Conflict Desert Storm II Review

Developer	Pivotal
Publisher	Gotham Games
Genre	Action

Many critics were surprised by the success of Conflict Desert Storm last season; commonly described as having “inferior” graphics and gameplay to the two more popular squad based console shooters SOCOM and Ghost Recon, CDS sold like hotcakes in spite of the lukewarm critical assessments.

For the most part, we thought Conflict Desert Storm was a solid title last year. And all the gamers who enjoyed this system the first time around should enjoy the second title, as it is more or less the same game.

Gameplay - CDS II is very much a straight sequel to the first title. The four squad members from the first title, Bradley, Foley, Connors and Jones are back for ten more missions. Again, these missions involve campaigning around Kuwait and Iraq, though this time the plot involves a fictitious follow up to the first war in 1991 (So don’t expect Operation Iraqi Freedom here; but then, that wouldn’t make for much of a game would it?) There are some improvements in CDS II however.

For those of you that missed the first game, CDS, “the other Squad-based shooter” differs slightly in gameplay to both SOCOM and Ghost Recon. Though, with its third person perspective and Anglo-American Special Forces topos, it may be best described as a “poor man’s” SOCOM.

In single player you have to order around (or switch to) your three fellow U.S Delta Force or British SAS team members continuously. You have to issue these commands on the fly using the shoulder buttons on your controller. Since each character in CDS has his own special skills (Sniping, demolitions, support weapon, rifleman.) you really do have to manage all of your characters to succeed in the missions.

Considering the 1.5 million units sold the first time around, Pivotal probably didn’t want to go overboard with the changes, but they have dealt with some technical issues. On the control side, the ability to peak around corners is a nice addition, (SOCOM anyone?) although it turns out to be not that useful during the game. The second new “body mechanic,” the ability to roll on the ground while prone is actually far more useful. Also, the auto-aim is refined and working well for the PS2 this time. Auto-aim may seem like a lazy feature to “purists”, but when the bullets are flying and your running in third person, believe me, you will like this feature.

The AI has apparently been worked on quite a bit. We always hear “improved AI” from any developer of an FPS or squad based combat game, but the enemy soldiers are definitely “smarter” in CDS II. Expect an enemy much more sensitive to infiltration and even one with adaptability. This time the enemy may even change strategies as it attempts to deal with your group. For example, don’t expect holding position to keep you safe all the time. This time the enemy will come looking for you or even set up an ambush when you decide to finally move out.

This improved AI is certainly appealing, and may increase the replay value of CDS II for you. And to be honest, your going to need that replay value, because this one is just not as long as the first game. The missions are well designed, and arguably more fun than the first game (We particularly like the plethora of vehicle based missions – these really are a blast.) But one of the joys of “campaigning” through CDS is building up the attributes of your characters; with fewer levels here, not a lot of character building goes on.

Also, in the Gamecube version of the last game, the levels actually changed depending on how many players you were playing through the campaign with. A one-player campaign and a four-player campaign were radically different in the mission content. This time, when you play the four-player game on the PS2…wait…did I say four-player?

The one major disappointment in CDS II is the multi-player (Or lack thereof.) It was the four player campaign co-op play of the GC version that made CDS a must have title for this reviewer. This was an important feature, which CDS could boast over its competition, and would really make a difference in CDS II, considering there continues to be no online support for the game. But the PS2 version of CDS II is strictly TWO-player coop. As far as two-player gaming goes, it is actually a lot of fun. You get to play through the whole campaign mode with a buddy, (each controlling two chars in combat) building up your squad members attributes as you go along. (At least as much as you can do in 10 missions.) But I cannot help but feeling really let down here – the multiplayer is really the greatest feature of the CDS series, and it really is a shame Pivotal did not make use of the Multi-Tap for the PS2 version of this game.

Graphics - In terms of the visuals, Pivotal has tightened up CDS a bit. Nicer colors, background textures and map bumping have improved the look of this game. The death animations have also been worked on; so those of us who enjoy the various effects of modern munitions on the hapless human body have something new to enjoy. This is definitely a better looking game than CDS. Though the character modeling is virtually identical to the first game, the characters seem sharper and more lifelike than the first game.

Still, the graphical upgrade was important, because although you may choose first person during the game, most of you are going to play this all the way through in the third person perspective. As mentioned, the character modeling for this perspective is solid, but one thing absolutely made me crazy, the camera. This is not the typical shaky, obfuscating, “what the hell is shooting me” camera complaint. The sight lines are fine. But throughout the whole game, staring at the back of my character, he always seems to be hunched over to the right, dipping that right shoulder whether he is holding a weapon or not. And this annoying perspective is intensified by the fact that you never seem to be able to move these chars in a perfectly straight line. I’m not sure if this has to do with modeling the characters for holding weapons or what, but it is really disorienting particularly when you are spinning and looking around with the char.

Overall, the look of CDS II may best be described as a “poor man’s” SOCOM. That’s not half bad when you think of it.

Sound – Sound is a difficult area to critique in these squad based tactical shooters. The most important factors would have to be the weapon/ordnance noise and character voices. The weapons all seem to have a nice appropriate chunkiness to them (I particularly like the ratatat of the Allies’ support weapon) and the explosions all give their appropriate “boom.” But if I were to grade the effects on a scale (Oh wait, I have to do that don’t I?) I would give CDS II average marks. To continue with the comparison, CDS II’s sound lacks the exquisite detail of SOCOM. In SOCOM you can sometimes tell the direction the fire is coming from the sound – you really cannot do this all that well in CDS II. Actually, I think one of the reasons all the fire in the game are in essence “tracers” is because of this poor sound quality.

As for the character voices, I was a little disappointed to see that my squad mates still had the same catch phrases they did the first time around: “On me, on me!” and so on. The character voice acting is actually quite good. But that doesn’t make up for the fact that the only REAL difference between the Bradley, Foley, Connors, and Jones of the SAS and the Delta force is (you guessed it) British accents. They’re good accents mind you (this is a British game, after all) but it is a little disappointing to consider that one of the two gameplay differences for SAS/Delta Force is cum or sine the accent. (The other being the SLIGHTLY varied appearance of the SAS – different clothes, SAME weapons!)

Overall Value - Conflict Desert Storm II is a decent if unspectacular sequel. Technically, it is an upgrade and slightly improved. Again, if you liked the first title this one should make you happy enough. However, unless you can opt for the Xbox version, or wait for the Gamecube version’s release, (which could be several months away) the brevity of the number of missions and the lack of 3-4 player cooperative support leave us recommending CDS II as one of the better rentals out there. We recommend this lest our readers find themselves too “poor” to buy themselves a copy of SOCOM II when it hits.

Review by Paul Michael