| Deleted User | Now, I have to admit to being very, very naughty last year. I bought H+D2 instead of Max Payne 2, then sold it as it was a buggy mess. I loved aspects of it - the atmosphere, the soundtrack and the gameplay were excellent. It's just the horrendous bugs and glitches forced me to stop playing.
Now, I returned it at the shop and exchanged it, but forgot I had it on my hard drive. When I realised, the patch had came out and I tried it and cracked the game (tut tut). Whoa. It was like a different game! Then, "He" must have been watching from on high and my windows need reinstalling due to a fatal error with my network connections. No more H+D2! D'oh! Serves me right for being an ass!
So, months later, with Far Cry finished, I needed a new game to get my teeth into. I play a lot of multiplayer, and needed a single player game to smooth out my choices. Me and Dom went to Notting Hill, and I found a copy of H+D2 on the cheap, damaged box.
Wow! This game is GREAT! There's just so much to it! You can play it as an FPS, completely tactically through a RTS interface or even like a Raven Shield squad game. Me? I use tactics and the first person view, erasing all the info windows for total immersion. I command the rest of my squad through silent commands ssued via the keypad. Lovely!
You can really play this game any way you want. I enjoy sneaking around, deciding my plan of attack and trying to get into enemy bases through stealth and silent tactics. Even better, the second level is a lone-wolf hunt for information in a Nazi underground complex which you have to blow up.
It's totally open-ended, slow and clever. I chose to eliminate the guards in the base one by one, making sure I didn't trip any alarms, until I ended up on a full attack using grenades to clear rooms, SWAT style. I didn't know this, but the germans had congregated in my exit point and were waiting for me - I opened a door after completing the mission and got wasted!
Then, I realised I could make germans SURRENDER. If you do, either by scaring them by shooting a clip over their heads or by shooting the gun away from their hands, you can capture them and STEAL THEIR UNIFORMS! I could have avoided the entire level, shooting people, and could have stealthily walked around taking photo's, assasinating problem guards and scientists and laying the explosives anonymously!
WHOA!
Anyway, I can't recommend this title enough. If FPS' aren't for you, you can play it 3rd person or even through a tactical RTS viewpoint which freezes the action for you to make choices. WOW. Endlessly replayable, good looking and with juicy gameplay. I'm glad I rediscovered it. If you are crap at action, buy it anyway as I'm sure you'll find a happy medium.
ONE WORD OF WARNING - avoid the training level. It's badly designed and you can actually die during it and fail for reasons unknown. Skip it (you can by selecting Skip and Continue from the Esc options menu) and go straight to the first mission. Then get stuck in!
|
