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Hidden And Dangerous 2 Review

simons

Grizzled Veteran
Jul 15, 2006
87
0
Posted this elsewhere, but I thought my RO comrades wouldn't mind a read


Hidden and Dangerous 2 is a 'stealth action squad based' game. You can control up to 4 squad members at a time during a mission. Each squad member has their own stats such as Strength (ability to carry more) First aid (Depends on how well the soldier can heal himself and others) and Lockpicking, plus more.

I tried the title's predecessor Hidden and Dangerous : Deluxe which is free to download now, and I can honestly say I thought it was a bit overwhelming and unfriendly to newbs. I though i'd try the H&D2 demo just for the sake of it, and lo and behold I was amazingly surprised by the demo level which was a brilliant urban level set in Normandy.

Being a Brit it's refreshing to see a WWII game with British soldiers being the main stars rather than their American allies. Creating a squad reminded me of worms, You can choose a soldier (with unique stats) and name them to anything, so you can create a squad of friends, famous soldiers, celebrities, anything, which is quite fun in game.



Before a mission, you can select load outs, how much ammo, what gun, what equipment, uniforms and headwear. This adds interesting depth and effects you depending on how much weight you are carrying, you can be a Strong soldier donning a BAR with lots of ammo, or a quick stealthy sniper who slips away into the night.


Mission wise I thought they were quite varied. I'm not usually a fan of stealth games (Apart from MGS), (Why is the game over if I trip an alarm?), but H&D2 was a good solid game. Missions vary from sneaking into a complex to take pictures, urban war-fare, long distance operations. You even have a bootcamp before the main campaign, which features great British slang by your drill instructors, I'll av your guts for garters. When ever I finish the firing round I always laugh at the conversation the two Drill instructors have when you complete it, "This wuns pritty gud Craig", It just reeks of class .

Soldier movement is very polished,

You have 4 'movement modes'

Sneak: Very slow movement
Walk: Standard walk
Run: A light jog
Sprint:A burst sprint

You can change modes by simply rolling the mousewheel which feels very fluent while ingame. You can also scale small objects, rather like Mafia, or San Andreas. It's hard to explain in words, but It just feels very fluent, flowing and....good!

Weapon variation throughout the game is nice, you've got all your standard WWII weapons, plus less common ones like The De Lisle carbine which is like a silenced rifle, or the Czech ZB machine gun which you can salvage on the field.

Gameplay wise, this game is quite realistic for a commercial release, most shots are one, two, or three hits to kill, depending on calibre also. Wall penentration is also featured, which surprised me too. If the enemy gets a shot in before you, it could be your end, or at least a big chunk of health, so having good situational awareness is key. Enemies aren't just cannon fodder and stand out, They'll usually be posted somewhere strategic, or come out of nowhere because you didn't see them patrolling and they've got you by surprise. Be on your guard, or one of your men might be killed

Game environments are quite interactive too, which is another nice touch for once. Fences can be cut with wire cutters, alarms can be sounded/turned off to confuse the enemy, helmets can be shot off , You can access the enemies inventory once killed and take their stuff (Take back a German helmet for your son), you can even make some enemies surrender usually by shooting their weapon out of their hand, they'll cower and you can tie them up and they'll be captured. You could even steal their uniform and weapon and pose as them!



Graphically the game is good, The game was released in October 2003 so it's quite old. The engine is the LS3D engine, so the game looks similar to Vietcong and MAFIA. I like the LS3D engine, the textures aren't high res per se, but they just look good, I can't quite put my finger on it. Ragdolls are in, explosions and some nice player and NPC models.

Audio is really neat, voice acting is great, with some classy sounding Brits which is always a standard in WWII games, "Youuuuuu blooody fooool".
Guns sound distinctive, not sure if they're realistic, but definately not poor weapon sounds thats for sure. Overall very very nice.

Multiplayer is also very solid which is yet another surprise. The realism factors of the game carry over into Multiplayer, so no stupid cone of fires or low damage. MP modes are Deathmatch, 'Objective' (Kind of like a single player re-creation, one team has to do such and such, while the over team prevents them) 'Occupation' which is basically Flag based gameplay, and with the games Expansion pack Sabre Squadron the introduction of COOP GAMEPLAY is included, which is a god send. Again character creation and weapon loadouts are in force, so you can create your ideal soldier and manage your gear, I'm usually a medic. I choose the guy with the highest first aid course, load myself up with med kits and nothing more (less weight = faster running. I'll be unarmed which sounds stupid, but sometimes I don't get shot by the enemy which is surprising. I go around healing team mates and being a team player.


