I've included a couple of interesting facts about World War 2 in this review, both of these have been taught to me by Illusion Softworks' tactical first person shooter Hidden and Dangerous 2*

Interesting fact: During World War 2, crack squads of SAS members would waste countless ammunition shooting at targets out of their range, they would do this while left to their own devices - meaning that once the command came through to fire upon the enemy, the soldier would more than likely be reduced to using his pistol.

The campaigns in Hidden and Dangerous 2 take you from the forests of Norway, to North Africa, and then into the dense jungles of Burma, before you take in the sights of Austria, and Northern France with your squad finally ending up in war-torn Czechoslovakia

There are a large variety of weapons to choose from (and even more that you can pick up from the dead bodies of enemy soldiers) including light weaponry such as knives (ideal for the stealthy kill, not so good at clearing a room) and pistols, medium class consists of rifles (scoped and unscoped) and a selection of submachine guns (along with some silenced versions), heavy selections include amongst other lesser known selections - the ever-popular BAR, the Bren Gun, and high power Bazookas.

Also available on the load out screen are a variety of other items to help you on your missions - first aid kits, compasses, mines, explosives plus other items that are essential to your completion of certain missions.

Some missions will require you to infiltrate enemy complexes, and you'll be forced to select just one man from your current selection of four - however, his task can be made much easier if you manage to steal an enemy uniform - sound simple? Add the fact that there are no enemy uniforms left lying around in handy locations, and that the moment you shoot an enemy the uniform is useless as a disguise, and you realise that this game requires at least some thought. Further additions to separate this game from other shooters include the stats (which feature first aid, shooting accuracy, stealth and lock picking, among others) of your soldiers are increased after every successful mission, meaning that you are rewarded for looking after your men - and if you take the same squad through the entire game, it makes the later missions much easier. In addition to this, you're only given a brief outline of your 'mission' meaning that you can approach the objective in a number of ways - the options available to you aren't that vast, but they do mean that you can avoid encountering tanks and other heavily armed infantry head on... although hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Interesting fact: SAS members are not trained in how to climb ladders, and must be guided through the process one at a time.

You have the option of controlling your men one at a time, in either first of third person perspective, and using certain pre-set commands ('Move There', 'Hold Position', 'Fire on my lead') to order your other men into battle, although the flawed A.I. may mean that when you tell a soldier to 'Move There' he'll become stuck behind a tree or some other object, making a mockery of your finest laid plans. It is possible to control and move every member of your team individually, but this can be a time consuming process, and the moment you become bored and begin hurrying your men through areas that looked empty is the moment the enemy pops up and lays waste to your disorganised squad.

However, there is a third option available to you - you can use the tactical map mode - which pauses the game and allows you to give out more complex commands to your fellow soldiers, helping you to co-ordinate intricate attacks on well defended enemy positions. However, you won't come across any point in the game where you really need to use such things, which is quite good, as giving out orders in this manner can be time consuming and frustrating, maybe an option to change the perspective of the battlefield would've helped here - as it is, it requires far too much scrolling backwards and forwards over the terrain.

Graphically the LS3D engine (the same engine used in Mafia) is now showing its age, but manages to do an adequate job - Hidden and Dangerous 2 is by no means the most beautiful game you will play though. Glitches in the sound can cause certain sound effects not to occur, meaning that all your creeping around can become unhinged as you didn't hear (or the sound effect didn't play for) the door opening behind you - but aside from that the sound effects are a pretty much standard fare, with the expected gun sounds and explosions all here, and a suitable music score to go along with the action.

Multiplayer is lacking a co-operative mode, and in a game like Hidden and Dangerous 2, this is close to unforgivable - imagine being able to go through the levels again, but instead of relying on dodgy A.I., you could communicate with other people and probably get the mission done in record time - this is available in other games, so why not here? An opportunity missed. This aside, the modes of online play (Occupation, Objective, Team Death Match) offer much potential fun to be had - if you can find a server - Hidden and Dangerous 2 is criminally under represented in the online world, with the in-game browser only reporting 450 active players last time I ventured forth - and the majority of those seemed to be using the demo.

It's a shame that I can't recommend Hidden and Dangerous 2 more than I have done, but due to the sheer amount of bugs in the game (even after numerous patches) it fails to make itself an essential purchase - a shame, as there's plenty of fun (and some wonderful moments) to be had with this title