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Time Splitters 2 (PS2)
by Thebaker50
I have a previous review on the first game in this series, TS1. I wont be going over the detail covered in that here so save repetition.
The game modes for this game are pretty much the same as those in TS1, but some different challenges are placed, and there is also new maps, and new weapons (although some of the weapons are ... exactly the same as the ones in the first game, but with newer stats and altered ways of firing. There are also some cool new guns, like the shoot through walls rail gun, and the homing missile launcher.
Some big additions to this game however is a slightly more cinematic campagin mode. Rather than just spawn in and pick the package etc, in this game there are actually short video style clips of whats going on, and you have various objectives to do (for example in 1 mission you have to shoot down an apache helicopter). Its still not perfect, but it is an improvement over the previous game.
But once again, the meat of this game is in the splitscreen local multplayer mode. but i should add it is even better due to 3 things. Firstly the graphics and guns, previously mentioned. Secondly there is a map editor now, so provided you have enough memory, you can build huge maps yourself, which is really fun. On these maps you can add flags, spawn areas, and even fixed in machineguns, which brings use swiftly to the 3rd better thing which is the fact that different characters now have different skills, e.g. monkey is small and very fast, whereas other people are bigger, more health, but slower etc. It really adds a certain element to the game.
Overall, this gets 5/5 star, for the very strong multiplayer, but the single player is still not the best.
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Conflict: Global Storm (PS2)
by Thebaker50
Conflict is a series of game following 4 soliders (although in the newest installment 4 becomes 2). What is supposedly great about this is this make multiplayer campaign mode awesome, especially if you have 3 mates who want to come round and play... Sadly I do not have 3 mates who want to come play this with me... as its an outdated ... game. This does ruin the feel of the game just a tad, because instead you are left to content with your allies AI... which to say the least is not very bright.
Ok, in this game, there are 4 soliders as a team. A demo and special forces expert, sniper, heavy weapons and rifleman. You have to go on a quest to basically stop terrorists all over the world, and you end up chasing down the bosses. You have to go through back street jails in war zone, to grand drug lord mansions in your quest to stop various nuclear threats and so on.
The game starts with your team dropped in a war zone (cant remember exactly, but it might have been bosnia), and you are ratted out, and taken to a jail. You must escape, and get to the LZ (landing zone). SPOILER during your escape the sniper (Foaly) is left behind (presumely dead, but again I have heard that in the newest installment you find out that he is still alive and is being tortured).
Anyway, whats good about this game?
I love the way this game is about you being an elite squad, and its all about teamwork. However it gets dull in the fact that if you play alone, you spend 50% of your time setting up your allies in the correct position. I imagine in 4p mode, this wouldnt be an issue.
There are lots of guns as well, and they shoot really realistically. Be is a druganov sniper rifle, or a bazooka, you know its gonna be fun to shoot. ALso i like the way the spec ops solider can shoot smgs better than the rifle, even though any solider can have any weapon. It make the game feel slightly RPG style, especially as the soliders can rank up and level up indivudally (although i am not sure this makes any difference to the gameplay). You can also drive vehicle, such as car and tanks, but there are not that many you can drive, but its just an added plus. Another plus is the stealth aspect of the game. I ued to love going as the spec ops guy, adding a silencer, and scouting ahead. I would have liked to be able to stick the sniper in a place to help me if things got tough, but sadly he would just start shooting automatically, and ruin all the stealth. Still, its the though that counts.
One thing though is that the enemy AI is not very bright either, although to be fair I only ever played easy mode. I would play hard etc if I had someone who wanted to play with, but for an old game like this, there are better games out there.
So in summary, if you and 3 mates want a good 3rd person shooter to play, this is the one. Sadly though, its rare you will have 4 people all willing to play an old 3rd person shooter these days with things like online gaming.
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Tomb Raider: Legend (PS2)
by rufusdog
Tomb Raider Legend is the 7th game in the series featuring adventurer Lara Croft. We are all massive Tomb Raider fans in our house and this game is one that gets used a lot.
The game was the second one to come out on the PS2 platform and is a lot better than the first one Angel of Darkenss. It is easier to move her ... about and there are more places you can move about to. The controls seem easier to use as well as the first one.
There are 8 levels on this game, here are some quick overviews of each level.
Level 1 Bolivia
This level you are making your way through different areas which have a good learning curve so that you get used to doing all the moves. You find out how to make Lara climb up ropes and poles which she couldn't do before, plus how to swing on ropes and other cute moves.
You have to find the Temple by following the route. It is quite easy to find your way around, you need to look our for obvious edges that have a distinctive line on them that she can use to grab hold of to get herself up and across. Once you get used to looking for these tell tale marks you can usually see where you have to go.
You get to fight against some soldiers on the way before you are able to enter the Temple. All through the level there are special things you can find that are like the secrets you used to find on the previous Tomb Raider games but this time they are just artefacts of some kind and you collect them up to win special items at the end of the level. I will explain more later.
Once you get in the temple there are many challenges to overcome to make your way through the area including some good puzzles to work out how to do things like unlocking doors to get to the next room.
At the end of the level you get a harder bit which is like a boss ending, you have to shoot lots of mercenaries which just keep coming but its not too hard to get through it.
