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Conflict Desert Storm II: Back to Baghdad
by Jolex Del Pilar
Monday, December 22 2003
The PS2 version of Gotham Games' shooter goes under the VGLN.com microscope.
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Title:
Conflict Desert Storm II: Back to Baghdad
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Platform:
PS2
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Publisher:
Gotham Games |
Developer:
Pivotal Games Limited |
#
of Players: 1 - 2 |
Genre:
Action
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Origin:
United States
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Expected
Release:
December 2003 |
Grapevine:
The lack of an online multiplayer mode hurts this game a little when compared to the Xbox version. |
The selection of shooters for the PS2 has been fairly slim over the past couple of years, I would say it's one of the few genres that the PS2 is sorely lacking in. Besides the Timesplitters series, Soldier of Fortune, and it's subsequent sequel, and the Hitman series of gaming, the PS2 has had very few quality shooters debut on it. Whether because of hardware limitations or other factors, the system just doesn't provide gamers with nearly the amount of high quality shooters that the Xbox does. A lot of that is beginning to change however. Ubisoft recently announced plans to release both Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six 3 on the PS2. Now Gotham Games has brought their Gulf War shooter onto the PS2 with fairly good results.
Conflict Desert Storm II: Back to Baghdad is a series that started off on the consoles, and is not a simple PC port like Half-Life or Quake III when those titles came to the consoles. The Conflict Desert Storm series can best be described as an interesting mix of accurate, realistic, shooter gameplay, similar to Ghost Recon from Red Storm, and Halo, a much more action oriented shooter from Bungie. What this gives birth to is a shooter that features squad based gameplay that although is challenging, also gives room for error unlike the "one shot, one kill" scenarios often played out in Ghost Recon.
The story of Conflict Desert Storm II takes us all the way back to 1991. The first Iraqi War has just concluded and the day has been saved by Coalition forces. However, many POWs were never found, and that's where you come in, as either a member of the elite counter-terrorist group known as Delta Force, or a member of the British SAS. The game takes place over 10 or so missions which have your team rescuing fellow soldiers, liberating POWs, and eliminating weapons sites. The missions are fairly varied and don't fall into monotony. You can also modify the difficulty of a level, but due to some excellent A.I, the game remains a challenge even on the easiest setting. It can't be emphasized enough how much of an improvement the A.I is in the sequel than the original Conflict Desert Storm. While I was able to breeze through the original game pretty rapidly, CDS II requires a slower, more calculated, playing style if you want to get past the first two levels alive.
The biggest strength of CFS II though remains its excellent multiplayer mode, though the PS2 version lacks the Xbox Live mode that the Xbox version featured. The PS2 split screen mode does allow for better comaraderie when you bust this game out when friends are over. The ability to coordinate with friends makes this game an excellent multiplayer, squad based game, on par with Ghost Recon and in some ways, a better experience because the game is a lot more forgiving than Ghost Recon is.
The only weak point in CDS II's proverbial armor is the visual experience. Though the graphics aren't exactly horrible, they are clearly a step below the current lot of shooters like Halo, Ghost Recon, and Unreal. The PS2 version is a step below the Xbox version visually, though it still looks solid, but the low-res textures are still visible and the loading times are a tiny bit longer.
However, as you may know, a game's visual experience is only one part of a whole, and as a whole, CDS II: Back to Baghdad is an excellent game that is great as a solo experience but absolutely excels as an (offline) multiplayer experience. As a sum of its parts, Conflict Desert Storm II is a great game that would be a great addition to anyone's gaming library, especially anyone interested in solid squad based action.
--- Jolex Del Pilar
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