This is a sci-fi action shooter that uses squad based gameplay that resembles Rainbow Six and is getting ready to make a big splash onto the PS2 scene. Players will take part in squadrons of special attack forces to infiltrate various installations but you must learn to work as a team in order to succeed. Here is a rundown of the story line.

The year is 2037, the government lost contact with one of its secret military complexes soon after receiving disturbing news about suspicious behavior amongst some of the base's personnel. Fearing the worst and due to the highly sensitive material within the base, your extremely skilled X Squad team is asked to investigate the situation and recover any secret material the terrorists may have seized.

As Ash, the leader, your role is to lead a handpicked squad through futuristic city streets while fighting off terrorists. In X Squad, gamers command their squad through a unique and sophisticated "buddy" artificial intelligence system. As Ash, you will give the other three-team members general orders such as attack or cover. But just like real-life characters, they have minds of their own and will talk back, think and act freely.

Ash must lead his team of skilled male and female soldiers -- with a huge assortment of weaponry -- into a dangerous war zone fighting through incredible cityscapes, subways, dark sewers and a variety of other locations. Terrorists wait in ambush, attacking from levels above and below, often catching the player's team in a deadly crossfire. To successfully complete the mission, the player must best utilize their members' unique abilities, ranging from demolitions to sniping.

Some of the key features in the game are: ability to command a four-person squad through dangerous environments using the sophisticated AI. Each character has their own unique personality, special skills that can be improved as the game goes on. A plethora of weapons are available to you from hand guns to rocket launchers. Special effects such as fog, smoke, mist and rain will be used with characters consisting of over 2,500 motion captured animations, 5,000 polygons per character model and over 800 in-game speech segments with synchronized facial expressions.

X Squad's graphics look pretty nice but at this point are nothing to go crazy about. The character models are well done and look real enough but can appear boxy at certain angles. The special effects like fire look great but overall the game lacks any real fine detail but still they are nothing to complain about.

X Squad is due out in Fall 2000 and will be the first 3D squad based action shooter for the PS2 when it arrives. This may be our best chance to get a Rainbow Six style game on PS2 so I think it will be worth a look.