Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad

The Good
One might expect more from a sequel, but the most you'll ever get from this game is not enough. There are outstanding detailed graphics that bring out the feel of a war torn urban atmosphere. There are lodes of targets and enemies to destroy for masses of points. Bosses now have weak points, which allows for strategic gun battling or you may choose to destroy all parts of the boss for additional points. The prime new mechanic in the game is the ability to use vehicles, giving the game a sort of top-down Metal Slug-esque gameplay (except you can't make the vehicles jump). The new character Angel is the most likeable and only decent trooper of the quartet. But your fun is cut short by the bulk of the game's bad content.

The Bad
Much of what you get in the game is unimaginative and defies the thrill of the first game. Most of the characters are lacking, especially Toy with his fixed angle laser and short range bomb attack. Even the names like Billberk and Lulu are not very original. Sound is repetitive and unrealistic, it quickly gets annoying with metal clinks and DIC troops going "Oh! Oh! Oh!" when you shoot them. The music is no better with over-energetic and forgettable tunes, some of which have unearthly shrieks.

The gameplay is heavily reduced in many ways, with a limited number of weapons replaced by powered default weapons and very occasional different ones. The evasive roll is replaced by an unreliable air jump which doesn't protect you effectively. The controls swap the evade button with the grenade button, making evading more difficult. The health bar is changed so that you take a lot more damage and have limited lives as opposed to the long health bar. Lastly there's no Team Mode, which would have allowed you to fight different enemies and bosses more effectively. Once you beat the first stage, you're left with only two paths to choose from instead of three. The worst stage is the train stage due to the lack of free space to move around. All things combined, you're going to die a lot from beginning to end.

The Bottom Line
The second Shock Troopers game in the series took such a sharp decline from where the first game left off that it ruined the franchise and paved no way for a followup sequel. It's surprising that companies bearing the name DIC didn't sue Saurus for using that acronym in a negative light, nor did Saurus put a disclaimer that "any similarity to real companies, is entirely coincidental". There are absolutely no redeeming qualities for the worst elements the game throws at you. A topdown version of Metal Slug would have been welcome, certainly not this title. We'll never see a Shock Trooper game as good as the first one.