, and hence the controls, are very complicated. I'm not exactly a noob (I've been playing games for nigh on 15 years) but to me the controls felt slightly unresponsive and unintuitive. In a game where half a second is the line between life and death, having that half a second ruined by an unresponsive thumb click or having to cycle through the three zoom modes of a rifle to kill the bastard three feet from me is extremely frustrating. It also doesn't help when your team displays the intelligence of a gnat – and when your tanks seem unable to move forward for no discernable reason.

Which brings me to another negative – often the game itself can feel less like a game and more like hard work. I know some gamers love that feeling of tension and then relief at the end of a mission, but G.R.A.W.'s forced slow pace means that taking on a mission requires a serious slice of time and perseverance – especially on the hard difficulty where one shot to the head can kill you. The ostensibly limitless levels are also somewhat illusionary: as soon as you start to venture off of the tactical map your vision becomes ‘scrambled' and you receive a verbal warning that you're leaving the mission area. I also noticed quite a few instances where what seemed like a cool shortcut ended up being conveniently blocked by debris – so the levels, though very large for the most part, are still quite linear (I've played the PC version and its levels are much larger and offer more avenues of attack).

And just to get all the negatives out the way, I'll continue ... with this next gen nonsense. Yes the game is absolutely gorgeous; there is HDR, bump mapping and enough detailed textures to make the graphics whore in you randier than Randy McRand. The maps are huge, and as you fly over the city in a chopper and then land and start the mission it's almost impossible not to be impressed, not to mention the awesome night time missions utilising night vision as much as possible, and highly detailed player and enemy models (including vehicles) ... but then, during the intro to an early mission, you glance to your left, catch the reflection in every window of an entire building and the illusion is shattered...

For in the window is a reflection of a road – and not just a little road reflected in each pane, but a huge, stretched image of a road that goes across the whole damn building. And then, upon closer inspection, this road image is reflected in every window of the building – but it's not even what is opposite the building! In fact, a little exploration finds that reflected image around the corner, where I guess the laws of physics have been bent like a Russian contortionist. This, coupled with other little things like the fact that bodies and guns disappear so you can't go back and swap weaponry, serve to shatter the illusion of the game being next gen. I know most of you will think that these are small things, and you may be right, but they were aspects that really made the game experience less vicarious for me.

Still, as I've intimated, G.R.A.W. is one impressive game. Explosions rip through your speakers and bullets seem to shred your guts as you wade knee deep through the conflict. It can also be exhilarating to line up an armoured vehicle in the sights of a rocket launcher and let rip. Apart from a few already mentioned aspects, G.R.A.W. draws you into its world with very realistic street design and building placement; it feels like you're in an actual city that is thoroughly affected by conflict. The only thing missing is civilian presence but then I guess with a war going on outside you'd stay indoors too.

Mission transitions are wonderfully handled in the game you simply hop into your transport and the next mission is a logical progression from the last. In this way, missions blend together and the only way you're able to tell when one ends and another begins is by that lovely little ‘achievement unlocked' icon. Mission environments are fairly similar in nature but then Mexico City isn't exactly known for its variety so in that respect the game is realistic. Besides, the inclusion of night and evening missions, with the difference that lighting makes to the levels, makes each mission feel unique.

Multiplayer is a strong focus of G.R.A.W. and, given its team nature, works almost better than the single player. The multiplayer is slightly dumbeddown, however. You can no longer hug up against walls, movement seems a little too floaty, and the graphics seem to lose a lot of their sheen (I am uncertain about the latest map content at time of writing), but there's something about being locked into a map with a bunch of mates and/or bots that adds excitement to the proceedings.

There are plenty of options to keep you busy, from elimination missions to a bonafide multiplayer campaign which is built to be played with a squad of mates. Missions where you must hold a certain point on the map whilst infinite enemies respawn would have to be a highlight – and can provide for some hilarious extemporisation (and blind luck). Complicated weaponry flows over into G.R.A.W.'s multiplayer and overall I found switching between firing modes, grenades and zoom levels to be much less intuitive than the streamlined controls of titles such as Call of Duty 2.