Spy Hunter 2 Review


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Yes I got this game last week and finally played it enough to believe myself qualified to write a review.

First a little back story. You, Alec Sects, (heh heh his last name sounds like.... heh heh) have successfully destroyed Nostra and stopped them from launching the Four Horsemen (the EMP satellites in the previous game). Well in the wake of this Nostra has split into several cells and their planning some big.

Now you know there is only one way to save the world, the G-6155 Interceptor. Of coarse it wouldn?t be right sending you after Nostra with the same car, so you have been given the new G-8155 Interceptor. This car has everything you need to accomplish your mission, machine guns, missile launchers, a mine layer, smoke screen, oil slick, and of coarse rail guns. The new Interceptor can also transform into a boat, cycle, and now a 4x4 off road vehicle. Did I mention it has a new energy shielding system (unlocked a few levels into the game), which you'll need since the new Interceptor's armor is much weaker then the previous G-6155 model.

Ok now that you know what the car can do, I'll talk about the actual game. If you played any of the previous Spy Hunters (that would mean way back to the classic arcade game that ate many of my quarters) you know the drill, your in the super powered car, and you take down enemies. You also have to accomplish objectives, which is the same as the previous installment. But unlike the previous Spy Hunter you know longer have to collect X number of objectives to move onto a new level, this makes the game easier in that respect.

Now the combat makes the game much harder. The agents of Nostra (well its new terrorist cells now) have either gotten some uranium depleted bullets, or your car is made out of paper mache. It seems to me just after a little abuse your car transforms into the escape vehicle (the bike) and a couple shots after that you are dead and its restart the mission time. This would be frustration normally, but the missions are fun enough that playing through them a couple times isn't to much of a chore.

The graphics on this game are well done. They aren't as good as something like Unreal Championship (I got the Xbox version so I have to compare it to an Xbox game) but they are better then Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick. I haven't encountered any slow down what so ever, so the slight sacrifice of looks is worth it (opposed to having great graphics and choppy game play).

One thing I really loved about the previous Spy Hunter was the music. I?m happy to say Spy Hunter 2 didn?t screw this up. The music is great, although they replaced the excellent Salvia theme with a song by Vanessa Carlton (this is the 180 degree spin around in musical style you would expect in a game like Spy Hunter 2) the famous ?Theme from Peter Gunn? is still alive. The level music is, for the most part, fast paced and gets you in the mood to do some damage. Along with good music the game includes great sound effects. Everything from the roar of the turbine engine, to the explosions of your enemies sounds perfect. Midway?s sound team are top notch (at least on this game).

And damage you will do. Thanks to the new lock on system you will be able to execute your enemies with extreme prejudice. When you get your crosshairs relatively over an enemy Leonie, the cars rudimentary A.I., takes over and locks onto the enemy. All have to do is pull the trigger. Also the new guided weapon system makes hitting an enemy from an odd angle fairly simple. The guided weapon is also on a turret so it can lock on to enemies that are beside you, in front of you, or even above you. This makes it much easier to hit those mad bombers then in the previous game (even with the old lock on system).

There is also a new link up system. When you drive your Interceptor into certain vehicle you will control that vehicles turret for a fixed amount of time. This is kind of fun, should have been excluded in favor of more time with the car. After all the car is the star of the game.

Also included in Spy Hunter 2 is a new cooperative multiplayer mode. In this mode the first player drives the Interceptor and fires the primary weapon. While the second player aims the minigun (which is on the turret where the guided weapons are usually located) and fires the rear mounted weapon. This is a lot of fun, especially if the second player is good at aiming the minigun. There is also a deathmatch included, this is fun, but can be very hard since your car explodes after only minimal abuse.

Overall this game is a must buy for anybody who likes automotive combat games (and even some who usually don?t). Although it?s a bit on the short side (as the last game was) it has a lot of replay value so it should keep you interested a couple times through. Spy Hunter 2 is on all three platforms, so if you have a gamer friend who you still need to buy something for consider this game (unless they already have it, or utterly hates it). As this is already much longer then I anticipated I?ll just quite here.

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