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Fighting Force 2 Review
Noel Brady
00/12/0000
There were originally four characters in Fighting Force. One, Hawk Mason, now remains.
This leads us to the highly inventive mind game of trying to imagine what could of happened to the other three ill-fated heroes-- a puzzle which is probably more entertaining that this new title itself. Still, all we know is that Hawk has now become a government agent, which means that he can now beat up people with government-licensed gadgets instead of illegal baseball bats.
In each level, Hawk reads through his directives, and then must walk, climb, blast and bash his way through large, interior levels to meet the objectives. Often the objectives change mid-mission which is most confusing and, above all, frustrating. But it doesn't matter, because no matter what you throw at Hawk, the real mission is to smash the buttons as often and as hard as possible. He likes action, guns, kicking the crap out of bad guys. But then again, he's dumb and so are you if you buy this game!
Starting the game with only a few knives and grenades, you have to rely on hand-to-hand combat to deal with the first few bad guys. The controls are easy to pick up, but you'll instantly realise how the combat system is deeply flawed. When you're outnumbered, which is most of the time seeing as your a lone soldier, it's incredibly difficult to turn from one enemy to another without taking a beating. There's a 180 degree turn button which helps, but smaller rotations seem to take an age.
There's also the matter of not being able to kick opponents while they're down. Punches, kicks and even bullets will not connect with enemies unless they are standing upright. The result is that having beaten an enemy to the ground you have to stand around and wait for the sod to get back up. Not only a fundamental flaw in the gameplay, but a fundamental flaw in realism. Who wouldn't kick an enemy when they're down? Especially after they've just tried to kick your head in with a lead pipe.
More tedious still is having to beat up boxes, cupboards, photocopiers and other pieces of scenery in order to find weapons or keys. Points are also accumulated by causing damage, effectively making what was a nice incidental feature of the original a very dull and necessary chore of the sequel. However, there's a superb section selection of weapons on offer, all capable of taking out even the most fearsome of cardboard boxes, and Hawk is able to carry a realistic amount of gear.
The camera does a few interesting things, too. In the small rooms, it zips around, moving up and down in the third-person perspective as it follows Hawk. It looks like Core needed about three or four more weeks to perfect it, but didn't get the time. Occasionally, you find that you don't know where you are: Small crevices and little inlets are the cause, and I'm not entirely sure why Core built these problems into the game. But, for the most part, the camera still pans around, trying to find the right spot for you to see and fight. It's pretty quick and capable.
The best thing about the game is its look, with several exceptions. Whether outside or inside, the Fighting Force 2 engine is almost a substantial piece of work. It looks like Core revamped the latest Tomb Raider engine and sped things up a bit. It's not like the game is gorgeous, but two things work well. The lighting is solid. Just like everything that blows up and goes bang, nearly everything sizzles with light and particles. The panels of the doors crackle with light, the grenades, which actually bounce and roll like in real life, explode with a nice dome shaped fireball explosion, and occasionally after blowing out a fuse box, everything crackles with energy.
The inventory for selecting weapons is a little clumsy, though, and does not pause the game at all. All too often you find yourself beaten up as you attempt a change of weapon. With practice you'll learn to overcome Fighting Force 2's flaws, but they are flaws nonetheless and will frustrate you repeatedly throughout the game. The exclusion of a Two-Player mode is presumably the result of some of the weapons. The sniper rifle, for example, has a First-Person Targeting Mode-- not a multiplayer friendly feature.
Core have to be admired for trying to take Fighting Force in a new direction. Rather than just serve up a yearly update, they have taken the old game engine and dramatically refurbished it, the problem being that they've taken a relatively good game and messed it up, very badly. Fighting Force 2 seems like it wants to be Tomb Raider but is held back by roots. That said, I sincerely recommend that you take a nod from that fact and hold back from buying it