That's all I'll say for now, I made this because each time I re-install it hits me how great the game is, it's really dissapointing to see how under-rated this game is, and maybe I can give the gift of H&D2 to other people who haven't heard of it.

As I said at the beginning , I didn't like H&D: Deluxe because it just felt like you were dumped in game, without knowing what to do. Something about a bridge , and germans shooting at you.

But I was blown away by the Demo of H&D2, and went out and bought the game. And i'm still impressed by it today. I think it's one of the best WWII shooters out there, and still not many people have played it, or even HEARD of the game, which is a real real shame, beacause it is a true treasure to the WWII fan!


Gameplay [9/10]
Audio [8.5/10]
Graphics [8/10]
Features + Interactivity [9/10]
Multiplayer Aspect [8.5/10]
Replayability [9/10] (For some reason I don't get bored replaying the missions)
Overall [9/10]


Useful Links


H&D2 SP Demo:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_5073.shtml

(Should be the Normandy level. Ace mission!)

H&D2 Site
http://www.globalstarsoftware.com/hd2/indexFlash.html
 
I squashed the whole H&D 2 SP campaign in Lone Wolf mode (playing with the IA teammates was annoying) in hardest difficulty.

Absolutely Fantastic game!

I recommend it to anyone though its graphics might look old compared to today's games. The gameplay, the realism and attention to every detail are still definitely some of the best out there!
 
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Hidden & Dangerous (original) is one of my all time favorites. Love the atmosphere of it especially. H&D2 is also great and I played it online for a while too but unfortunately there were almost no servers to play on and the ones there were only had like 40 players rotating throughout the day so alot of 6vs6 battles. Almost nobody played it online!! I think it was the complicated interface that turned players away from it.
 
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Nade spamming is what turned me away from this game, there was allways players who constantly throw grenades, I hated that. Grenade radius is too wide and even laying down would not help. This game is more like arcade game when played online. Too much unrealistic arcade style side stepping and nade spamming. H&D2 single player is much better, atleast AI plays more realistically.
 
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The Western Desert campaign makes that entire game. Each mission feels amazingly "authentic". From the Jeep to the hilarious shorts to the German medic in the Oasis. The misssions are some of the most varied in the game, most notably the drive through the desert getting strafed by Stukas, or the flight through the canyon getting shot at by 109s It really is amazing and shouldn't be missed by anyone. Not to say the rest of the game ****s, there are plenty of excellent missions like the castle in the Austrian Alps, the Burmese Jungle, blowing up the Tirpitz with limpet mines is quite good, attacking a Iceburg station complete with a docked Submarine, and the atmosphere in the Czech village is very well done, eerie and sad.
 
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If only the a.i were smarter.. this would probably be one of my favourite games :(

Hate how they don't seem to respond to commands at times, also the fact that they can't seem to stay quiet - Is the only way to get them to hold fire through using that tactical-map thingy? Doesn't seem like there's an 'only fire when fired upon' command in the quick commands either:(

I'd love to see what the big deal is with online too, seems like there's only nade spammers and sidestepping loonies! :D

Either way I still like the game for what it is. Are there any decent multiplayer mods that make online any better? I still have faith and would love to play this with a bunch of people from the RO forums!
 
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my tactical gaming craving started with good old hidden and dangerous :rolleyes: played through it whole, finished the expansion pack, then got hidden and dangerous 2 on release, played through it whole, later got sabre squadron and played through that whole too :) good times.
every once in a while i start to get the urge to install it again, and every time it rocks again. though now ive played the first few levels so much over and over i cant be arsed to install it again for a while.:p

multiplayer isnt great though, co-op is, but cmon, they put in DeathMatch :\ like, wtf is this doing here? lots of sidestrafing and nade spamming. usually it lags for me as well.

AI was pretty good in some situations. in the 4th level you have to kill out a submarine. i was behind something wich could be accessed via 2 ways: left and right. 2 AI soldiers came sneaking towards me unhearably, 1 went left and the other right. thank god i noticed that in time ^^
also, they can be pretty accurate: on that same level i had my sniper high on the iceberg overwatching the camp, and the officer fled. he was jogging away at about 400 metres away from my sniper teammate, and he shot him straight in the head while i failed to kill him upclose with an smg xD
 
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