WinBack 2: Project Poseidon

"The Return of Winback"

KOEI's Winback 2: Project Poseidon returns to the Xbox. Fans of Winback will find this game pretty good and it lives up to its namesake. Newcomers may mistake Winback as a Metal Gear spinoff and may try to compare it, but this game is definitely its own series.

Graphics 8

Winback 2's graphics are very clear and cut. There is certainly isn't too much time to stop and enjoy the scenic view of terrorists trying lay down a wall of fire on you inside a building, but this is usually what you will encounter. As for the characters themselves they are very detailed and are have had plenty of TLC put into them.

Gameplay 9

Winback 2 is all about its gameplay. Fans of the days of yore will immediately get right back used to the constant taking cover and firing from behind objects and walls. You also have lots to do and are given a time limit in some cases so the pace is very fast. There are new features like attacking enemies at close range and backflipping out of harms way-that's I said backflipping. You also get to choose which character you want to start a level off with on some occasions. What you accomplish with one character may depend on what you have to encounter with the other character in a level. Easy and classic controls make way for a an excellent gameplay.

Sound 8

Sound is always important to a game and Winback 2 is no exception. There is nothing totally unique to the sound of Winback 2 other than that DDR type of music during the mission briefing. Weapon sounds are standard, but this game also includes a lot of in-action dialogue and enemies yelling at you.

Story 7

Here I was a little disappointed. Winback 2 can be compared to Winback and Winback: Covert Operations and this game lacks the the engrossing drama that the first games featured. The 3 main characters have some background storyline, but as the game goes on it follows the plot of the terrorist hunt and doesn't really center on the main characters that much as did the drama of the original Winback.

Overall Rating 7

This review only compares Winback to its predecessors and so Metal Gear fans would probably be a whole lot more disappointed by thinking Winback is an attempted spinoff of Metal Gear. Overall, Winback 2 keeps to its classic guns and delivers a very enjoyable and challenging game with plenty of action.

Replay Value 7

Winback 2 offers somewhat of a bit of replay value. You may want to try going back through the game playing as different characters and there are other opportunities of doing things differently in the game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/27/07