Conflict: Desert Storm II - Back to Baghdad

"A Solid Squad Based Sequel"

Its 1991, an insane Iraqi dictator has just invaded the neighboring country of Kuwait with a large desert raiding force. The United Nations has just called upon the world to help save the Kuwaiti people from the wrath of this lunatic. So who steps up to the plate to take him down? The United States’ Special Forces, also known as Delta Force, and Great Britain’s Special Forces unit, commonly referred to as SAS. Well guess what unless you have been living in a shoe box for the past 15 years, you will know what I am talking about, and the bitter relationship America has had with Iraq. This invasion led into the Persian Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm. This would be the United States’ first confrontation with Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator. This conflict helped inspire, comic strips, trading cards, toys, and most recently video games based on the actual confrontation. The first of these titles was Conflict Desert Storm which was infamous for the final battle, where you put a cap in Saddam’s ass. Well with the success of the first installment, the creators, Gotham Games, has put out this anticipated sequel, Conflict Desert Storm II: Back to Baghdad. This installment released just about a year after the first, may be in direct relation to the current events in Iraq now, but this game also fixes several issues that were prevalent in the first installment of the series. The original had a poor interface, slowdown and sub par graphics. This direct sequel makes a solid effort to fix the problems of the original and raise Back to Baghdad to a solid squad based military shooter.

The graphics for Conflict Desert Storm II are much better than the original; however I am not saying there still isn’t room for improvement. Each squad member has their own unique look to them, so they aren’t just faceless clones you are commanding, which helps out a lot. The enemy combatant models seem; what is a nice word for it…simple. It is like the designers got bored and decided to constantly reuse the same model for the Iraqi soldiers over and over again. I am sorry but putting a mask on the same model does not give you two distinct character models. People should not look like inbred clones, but hey that’s my opinion, I know budget for design probably played a role in there somewhere…I hope anyway. The backgrounds of your battleground are also lacking in the detail department, I do realize you are fighting in a desert, but a bit more attention to your squad’s surroundings would have been preferable. However I must say explosions, smoke and munitions fire look quite good on the Playstation 2 hardware. The framerate is also quite good, and the only slowdown and choppiness I encountered was in the middle of a heavy battle scene.

The gameplay got an added boost with a slightly easier control scheme than its predecessor. Not saying you will not get frustrated from time to time, because you will, but this is a big improvement. A nice feature is the “auto aim” feature. This will allow your crosshairs to automatically target enemies. Auto Aim is helpful but, sometimes it does make the gameplay a bit too easy, which is why I only recommend this to novices. This new feature is not without its problems though, as it will target enemies farther away than those shooting at you from close range. It also has the uncanny ability to predict enemy soldiers, that’s right boys and girls this feature is psychic, getting a helping hand from Miss Cleo herself. It will target an enemy soldier before you can even see them on the screen. Overall it is a nice feature and a welcomed addition to the game. Now the AI is something I have a big problem with as enemies seem quite dumb most of the time, and your own squad members may have what I like to call “blonde” moments. You see, you may tell your squad to follow you, yet one always wants to remain at the beginning of the board or in some other remote location, where you have to switch to them and them trek them all the way to the rest of your squad…”HEY MAGGOT, MOVE!!!” The game plays through in a linear fashion through 10 missions, each with unique goals and objectives throughout, making the single player pretty solid and entertaining throughout.

The real fun of squad based shooters lies in the multiplayer feature, which is where the Playstation 2 version is lacking. The PS2 version only supports two player multiplayer, unlike its XBOX cousin which supports four players at a time. So the single player only can last for so long before it becomes repetitive.

I recommend this game to all those looking for a solid squad based shooter.

Perhaps we will see a lot more changes and improvements in the next incarnation of the series, perhaps named Conflict Desert Storm III: Final Showdown with Saddam, or even Conflict Desert Storm III: Don’t Mess with Texas.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/18/03