Beyond the Law: The Third Wave has you playing the commander of a group of military specialist trying to crack down on the mob.  The mob has plans to launch three waves of attacks to shut down our country.  The first wave consists of bribery, blackmail, and what the developers call “blood tinged” control.  The second wave is composed of prostitution, money laundering and drug cartels.  The third and final wave is the deadliest with the goal being the destruction of our nation’s capitol.  It’s up to your group of specialists to eliminate this threat and ensure the Third Wave doesn’t hit.

Essentially what the game is really about is you’re in charge of a group of specialist who have been hired to take out the mob before they try and take out our government.  Sounds like an interesting idea, but what we get with the game is an average strategy game that doesn’t live up to the promise of the story line.  You control up to fifty different players in the game that are made up of four different character types.  There are 20 different missions to complete, which are usually composed of 1 level with 4 different stages.  Before you begin each level the game layouts the objectives that must be completed before you can clear the level.  The objectives can range from planting explosives on a boat to rescuing captured agents. 

Each level is presented in a top down view of the stage you’re in.  You can control an unlimited number of specialists during a mission, but you’re limited to a certain amount of money for each level.  You have to spend the money to hire the specialists for that particular level, with each specialist costing a different amount.  One specialist might be valued at $10,000.00 while another specialist is valued at $16,000.00.  The cost of the specialists depends on their abilities and what type of weapon(s) they possess.  The better the weapon and ability, the higher the fee for the “work” that needs to be done.

The game is similar to other strategy games, but this time with a focus on playing the stealth role.  The ultimate goal is to go undetected by the mob and their surveillance systems while you complete your mission.  This means sneaking around the stage to locations where you’ll go undetected by the enemy.  However this is one of the biggest problems with the game, sometimes you’ll have no idea if you’re in the enemy’s line of sight.  One minute you’re hiding behind a tree, the next minute the guards are yelling “we’re under attack.”  The developers included a Vision Area option that turns on the area that is visible to the enemy.  This way, hopefully, you can avoid being detected by the enemy.

Ultimately Beyond the Law: The Third Wave is an average strategy game that should please hardcore strategy game fans.  The concept of stopping the mob instead of some ancient civilization, railroad, or third world country is something different for a strategy game.  But the mob just doesn’t seem like the mob during most of the game.  You could easily replace the mob with ancient warrior of a great civilization and the game would play the same.  If you’re a die-hard strategy game, then jump in and try to stop the Third Wave.  For the rest of us, maybe the Fourth Wave will be better.

Gameplay: 6.2 

The gameplay is standard stuff for a strategy game, with the controls being simple enough for anyone to play.  You simply click on your character, and then select an area on the map to move your character.  If you can perform an action with the character, such as opening a door or using a device, you just right click the character with your mouse.  However in order to use a weapon in the game you have to press a number on your number keypad according to the character you’re controlling.  If you selected a character that uses a gun, then you have to hit the “2” key to bring the gun up.  Then you can use the gun by right clicking on the mouse.  If another person in your party is using a submachine gun, then you’ll need to press the “4” key.  This can be confusing especially when you’re rushing to draw a weapon because the enemy has detected you.  If your pressing the “2” key for a character that only has a knife, nothing will happen.  Your character will just stand in place and (more than likely) die before you get a chance to draw your weapon properly. 

The enemy AI is another problem with the game.   It seems no matter what happens you better take out the enemy right away because they never miss.  If they spot you and open fire, you’ll probably be dead within a few seconds.  If you have your team in the same area then you can probably count on having your entire team buried six feet under within a few short seconds if they are spotted.  So don’t let the repetitious patterns that the guards follow fool you; all of these guys are dead eyes.  Try to focus on finding their pattern and determining the wholes in their field of vision.  Find the whole in the vision area and then take them out.  But then it still seems strange that none of enemy characters will miss you when they shoot, but they could care less if someone dies right next to them.  Sometimes you’ll notice that other enemy guards could care less when one of their buddies just died. 

Graphics: 6.3 

The game is presented in an over the top layout with all of the characters and stages 3D modeled.  Most of the graphics lack any true detail, with the stages looking rather fuzzy and washed out.  The character models also lack any true detail with the only saving grace being that the characters do look different from each other.  In fact you might think that the 3D character models are out of the Game Boy Advance game.  However the in game cinema displays are well done with some great production effects.  In fact the video that plays in between levels was very well done and it would have been nice if the designers added more of this into the game. 

Sound: 6.2 

The music is average but nothing that distracts from the game.  Most of the music in the game is adding to the ambiance of the stage.  There are no real tracks playing during the game.  The sound effects are passable as well with a big issue with the voice acting.  When you select a character to have them move to another location on the map, the character will acknowledge the request with a phrase.  The characters are usually limited to maybe three to four different phrases that are repeated over and over again during a mission.  Luckily you have the option to turn down the volume of the characters voices from the main game screen.

Difficulty: Medium to Hard 

The difficulty of the game is going to depend heavily on your patience.  If you are willing and able to try the same level over and over again just to find the right path to complete the level, then the game is on the medium difficulty scale.  But if you lack the patience to try a stage over and over again, then the difficulty is on the hard side.  It’s all about finding the right pattern to finish the stage.  But sometimes even finding the right pattern isn’t enough to sway the difficulty to the hard side.  Some of the stages might start off dangerously close to the enemy.  If you don’t move your characters right away into hiding then the mission could be over in 30 seconds.  Also, if you lose one of your teammates during a level, then that teammate is gone from the game.  If you lose 2 out of 3 team members during the first stage, then you have to finish the rest of the level with just one team member.

Concept: 6.3 

The concept is different for a strategy game.  Since the idea of the mob trying to take over the government and you assigned to stop them in strategy games is not the number one theme of strategy games.  But it’s still a strategy game that plays just like several other strategy games out today.  The idea of picking your team members for a mission also is something that’s been done a hundred times.  Each mission has a ranking system in place that ranks you on how well you completed the mission.  In fact besides the story line, most of the ideas in the game can be found in several other games.  

Overall: 6.3 

Beyond the Law: The Third Wave is a decent strategy game that will please some gamers.  The strategy gamers will enjoy the challenge, different type of story line and entertaining cinema display.  The sub-par gameplay, fuzzy graphics, lackluster sound effects and strange difficulty will disappoint the average gamer.  But if you want a challenge and you can overlook the short falls, then Beyond the Law: The Third Wave will probably provide some entertainment value.  Just don’t expect a tidal wave of gaming nirvana.