Greg Hastings’ Tournament Paintball 2 Max’d

Paintball is fun. It has all the excitement of gunning down your friends without the ramifications of actually killing one another.

A gamer might think that this would make a terrible video game, and that gamer may indeed be correct. Yet, here is a sequel which tells us that the first game had to be good enough to warrant a second coming.

GHTP2 throws you straight into the deep end with a career mode. The only good part about this is that it can be played with a friend via co-op. As the single player is akin to ADHD, no matter how good you get or what’s going on, you always have the urge to get up and do something else. As your stats build up, your character becomes more accurate. Your character becomes quicker and reloads better. Your team’s rank also becomes higher. This may be gold for a paintball fan, but for a gamer, it feels more like a chore.

Just like paintball, unless you managed to cheat your way out of it, one shot means death. The game is best played by hiding behind a cover and waiting for the right time to act. Commands can be issued out to your team through the use of a one-click scenario. This is great for flushing out that last guy hiding at the back of the map. On too many occasions, however, your team holds back in their predetermined spot. So don’t expect a lot of support or back up when it’s really needed.

Naturally, the game’s longevity lies within the multiplayer mode. The game gives players a choice of co-op, multiplayer skirmish and online mode via Live. There was no shortage of online games to play and it can be a nice way of wasting an hour with friends, but even these options leave a lot to be desired. As for the career mode, the gameplay becomes somewhat dull very quickly.

GHTP2 is about as close as any video game has come to the real paintball experience whilst still keeping the realms of fun -- albeit barely. WXP have set out to make a paintball video game sim and that’s exactly what they have achieved. This is also where the game’s strengths and weaknesses lie.

The problem still remains: paintball just doesn’t make a terribly great video game no matter how hard you try to make it as close as the real thing.

WXP obviously aimed this at paintball fans and the curious gamers. If you fall into any of these two groups, then GHTP2 has much to offer. Anyone else will find many aspects of this game short.