Not even a year, and they have released a follow up to the eventful happenings of Conflict: Desert Storm. Last year you felt what it was like to be in the Middle East helping out Kuwait in the raid of their city. If everything went right for you, you were able to save Kuwait and spread peace throughout the city. Just as in the first game, you are stuck in an irreplaceable third-person mode that quite often gets in the way. War is a big subject that many game producers have been using, and it makes them a lot of money. The first Conflict: Desert Storm was considered to be a bit unstable, so now let’s see if the developers were able to spruce anything up at all.
Desert Storm II starts you off in Saddam Hussein’s regime in the year 1991. You are sent ‘Back to Baghdad’ to aid the helpless and put a stop to Saddam’s reign of terror. Now you and your unstoppable force of four will have to prove your strength once again and put a stop to this ordeal. You’ll be one out of three commando’s that join you. You can choose which comrades that will be out in the field. They can either be from American Delta Force or British SAS Personel, the choice does affect the stats, but nothing too major.
Gameplay can get a little shaky at times. All throughout the game there are 10 levels that are available. Each does have it’s point, but they don’t pull you in the story more then the titles suggests. Core gameplay will have commanding you and your three commando’s you call a team. The setup to control these are in utter distaste. Just about every button gives a command, leaving very few to control yourself with. In each co-op game, A.I. is a very important detail that can either make a game, or break it. A.I. doesn’t necessarily brake the game, but it still punctures the gameplay. When your in the heat of the battle, it is very important that your commando’s can be controlled with ease; responsive handling being the most important role. A few times while playing your team members seem to forget what to do, and you have to go back to save them, putting you in the line of the fire. This could of used some improvement. There still is an improvement from last year’s title nonetheless. When switching in between your four available commando’s, you’re able to give command’s to you a single person or a team, with different amounts of combinations of buttons. Taking care of the squad will be not be much of a challenge as long as you keep switching in between and taking care of each’s needs. The levels do follow a linear pursuit, but it doesn’t mean they can’t throw a few surprises in. When completing a mission, there are different variables that you will be able to take over. Setting your fellow teammates to snipe or blaze, it’s your choice For the most part, the gameplay is evenly balanced and can keep you entertained throughout the game and your able to take over several different vehicles during gameplay.
To aide your aiming, Gotham Games built an auto-aim system. Sometimes, the auto-aiming can get a little too helpful. Aiming is altogether taken away. Quite often it catches people before your even aware that they are standing there. Many other times, you will have to put up a fight to even get a shot on the person. Gotham done a great job, but there is plenty of room for improvement.
There isn’t as much audio as would come to expect. The audio affects do sum up the feeling that your actually defending a country from Saddam Hussein. Desert Storm 2 has it’s share of Special Affects. Screaming and gun sounds are some of the things you can come to expect with this title. Desert Storm 2 does support voice-overs. While there nothing spectacular, they are still entertaining .
Character models are mediocre. They get the job done though. The bodies are simple, detail doesn’t go too far from the normal. The surroundings however are quite gorgeous. There’s plenty of sand, this brings to the point that you are saving the world.
While there isn’t too much great of a difference from the first besides a little change in the story line. Improving is improving nonetheless. Fun might be a scarce factor. Story line doesn’t go too far in depth but just enough to keep you going through and through. Maybe a little more time on work, then Gotham might have a good game.
