PS2 Review: Spy Hunter 2 (2003)

The original Spy Hunter re-make (2001, and recent recipient of the Code Redd Net Award for Best Action Game) remains one of our favorite PS2 games to this day, and so you can probably imagine the level of anticipation we had for Spy Hunter 2 when it was announced. Now imagine our disappointment when the product finally arrived. SH2 is an absolutely startling example of taking an established, successful, you might even say nearly bulletproof, formula and stripping it of those elements that made it successful in the first place in favor of underdeveloped and incoherent new ideas. The smooth controls of the original are replaced with a sticky, unresponsive set, and even when you can get the Interceptor to behave properly, it feels like you're driving Mom's SUV rather than a souped-up-for-spies supercar. Furthermore, ammunition is no longer as plentiful as before, so you often find yourself using it sparingly rather than liberally, a strategy which is an odd fit in such an arcade-y universe. And the difficulty is totally uneven; while one level is strikingly easy, the next is maddeningly difficult, and the game bounces back and forth indiscriminately between these two extremes. SH2 also has a co-op feature, something which theoretically sounds fun, but is not satisfactorily executed at all. In this mode, the first player controls the vehicle and its primary and secondary weapons, while the second player can only manipulate a weak turret situated on top of the Interceptor, and this often leads your buddy with little or nothing to do. I will say, though, that SH2 has a decent variety of missions to complete, and the few boss fights are enjoyable and different. Overall, however, SH2 is a mediocre follow-up to a PS2 classic. It's a game which seems more impressed with getting the self-professed "hot piano chick," Vanessa Carlton, to pen a lame song for the soundtrack than taking the formula laid out by the original in any appreciably new directions.