gets instant credibility among longtime fans of the TV series who've been waiting for a modern videogame adventure. We're not sure which came first, the decision to make it a space combat shooter or the decision to have space combat shooter veterans Warthog develop it. Either way, Battlestar Galactica comes off as one of the better efforts available on PS2 and one of the best and only space combat shooter on the Xbox.

The problem is the genre of space shooters doesn't have the same appeal as it used to. Warthog's experience with games like Starlancer ensured that the game would feel like you're piloting a spaceship and not just blasting away in every direction like some wall-less version of Quake but we've done this many times before. The re-envisioned Battlestar Galactica license that puts Adama at the center of the struggle between humans and Cylons may not have the flash and star power of Starbuck and Apollo, but there's enough here to get you all misty-eyed about the search for that bright shining star called Earth.

Gameplay

You're cast in the role of a young ensign named Adama, back when there was a whole fleet of battlestars defending the human colonists from the vile Cylons. If you'll recall, the events of the TV show had Adama as the leader of a ragtag fleet of refugee ships on a desperate search to find a lost tribe of humans, who of course happen to be all of us. The Galactica was the great space battleship at the head of this fleet and week after week through a couple of seasons in the late 1970s, the ship and her crew barely escaped certain disaster. In the game, you're confined to space battles in various ships from the BSG universe. The ships including the Galactica and the beautifully designed Colonial vipers look similar to what you'll remember from the show, but with a slightly retro look.

Battlestar Galactica looks like a simple enough game until you get into the surprisingly deep controls and weapon systems Warthog is known for. Killing all bad guys with mad button mashing will get you through the very first level only. After that your tutorial is over and you have to be fast, accurate and deadly. It begins with the game's clever energy management system that just happens to be tied into your weapons and special navigation moves. Simply put, you can do all kinds of cool things in Battlestar Galactica, but you can't do all of them at once or even repeatedly because your Colonial viper will be in trouble.

Your ship has a finite amount of energy that's used to fuel your afterburner boost, your special navigation moves like the 180 degree snap turn and your missile system. When your energy meter is at 100 percent (it replenishes automatically when you're not draining it) you get the added benefit of automatic repairs to your hull until it too is at 100 percent. This may not sound like a big deal but during the heat of battle when all hell has broken loose, you'll find yourself torn between unleashing another volley of death-dealing rockets and laying off the guns so that your ship's energy meter can fill up and thus repair your ship's tattered hull...slowly. There's no damage model but you'll feel the pressure when you've got warning lights flashing all over.