Smuggler's Run 2: Hostile Territory

"Cool game, but not quite excellent."

A cool game. But Rockstar failed to excite me again with the sequel to Smugglers Run. I've played both and this game is definitely better than the first but not by far. It's worth of a 5-day rental, but nothing more. It lacks of many major keys to a game. First off, the game was very hard in some missions, causing the player to not want to play it anymore. But the difficulty is what keeps a person playing it, instead of playing it, beating it, and forgetting about it.

STRENGTHS

Unlike the last game, they actually named the cars; such as the Sahara Special in Hostile Territory instead of the SUV in the first game. There was more cars, which really made an impact on the multi-player mode. There was more of a variety of missions than in the last game. And most importantly, an actual story! In this game, there were people, gangs, and cars that were put into cut-scenes and movies. Which in the last game there was none. I absolutely LOVED the new idea of the counter-measure. Each car has its own counter-measure that will aid it escaping cops or other gang members. And just like the cars and multi-player areas, you need to unlock them.

WEAKNESSES

Just because a game has an average rating, doesn't mean it has a lot of weaknesses. This game a few. First of all, it needs more of a storyline. Even though they had cinemas, they didn't have many. This made the story weaker. They did a great job on multi-player, except for the fact that there was only three zones to chose from (once you unlock them). Also, the fact that I would like it better if there were more people that could play instead of just two. A big factor I didn't score this game higher is that the police got really tough and the missions were getting so hard that I started to lose interest; since the story wasn't motivating me to keep going as much as I was in the beginning.

GRAPHICS - 8

The graphics were good, the game wasn't made to have good graphics in the first place so I can't really give it a bad rating in this area. The cut-scenes are all actual videos that were filmed for the game.

SOUND - 9

The music playing for the background really fits the game, it's fast paced like your being chased. Hm... I wonder how they decided this soundtrack.

STORY - 7

The story wasn't as good as I hoped for. It just wasn't all there, it wasn't enough to get into the game as much as I do with some other games that I have (I don't want to compare any games here). It was well thought out, but not polished. But on the other hand, without a sufficient amount of cinemas, it's hard to develope a story.

CONTROLS - 8

Since most racing games that I have played follow under the- tap square is brake, hold is reverse. This game's controls have got the best of me a few times- triangle is to reverse, square is to brake. You must use the analog sticks to steer the car and the D-Pad is to trigger your counter-measure.

REPLAY - 6

Ugh. Once you beat this game, the only thing to do is play it again, or play multi-player. Multi-player is exceptional with everything unlocked, but there is no point at ALL to play this game again. Trust me.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/12/02, Updated 01/12/02