As "value priced" titles go, UberSoldier II is certainly well above average -- both visually and mechanically. Sure, at heart it's another rapid-fire, run and gun, World War II-themed shooter, but that seems mainly due to the fact the only universally accepted people worth shooting these days is Nazis. Lots of 'em. Damn Nazis.

Not just any old Nazis, mind you; Uber takes great liberties with the concept of reality by coughing up a few biohazardous mutant ninja renegade cyborg Nazis... or something like that. Hard to tell with all the bang-bang going on; hard to care when it's not.

Too, about the only thing reflective of WWII is the European-flavored scenery and base weaponry. You yourself are a genetically enhanced super soldier -- er, "Uber" soldier -- blessed with bullet-time reflexes, proximity shields and temporary berserker imperviousness. Like that's not enough, string together enough knife kills or headshots and your rewarded with experience points at the end of each level with which you can buff up certain attributes, like accuracy or health capacity.

Oh, and you're a zombie. Seriously. Seems UberSoldier I ended on a sour note. Long story. Anyway...

As the knowing will surmise, UberSoldier 2 borrows from just about every A-list shooter out there, Half-Life, Call of Duty, Quake, et al -- but it does so with such unashamed panache that it comes as a B-grade homage, plagiaristic but seriously playable in its own right.

Not without its flaws -- wounded bad guys get a little too wrapped up in their pre-scripted death-thro routines to actually bother with the dying bit, plus they can fire from behind crates and hop over them at will, but you can't... and oh yes, there are crates, many many crates, more crates than you can shake a hatchet at -- UberSoldier II manages enough compelling action that it's worth playing right though.

It's online multi-player component, meanwhile, certainly looks like it could offer some excellent generic shooter mayhem, but there is absolutely nobody playing it online, and that's probably because it's a rather obscure little budget title that not enough online multi-player types have discovered.

Still, at just 20 bucks, UberSoldier II is worth checking out despite its flaws, obscurity and flat-out derivativeness.