Spy Hunter 2
Angel Studios presents: How not to do a sequel.
Published: December 15, 2003
When Spy Hunter was remade over two years ago, it surprised just about everyone. Developer Paradigm Entertainment's respect for the original game helped the new one stay true in spirit, but didn't hinder it when it game time to bring the world into 3D. The new Spy Hunter was fast, pretty and while a bit lacking in the story and freshness departments by game's end, still managed to be one of the better games of 2001. Spy Hunter 2, on the other hand, is probably one of 2003's worst.
One of the last remaining contracts Angel Studios had to finish up under their name before being swallowed up by Rockstar Collective to become Rockstar San Diego, everything about Sly Hunter 2 screams of a rush job done simply to settle a contract. There is absolutely no soul, no spirit of the original, and no real fun to be found amongst the regurgitated concepts and lackluster attempts at Xeroxing the formula that made the 2001 hit such a pleasant waste of time.
Plenty of little changes have snuck into Spy Hunter 2's code, though not all of them are welcome. A buxom female agent makes a limited appearance in a CG sequence, then largely stays hidden for the rest of the game while the Interceptor, your faithful morphing anti-spy vehicle, has gotten a complete redesign -- including changes as radical as turning the ultraslick motorcycle the Interceptor takes too much damage into a more all-terrain three-wheeled ride.
Sadly, the cosmetic changes will probably be the best received, and even those are hit or miss. Woefully inconsistent difficulty means even early levels swing from near effortless to pass to hair-pullingly hard in the span of two levels. Most of the game's AI is completely brain dead save for moments where they follow scripted events. Objectives are far too vague, and aren't even always enforced. Early on in the game, rather than escorting an informant to a safe house, I simply blew on ahead and arrived at the safe house only to watch the unguarded informant arrive before me unscathed. For some reason Angel Studios lowered the Interceptor's shielding, so it can go from scratch-free to a burning pile of rubble in literally seconds, even in early levels.
When Spy Hunter 2 isn't buggy, brain-dead or overly difficult, it manages to be somewhat entertaining, but only in incredibly short bursts. Most levels can be completed in under five minutes or so, making for a painfully short experience when the game finally does decide to let the fun slip through. In fact, most – if not all – of the length in a level comes from having to slow down to avoid being blown to bits. Part of the fun of the first Spy Hunter remake came from the fact that you were almost always tearing down the road at high speed, not slowing to make sure you were out of firing distance for nearly every enemy.
Angel Studios has been coding for the PS2 since the system launched, and as such they can probably crap out a reasonably solid piece of code with decent graphics. Spy Hunter 2 manages to fit into this category rather nicely; neither particularly ugly nor exceptionally pretty. Some touches, like the morphing animations and the amount of animation detail on the Interceptor are nice, but almost everything else gives off the impression of a game that manages to look competent but doesn't do anything particularly well. Aside from the opening CG, there's no real presentation to speak of; menus are painfully basic, offering little to no information about the level you're about to race on.
Things continue almost identically on the audio side. Some effects, like the engine noise, explosions and voice acting are done well enough, but the music is usually reserved to the same guitar riffs that vaguely mimic parts of the Peter Gunn theme. Generic percussion loops and lame guitar strings do not a pleasant soundtrack make.
This is probably one of the shortest reviews on the site in a long while, and it's mainly because there's just no need to explain too much of what Spy Hunter 2 tries to do. A shoddy sequel that does nothing to honor the original, Midway's second Spy Hunter remake should've been handled by Paradigm, or at least another developer that was willing to do the series justice.
One of the last remaining contracts Angel Studios had to finish up under their name before being swallowed up by Rockstar Collective to become Rockstar San Diego, everything about Sly Hunter 2 screams of a rush job done simply to settle a contract. There is absolutely no soul, no spirit of the original, and no real fun to be found amongst the regurgitated concepts and lackluster attempts at Xeroxing the formula that made the 2001 hit such a pleasant waste of time.
Plenty of little changes have snuck into Spy Hunter 2's code, though not all of them are welcome. A buxom female agent makes a limited appearance in a CG sequence, then largely stays hidden for the rest of the game while the Interceptor, your faithful morphing anti-spy vehicle, has gotten a complete redesign -- including changes as radical as turning the ultraslick motorcycle the Interceptor takes too much damage into a more all-terrain three-wheeled ride.
Sadly, the cosmetic changes will probably be the best received, and even those are hit or miss. Woefully inconsistent difficulty means even early levels swing from near effortless to pass to hair-pullingly hard in the span of two levels. Most of the game's AI is completely brain dead save for moments where they follow scripted events. Objectives are far too vague, and aren't even always enforced. Early on in the game, rather than escorting an informant to a safe house, I simply blew on ahead and arrived at the safe house only to watch the unguarded informant arrive before me unscathed. For some reason Angel Studios lowered the Interceptor's shielding, so it can go from scratch-free to a burning pile of rubble in literally seconds, even in early levels.
When Spy Hunter 2 isn't buggy, brain-dead or overly difficult, it manages to be somewhat entertaining, but only in incredibly short bursts. Most levels can be completed in under five minutes or so, making for a painfully short experience when the game finally does decide to let the fun slip through. In fact, most – if not all – of the length in a level comes from having to slow down to avoid being blown to bits. Part of the fun of the first Spy Hunter remake came from the fact that you were almost always tearing down the road at high speed, not slowing to make sure you were out of firing distance for nearly every enemy.
Angel Studios has been coding for the PS2 since the system launched, and as such they can probably crap out a reasonably solid piece of code with decent graphics. Spy Hunter 2 manages to fit into this category rather nicely; neither particularly ugly nor exceptionally pretty. Some touches, like the morphing animations and the amount of animation detail on the Interceptor are nice, but almost everything else gives off the impression of a game that manages to look competent but doesn't do anything particularly well. Aside from the opening CG, there's no real presentation to speak of; menus are painfully basic, offering little to no information about the level you're about to race on.
Things continue almost identically on the audio side. Some effects, like the engine noise, explosions and voice acting are done well enough, but the music is usually reserved to the same guitar riffs that vaguely mimic parts of the Peter Gunn theme. Generic percussion loops and lame guitar strings do not a pleasant soundtrack make.
This is probably one of the shortest reviews on the site in a long while, and it's mainly because there's just no need to explain too much of what Spy Hunter 2 tries to do. A shoddy sequel that does nothing to honor the original, Midway's second Spy Hunter remake should've been handled by Paradigm, or at least another developer that was willing to do the series justice.