Hidden & Dangerous 2: Sabre Squadron (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.3 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Scott Osborne
• Reviewed on: 10/27/2004
• Released on: 10/21/2004
• Originally published on GameSpot: Hidden & Dangerous 2: Sabre Squadron (PC) Review

Hidden & Dangerous 2, a tactical squad-based shooter set during World War II, failed to address many of the flaws in the original Hidden & Dangerous. Sabre Squadron, the new mission pack for Hidden & Dangerous 2, likewise fails to address many of the problems in its parent game. Nevertheless, it still offers a lot of solid, new material that fans should enjoy, including the cooperative play mode that was conspicuously absent from Hidden & Dangerous 2.

Sabre Squadron adds nine new missions that are set in different combat theaters, and you can play them solo or cooperatively online. You also get eight diverse, new multiplayer maps. Furthermore, a few new weapons and drivable vehicles, like Sherman tanks, round out the package.

The game's box also boasts improved artificial intelligence as a major feature of this latest Hidden & Dangerous offering. However, this seems misleading, because if the AI's been significantly improved, it sure is hard to notice. From the very first mission, you see that your computer-controlled squadmates again need frequent direction and handholding. Your fellow soldiers can again wander far afield and end up widely separated from the rest of your men, though at least not as frequently as before. They again allow themselves to be blasted to pieces when they could easily have ducked, run for cover, or shot the enemy first. They again block doorways and otherwise get in your way. They constantly get in each other's lines of fire and then complain about it instead of simply moving. For elite SAS soldiers, these guys exhibit pretty shoddy tactical skills and aim. The enemy AI won't win any prizes, either. You can literally shoot the helmet off a German soldier and watch in amusement as he just stands there without reacting. Most of the time your enemy puts up a decent enough fight, though.

Sabre Squadron also fails to address the micromanagement and control issues that plagued Hidden & Dangerous 2. Movement again feels a bit sluggish and awkward. It still takes too long to fiddle with your characters' inventories. Instead of simply pressing a single button to heal yourself, for example, you often need to open your inventory screen, transfer a first aid kit from your backpack and in to your character's ready supply of gear, then press another button to choose the first aid kit from among that gear, and, finally, press another button to use it. You can easily spend as much time juggling inventory items and searching for the right controls as you do fighting.

As for the new missions, they're solid but are rather inconspicuous. You'll infiltrate a sprawling German submarine pen complex to destroy a couple of docked U-boats. You'll rescue downed airmen from an Axis garrison in North Africa. Then you'll race through an enemy-infested canyon to get to the crashed aircraft so you can destroy its top secret equipment before the enemy can get its paws on it. You'll get to mount a dusk raid on a series of German gun emplacements in Sicily, help defend a bridge against enemy infantry and tanks, blow up an ammo dump, and more.

As in the original game, you'll get plenty of opportunities to roar around in jeeps, steal enemy weapons and gear, snipe from afar, sneak through bunkers, blow up tanks, and perform other daring feats. While the missions offer multiple objectives, plenty of combat, and tactically interesting environments, it's nevertheless hard to get particularly excited about them. They mostly feel like uninspired reruns of the original Hidden & Dangerous 2 missions or missions from similar games, like Medal of Honor Allied Assault or Call of Duty. In fact, some of Sabre Squadron's missions essentially repeat themselves with multiple POW rescues. You'll get a big sense of WWII déjà vu playing Sabre Squadron.

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