This squad-based strategy game for Windows is premised on the notion that there are three waves of organized crime. The first is street crime: illegal cigarette sales, prostitution and drug trafficking. The second wave contains racketeering, political corruption and murder. The third wave jumps to nuclear extortion; picture the Godfather with nukes. Players are introduced to this premise by a narrated, grainy movie that gives a sense that things in the world are bad and, of course, the player must makes things right. This convincing movie sets the tone for the rest of the game.

The Third Wave is a real-time, squad-based strategic shooter in which players select a team of paramilitary operatives and command the combat from a top-down view. Players use their mouse to select units and move them to points on the map, moving from task to task to complete the overall mission.

The gameplay is determined largely by the troops players bring with them on a mission and what characters they select. For example, you have the option of bringing bodyguards, technicians, snipers and the like, and you must choose the right characters for the mission if you want to succeed. Like most games, The Third Wave rewards skill and cunning with additional cash, which players can in turn use to hire better team members. On paper, it sounds like a great mix. But the game has two serious shortcomings that hold it back.

The first is the game context: you are told at the beginning that the mafia has weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), and that you are authorized to take them out without having to worry about those pesky civil rights and laws that hamper regular law enforcement. But if you take away the context, you still end up doing little more than minor problem solving. Replace your teammates with Super Mario and you have the same basic game: Avoid the bad guys. Get the mushrooms (in this case, WMDs). Escape. Celebrate with fireworks and a princess. Also, although this is a minor gripe, since The Third Wave is published during the declared War on Terrorism, you would think its terrorists would be more in line with Al-Qaeda operatives than Vinny and Lucky Gambino.

The second shortcoming is that it lacks much immersion. In the first mission, for example, you can shoot a sniper rifle inside a metal ship, and the bad guys in the room next door either don’t hear it or don’t react to it. You can also sneak by guards merely by crouching, even in broad daylight and if you’re directly in their line of sight. The immersion is also harmed by the fact that once you know how to get through a mission, there is no challenge in doing it a second time. When the enemy AI is this lacking in "I," there’s very little to make the game different a second time through.

With its basis in top-down strategy, the interface in Beyond the Law: The Third Wave will be easy enough to learn for strategy gamers: point and click on your team members and direct them where to go. Shooting is easy, too; the cursor indicates when a guard is in range, and you just point-and-click to kill him. You also use the mouse to open doors, plant tracking devices and perform mission functions. It’s all very basic stuff.

The audio and video quality is good, but there’s little to explore in these two areas. The majority of the game’s sounds occur when selecting teammates for an action. Your troops respond to their selection each time with a pithy response made by voice actors who have accents and speaking styles to match the characters. If you ever played the original Command & Conquer you know what I am talking about. Graphically, the game gets the job done, but there’s not much to write home about when the art looks about a decade past its prime. As is the case in many strategy games, though, the developers were clearly hoping the gameplay would more than justify the purchase.

Unfortunately, the gameplay doesn’t generally do so. It all occurs in real time, and there are some maps where you have to act immediately or you fail. This can make for some intense moments, but it ironically eliminates the opportunity to strategize in what ultimately amounts to a strategy game. Also, the game necessitates that players save often or start over repeatedly after getting wasted. The catch in all this is that you receive fewer rewards when you save, so you are better off starting over entirely, an aspect that is tedious to overcome.

Is this game as bad as it seems? Not really, but if killing terrorists is your pleasure, you’re better off doing it in 3D with one of the Rainbow Six games and focusing your time on Al-Qaeda-like enemies, not the local goombas. Buy this game if you’re dying to play a new 2D, squad-based strategy game. Otherwise, wait for it to hit the bargain bin.