The premise is decent, although a thinly disguised attempt at intrigue set in the 24th century. In this cyberpunk world, you are a "netrunner," meaning that what you do for a living is to cruise the virtual reality world where mega-conglomerates battle each other for world supremacy through accumulation and exploitation of data. As the game starts, you are being blackmailed into working for the Black Sun corporation, and must run the dangerous pathways of the vast Global Internet (literally transformed into a virtual environment where data and information are depicted as solid objects and mistakes can kill you), infiltrating competitor?s heavily guarded systems, and defending Black Sun?s database from intrusion by other netrunners like yourself.

So far, so good. Unfortunately, the action in Delta V is so repetitive that you will quickly lose interest in the plot. Although considered a flight simulation with adventure overtones, Delta V is basically an arcade game at heart that forces you to fly into innumerable trenches and battle the same endless enemies. Your Trace (the virtual flying machine you?re in) rockets down the selected paths or trenches with options only for flying up or down or side to side. You can never turnaround so if you miss enemies or important objects you?re destined to run it again, and again, and again. From a technical standpoint, though, the game is much prettier and advanced than most games of the period, with object shading and flashy effects.

In the end, Delta V is a bore-- definitely one of Bethesda's worst releases, a game that focuses far too much on visual and sound components that gameplay suffers as a result. The game's "extra" elements of upgrading your Trace fighter and earning credits help make it a bit more interesting, but not by much. Great graphics, poor gameplay-- not unlike many games today.