t’s not often that a fully customizable control set is incapable of being tweaked to some semblance of functionality. Hidden & Dangerous 2, however, has such a clumsy interface that there’s just no good way to do things. Couple this amazing feat with shoddy graphics, poor sound, and boring levels, and you’ve got the makings of an okay-at-best game.

I do have to give H&D 2 points for trying new things. Each soldier in your four-man squad is chosen from a huge pool of men possessing different strengths. The inventory system, while as hard to use as everything else, does make logical sense. I do very much enjoy the tactical map you have access to, and if you are masochistic enough to complete a level, your soldiers’ abilities increase.

Of course, these innovations do nothing to rescue this title from mediocrity. Though the campaign is long, you could pack all of the action into a container half of the size of the Max Payne 2 quest. Multiplayer, which has rescued many a PC game from the bargain bin, offers nothing new or exciting to anyone who has played FPS online. In the crowded market of PC FPS games, there are many other titles which bring much more to the table.  

6 With so many WW II games on the market, you have to do better than this if you want to stand out. H&D 2 is the very definition of mediocrity: the controls are far more complicated that they need to be, the AI is weak, and it’s full of bugs. Add in some really bland graphics, and that’s enough for me to know I don’t want to play it.