Hidden and Dangerous 2

Join the SAS for a jaunt through WWII with Private Ed Dawson.

Hidden & Dangerous 1 was a military stealth-adventure with a bit of sniping in it. The sequel is an epic concoction of every single form of military computer game, short of realistic vehicle simulations.

Hidden & Dangerous 2 combines squad-based tactics and strategy, third-person stealth, pilotable vehicles with crew slots, first-person sniping, a detailed turn-based command system, a huge range of first-person weapons and scuba diving. It's also very tough. The landscape looks nice, the animation is great and the character detail is superb.

You'll travel all over the world with the SAS, listen to lengthy instructions and then sneak into places and blow things up. Once you've spotted an enemy, you can see their field-of-view animated on the map screen, which is handy. You can choose four different speeds of movement, three different stances and your squad mates can be given instructions to be aggressive, defensive or passive. Or you can give them explicit instructions from an isometric view, paused. Or you can switch your active controls to that character and do it in first person view yourself. Then you all get in a tank and drive it around.

The problem with all these layers of interaction is that the game seems to be suffering from multiple personalities. True, you can choose appropriate methods of control for a myriad range of situations, but it would probably have been better to amalgamate these modes.  They're like a mixed vegetable soup at best. The game has substance, but you'll struggle to notice while you're wrestling with the convoluted controls.