Hidden & Dangerous 2 preview

Snow fights in WWII tended not to involve snowballs

The original Hidden & Dangerous game was the first modern title to popularise WWII as a viable backdrop for an action game. Way back in the summer of 1999, before even EA’s Medal of Honor series began, it was giving gamers the chance to show Nazis the business end of a tommy-gun.

Since the original was lauded for its innovative squad-based tactical combat and almost equally derided for its legion of bugs this new sequel has much to live up to and an equal amount to live down. I was recently afforded an exclusive two-hour play test of both the single and multiplayer modes, down in the bowls of Westminster’s War Cabinet Rooms.

Blood, sweat and beers

Sniping was fashionable even in the 1940s

Once again the game has been developed by Czech team Illusion Softworks, overseen by Take Two’s Gathering. The first thing the team were keen to point out is that absolutely nothing from the original game remains in the sequel. Save for the basic concept of SAS squad-based combat everything is new, with not a jot of code surviving from the first game.

This is fairly obvious from the off as the graphics are far more impressive than before and easily on a par with any other contemporary title. The first level I’m shown involves a single soldier infiltrating a frozen Nazi base to take a photo of a new experimental aircraft. Although most of the levels involve you controlling a team of four some, particularly the more stealth based levels, have you going it alone. Indeed a new game mode called ‘Lonely Hunter’ allows you to tackle any of the levels on your tod, should you so wish. Alternatively ‘Bloodshed’ lets you forget all that tactics and stealth nonsense and turns the game into a straightforward shoot ‘em-up.

I wandered lonely as a hunter

"Just 3,000 miles on the clock. One careful owner."

The main story mode is where the real meat and potatoes of the game lies though and it is this I was watching as one of Gathering’s QA testers took the role of a lonely Sgt. Perkins creeping about an underground complex not at all dissimilar in style to the very bunker we were sitting in (well the rest of the bunker anyway, the room we were in was of course filled with decidedly non-WWII era PCs).

Creeping down the stairs of the complex the first problem that arose was a guardroom between Perkins and the door he needed to go through. Cleverly flicking the light switch off to gain some cover though did not result in quite the advantage anticipated as the guard, quite rightly, surmised something was up had a look outside, spotted us, slapped the alarm button then jumped out the room to be cut down in a hail of British lead. Before there was time to celebrate though all his jackbooted mates, alerted by the alarm, suddenly burst through the door and turned poor Perkins into Swiss cheese. It’s at this point that I’m coyly informed that the A.I. “might be set a bit too high”.

Nazis. I hate these guys.

"Go on sarge, say boo!"

This isn’t simply the computer-controlled guards having an unfairly good aim or magically knowing where you are though – as is often the case with lesser games. In the QA guy’s subsequent attempt to penetrate the underground lair a bad guy manages to trap the reincarnated Perkins behind a column, fling a grenade at him then double back around the room in an attempt to outflank him. All very impressive but when it comes time for me to be offered a go on one of the North African levels it’s with some trepidation I pick up the mouse.

My level saw me in control of a team of four, all of who could be ordered about either separately or as a group by using the keypad. Although it looks like it should be complicated with at least one level of sub-menus for each of the five main options it’s actually quite a breeze to use with the main movement commands especially easy to use as you tell your team to halt, advance and so on.

Follow me girls!

The boys fail to realise that a few blades of grass doesn't really constitute 'cover'

Looking across an impressively realistic bank of sand dunes, across to a huge stone fortress I was encouraged to take just one of my men (ironically a Pte. Jenkins) and have a go at sniping the few soldiers that could be seen from our slightly elevated position. Taking out the guard atop a minaret with a satisfying head shot I watched impressed as the base suddenly flared into life and various guards started running to the ramparts and firing in my general direction. Taking them out didn’t prove too much trouble though and I quickly instructed the rest of my men to follow me as we ran down to try and enter the fort through a side door.

At this point the fearsome intelligence of the A.I. was once again in evidence as the boys and I were pinned down amongst some broken pieces of masonry just outside the fort. Thinking I’d be clever and try and work my way round to take out the enemy from behind I found that he was in fact moving around the various chunks of rock himself, drawing me into a line of fire from one of his buddies and only coming a cropper when one of my own men shot him.

Alas poor Jenkins

Hidden & Dangerous 2: a Nazi in every minecart

Attempting to take the initiative I then instructed my men to advance and was promptly shot in the head by a sniper. Although Pte. Jenkins was dead though I was able to take control of one of the three remaining men, make it inside the fort and conduct a spot of house-to-house searching for what had suddenly become a strangely timorous and unmotivated enemy - more problems with the A.I. I’m informed.

Despite the bugs (there were various other minor graphical glitches, but nothing worse than you’d seen in many major retail releases) the single player mode had proven highly impressive and managed to convey a real sense of urgency and tension as you improvise tactics on the fly against what seems like an unusually real and intelligent enemy.

A Bridge Too Short

Pte. Pike is mocked for forgetting both his hat and umbrella

Naturally tactics went largely out of the window when playing the multiplayer mode as the rest of Gathering’s QA team suddenly sprung to life and started arguing over which map we should play. A short bridge based level, looking exactly like something out of A Bridge Too Far, was selected as it gave me the chance to try out a few of the vehicles in the game. The jeep proved entirely unsuited to the job of storming the nazi stronghold at the other end of the bridge (we were playing king of the hill) but the huge American tank fared much better. I jumped into the beast and got it trundling along the bridge, picking up team-mates along the way to man the main gun and smaller machinegun.

We quickly overpowered the enemy only to be picked off by a sniper on the roof of the bridge as we got out to nab the flag. It had nowhere near the scope of Battlefield 1942 but Hidden & Dangerous 2 multiplayer was no less fun, although the subsequent jungle based deathmatch map was rather more pedestrian in style and content.

Just call Rentakill

Nazis: enemies of freedom and Indiana Jones

Overall Hidden & Dangerous 2 is looking excellent and it’s refreshing to play such a complex game that remains easy to control and play after only the briefest glance at the control guide. The only problem seems to be the original game’s Achilles heel: bugs. Gathering couldn’t give a percentage for how complete the game was and yet it is scheduled for a late October release. It’s going to be a close run thing to get the game 100% healthy by then, but the team seemed confident and even in its current state the game was still more fun to play than pretty much any other recent PC action title.

Keep an out for an exclusive interview with Luke Vernon, Development Director at Gathering, coming soon only to Boomtown!