Key Facts:

Publisher/Developer: Gotham Games/Pivotal Games
ESRB Rating: Teen for Blood and Violence
Number of Players: 4-player co-operative
Available For: Gamecube, PC, PS2, Xbox

Story

Bradley, Foley, Connors and Jones. The 1991 Gulf War\'s most highly-decorated Special Forces soldiers. The fighting man\'s fighting men. As Patrol Alpha-Two, they took part in some of the most notorious engagements of the Desert Storm campaign. It was they who spirited the Emir of Kuwait to safety, right from under the noses of the Iraqi soldiers invading the capital. It was they who took out the vital Early Warning Radar at An-Nagaf, paving the way for the Air War that would cripple the enemy defences. It was they who single-handedly fought back the Republican Guard division invading the Saudi Arabian town of Al-Khafji, they who decimated the SCUD threat in the merciless deserts of North-West Iraq, they who penetrated into the heart of Baghdad itself to liberate Allied airmen taken prisoner, and they who brought a swift end to the war by confronting the rogue General Aziz. That was only half the story. What about the burning oil fields of Kuwait? What about Saddam\'s Chemical Weapons programme? What about the Superguns? What happened to those Allied soldiers taken prisoner, and those who didn\'t come back at all? Listen up, soldier You\'re about to find out -------- END OF FILE (Taken from official website)

Gameplay - 8/10

The controls are your typical FPS fare. Except, unlike one-man-army games, you?re in charge of a four-man squad. Via various button sequences, you command individuals or the whole squad to move, guard, shoot, etc. Due to the frequent commanding/changing of items/weapons, the control feels a bit clumsy at times. Nonetheless, it does function. You also have the option of playing in first or third person. Aiming in first person can be difficult. In third person, you have an auto-lock feature, which can find enemies long before you even know that they?re there; and the auto aim has a low accuracy rate in my experience. The gameplay is nothing really original. Get from point A to point B, upon arriving at point B, protect thing C, or something similar. In doing so, you?ll have all-out firefights, but sometimes, it is better to take things slowly and with stealth. Snipe out guards near lights, then put out the lights, finally remove all other enemies. You can get in certain vehicles for some variety. But perhaps the most original addition is in being able to switch persons at any time. Each character excels in something different; for instance, one character is designed for sniping, while another is an explosives expert. An irritating factor, is that you can set up to snipe someone a great distance away, and yet, they?ll sense and kill you with ease. Then there is the multiplayer. The only mode of multiplayer is co-op. You and up to three others can go through the single player campaigns in full. This actually works quite well, and is highly enjoyable. If you have less then four players, the extra character(s) will be divided up among the remaining players.

Graphics - 8/10

The graphics are fairly good, in many regards quite realistic. Perhaps lacking a little bit of detail. Almost boring, but then, they were likely aiming for realism, so that excuses it I suppose. I don?t recall any slowdown.

Sound - 7/10

As has been the case with everything else, the sound gets the job done. It?s nothing real fancy, the guns and explosions are loud, the soldiers yell and that?s about it. The voice acting is alright, though not phenomenal. And there isn?t much in the way of music.

Longevity

Even on the easy difficulty setting, I found this game relatively tough. Single player should last you a while. Plus, there\'s the fantastic co-op mode, in which you play the regular campaign levels, with up to four players. However, unlike most shooters, there are no competitive modes such as deathmatch.

Appropriateness

- Violence - 4/10

This game is war, and as such, violence abounds. You shoot, slice, snipe and blow up countless Iraqi soldiers. When shooting someone, there is a blood \'spray\', not the most horrible thing ever, but it is there. You can also kill civilians or your fellow soldiers. The violence isn?t terribly brutal though, for example, no severing of anything. And indeed, you do kill for a reason.

- Language - 7/10

In the training there are at least two or three foul statements made by your trainer. Outside of that, I do not recall anything, but it is probably there.

- Adult Content - 10/10

None that I know of, which is a nice thing.

- Occult - 10/10

The only thing even near the occult you\'ll find, is what I assume are the Koran on tables in many of the buildings. Nothing aside from that as far as I know.

Overall - 6/10

All in all, Conflict is a fun game, especially in the co-op mode. Nonetheless it is very violent. The gameplay is at times a little cumbersome, and the graphics won\'t really wow you. Bottom line, morality sways the overall score... so in the end, Conflict: Desert Storm II gets a 6/10.