One of the Greatest Games, a 100% positive sequel.
When people hear of a sequel, there is always a small part of their conscious saying "It could be a failure." But luckily GRAW 2 vastly improves on every aspect of its predecessor making it one of the best games I have ever played!
GRAW 2 takes places straight after the events in GRAW 1. This is good, as there is not much story lost during the gap between the two games. The story this time around is that Scott Mitchell must stop a nuclear strike that may hit American soil. Once again Mitchell finds himself and his team venturing through mountainous, desert and suburban areas.
GRAW 2 ups the graphics that were already brilliant in GRAW 1 by a huge margin. During the first level when you use your C4, the explosion afterwards looks amazingly real, not just the explosion, but what affect it does to its surroundings, smoke in a cave will pour out any gaps or holes that it has. The game has been given a massive atmospheric feel as there are places in the game that you can see smoke bursting from areas in the far distance and it looks real. Besides the smoke, every time you see into the distance you get a great feel of scale and how small you are in this war. Just when you think that graphics can't get anymore awesome, you will then see rain. Rain looks amazing with it blowing all around you in all directions, and bouncing off your close surroundings.
The only 2 negatives I have with this games graphics is that lip syncing is still not perfect, but is much better than GRAW 1, actually the all the Cross Com scenes where the is someone talking to you have been made to look much more real and effective. The other negative, Mitchell still reloads with invisible clips or magazines. Once again you see him eject them, and grab an invisible one from his chest and put it back in and reload, this is one thing that is really noticeable and takes away the realism of the game. But besides those two minor issues there is nothing else wrong.
Game play is also greatly improved, this time you may actually use your UAV. The developers have introduced a lovely appreciated feature into their updated Cross Com. Wherever you are, you can choose to see from their field of view; whether it's a tank, helicopter or your squad. From their view you can tell them where to go and what to attack. I found the main use for this was using it to operate your UAV, being able to move it where you want easily made the UAV really useful. This feature is also great so you don't have to get out of cover to be able to see an enemy that you want to order down. This is all thanks to the new revolutionary Cross Com 2.0 Mitchell now has equipped.
Besides the cross com, game play is very similar to the first game, nothing too dramatic, there are more choices of weapons and this time you have the option to carry a sub machine gun instead of taking a hand gun as your secondary weapon. This makes the decision to take a sniper rifle much easier. Medics!! Finally poor old Mitchell can get some healing love. No more surviving on red level health (if you choose a medic to accompany you that is).
Your squad will no longer wander into the middle of a fire fight to see what that shiny object is on the ground. Now the ever so smart squad will take cover, tell you what's happening and inform you on how many enemies are in the present area. Thanks to the new AI they have been given.
Sound is fantastic, epic music will start pumping out at you when a massive event happens and slowdown when things are quiet. It's great and makes you feel awesome when strong music is playing and keeps you on edge when things are quiet. The sound effects blast you away on your 5.1 surround sound, because the game has vast backgrounds, you will also hear what's happening in them whether it be gun fire, or an explosion.
After playing with the IGN AU team on multiplayer I have to say it's great, it runs smooth with Australian hosts. It's fast paced and voice chat is needed to succeed which helps prevent idiotic chat. It does however lose a lot of Single Player functions but it's still great. This is the most enjoyable multiplayer game I have played in a long time.
GRAW 2 is a brilliant game and I would recommend it to anyone.