Conflict: Desert Storm II - Back to Baghdad

"Best Squad Shooter I have ever played"

Conflict Desert Storm II is set in the original Gulf War, and is based around the land operation of Operation: Desert Storm. Basically, it is a 3rd person squad shooter for all major consoles (Xbox, Gamecube, PS2 and PC) and allows you to control a group of 4 men either from the US Delta Force or the UK Special Air Service. These men all have different skills and equipment such as heavy weapons, demolitions, squad leader or sniper, with all of them having some form of medical skills. I will be reviewing the Gamecube Version.

Graphics (8/10):-

The graphics on this game are substantial, and the vehicles and squad members' uniforms, kit, etc. all look sharp and realistic, but the enemy graphics are not as good. You never really get close enough to see the enemies properly, but from a distance the uniforms are less detailed than the British and American soldiers that you come across in later levels. Explosions are nice-looking, but mines, grenades and the C4 tend to explode very slowly. Similarly bullets travel very slowly through the sniper scope and the men run very oddly when zoomed in on.

Sound (8/10):-

The gunshots, bullet deflections and explosion sounds are all perfectly co-ordinated with the visuals and sound great, but the speech of your fellow men and enemy soldiers is not as good as it could be. The Delta Force Voices are quite good, with all of the men sounding different but without too much distinction that they become unrealistic, but the SAS voices are very overdone, and they are stereotypical Welsh, Scottish and London accents. Every enemy sounds the same, (when they do speak - which is not very often except when they think they hear you coming) with a typical middle-eastern Arabic accent which is heavily overdone. Your men also tend to shout a lot and in covert levels where stealth is required, they whisper ridiculously quietly into the radio, but they are still easily understood.

Control System (8/10):-

The normal third person controls are easy to use, but they are two areas where they fall short

-Commands

-Inventory

The command system is OK, but apart from the “follow me” and “hold position” commands, it's pretty useless I find. Ordering your men to a position with the advance order is difficult and often leads them straight into the path of an enemy grenade, stray bullet, or when you're really unlucky, an enemy minefield.

The Inventory is Opened with the X button and then cycled through with the D-Pad (or +Pad). This is means that you must search your entire inventory just to find one grenade or medipack or to change weapon, and there is no way of putting the items in a specific order. This leads to much fumbling around with the controller, and often casualties come as a result - for instance nobody wants to be staring down the gun-barrel of a tank whilst hopelessly searching for a LAW 66 or LAW 80 to take the tank out with.

Gameplay (12/10):-

This is where the game really excels, although ordering your men around is difficult, it is still possible to utilise different tactics to defeat the enemy and every scenario imaginable is in there - "hold the bridge", "infiltrate and enemy base", "escape from a prison camp", "disarm bombs" and more are all there, leading to excellent gameplay.

Replay-ability (10/10):-

As there is more than one way of completing each level, and a CO-OP mode is available, it is very difficult to get bored of this game. Invite your friends round and complete each level by using flanking manoeuvres, diversions, smoke grenades and other tactics. There are so many ways to defeat the enemy, because one man cannot carry enough equipment to complete the whole level on his own.

Misc. Info

This game is great if you like playing team games, but if you're looking for a "one man takes on the whole army" type game, you won't find it in Desert Storm I or II. This Game is great for Team Play but is not a "one man army" game and focuses more on tactics and team play, with a bit of general trigger-happiness and is good because of this.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/04