Level 2, Peru
In Peru she starts off in a town that looks abandoned but as she searches around the buildings she finds more men firing at her. She needs to find her way through the area and then she finds a motorbike which she gets to drive. This is quite good fun but it is a challenge to get through the area as you have to make sure you do not hit the obstacles in the way and you have people firing at you at the same time. You can not just go where you want to on the bike, it is a set pattern and the scenery keeps refreshing until you have killed enough of the baddies to get you to the next part. You get check points along the way so once you get through one of these it is a relief as you know if you fall off the bike you only have to go back to the last one and carry on from there.
Next you are down under the ground in some ruins and you have to find your way through there escaping from a monster on the way. You also have some more puzzles to solve to get through some of the rooms. To finish the level you have more mercenaries to fight like at the end of the last level.
Level 3, Japan
his level Lara starts wearing an evening dress which is quite novel for the adventurer but it is not long before the dress gets torn and she is back in her normal mode again. You need to find your way up inside a tall building to the roof and then find a way of getting across the roof tops to another building which includes having to ride a bike across at one time jumping the gap between buildings. Once in the final building there are more men to get rid of before she ends up having to fight Takamoto to get to the end of the level. He is the big boss on this level and you just have to fight him but he is not so easy to beat as he keeps firing weapons at you that take your life down really quickly so you have to be fast on the buttons to get out of the way and be able to shoot him back at the same time.
Level 4. Ghana
This level is quite pretty at the beginning with lots of greenery and a large waterfall. You need to find away through the waterfall to find the ruins behind. Once inside you have more puzzles to work out like how to get the water wheels working to open the doors you need to go through.
The end of this level you have to fight another big boss this time called Rutland and he is harder to fight than the last level as he can recharge his life so you sometimes feel you are flogging a dead horse but once you work out the knack as to how to kill him you can finish the level.
Level 5, Kasakhstan
This level starts at a military compound and you need to find ways of getting from one area of it to another without the men killing you. It is quite a fun level with zip wires and other leaps and jumps. You also get to ride the bike again, this time you need to ride the bike along again killing the men who are shooting at you but there are more of them in this level and more obstacles in the way. When you get through the first bit of the chase you get to jump over ramps and things and then you need to land the bike onto the top of a moving train. This then takes you through to the next bit of the level.
You end up in a lab and you need to find ways to get the equipment working again. You have places where you need to get through without touching the floor escaping trailing electric wires and poisonous gases.
At the end of this level the boss is a big creature that feeds off electrical currents so you need to be fast and get rid of it all before you can actually kill it otherwise it keeps renewing its energy.
Level 6, England
In this level you are back in England this time at something like a museum for artefacts relating to King Arthur. It has been abandoned so you need to get some of the bits working again and get through the rooms to the tombs underneath.
Once down there you get to drive a fork lift truck which is a new vehicle although you dont have it for long. You also need to find a way through some areas with grids and fire coming out of them and walls that close in and out on you.
Later on there are flooded passages and under water lakes and some good puzzles to work out to get through the area. Halfway through the level you need to fight a large creature that comes out of the water. You need to find a way to kill it as shooting it doesnt work. Once you have worked out this puzzle you can get to the next area which has more fire traps and some spinning blades to steer clear of. The end of the level is fighting more mercenaries.
Level 7, Nepal
In this level you have to find your way down through the mountain to some caves below. Once in them you need to find the Monastery. Once in there you have some more good puzzles to solve, the one with the weights is really a good one to work out. You dont really have a boss at the end of this level, just some hard jumping things to do with the platforms crumbling under your feet so you have to be really quick with your reflexes.
Level 8, Bolivia
This level you are back in Bolivia again. It is only a short level but there is lots of fighting to do, first you have to fight the mercenaries and then you get to fight the big boss of the game which is a monster not a person (well it was a person but they transformed). There is a trick of killing this monster but I wont divulge it on here, you just need to try all your weapons until you find something that works.
This is the end of the game but its not the end if you get what I mean. There are lots of other things you can do after you have completed it. You need to make sure you save the game after finishing the last level then it will give you other things opening up to do.
One of the other things you can do is go into Lara's home at Croft Manor. This opens up fully after you finish level 1. You can explore the rooms at will but there are puzzles to do in there which are really good, there are shields hidden all over the place, some in view others you need to solve puzzles to find them. You want to try to find all of them in the level, the bronze, silver and the gold. Once you have found all of these you open up other things like more clothes for Lara to change into. You also can earn these through out the game by finishing the various levels and finding the hidden artefacts on each level. There are also time trials you can attempt where you only have a set time to finish each level in and then you get some more special things opening up.
I enjoyed playing this game a lot. It took me a while to do it on my own as I am not that good at using the buttons these days as I used to be. My grandson came round during half term though to stay over and he started playing this game on the morning he came and he had completed it by the next evening although he hadnt done any of the treasure hunts or any time trials. He went back in to the first level and found all the artefacts in there and he managed to complete everything in Croft Manor but there are still plenty of things to be done on the game and he said next time he stays he wants to do some more.
I think the game does have longevity as even if you are super at gaming and manage to finish everything you could always start again from scratch. I dont know whether we will ever be fast enough to finish the whole game with the time trials as they seem really hard to do but its good to keep trying at it.
Also on Ciao under username Harveydog52
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