When I was a kid a movie came out called the Green Berets. It was a good war propaganda film with John Wayne at the helm. It worked fairly well as quite a few red-blooded American boys wanted to go into the US Army's Special Forces. There you got to kick some Viet Cong butt and wear a cool beret. Fast forward thirty plus years. John Wayne has been dead for quite a while. But the spirit of his film lives on, sort of. Boys now shoot it out with the enemy on a computer screen. Computer game companies crank out war simulations all of the time. One of the latest is Spec Ops II: Green Berets from the folks at Ripcord Games and Zombie Studios. This is a sequel to the popular Spec Ops: US Army Rangers game that came out about a year ago.
Taking a gander at the manual gave me some insight into the modifications that were made to the game. It seemed that some gamers felt some features were lacking in the first game. The designers listened to the feedback from these irreverent gamers. Some of the features that have been enhanced are Dynamic Lighting, higher polygon models, new weapons and more buddies. The buddy AI has been beefed up along with the ability to pick up and drop weapons. The interior and exterior scenery has been enhanced to add a more realistic atmosphere to the game.
There can be up to thirty different scenarios that you find yourself in when playing the game. You first select a mission. Each mission is in a different environment. There are a total of five environments to choose from. Each environment contains specific missions. There can be as many as six missions in an environment.
After selecting the mission and environment level, you are given some specific mission background and initiatives. This part of the gaming selection also recommends equipment and personnel for the mission. From here you get to pick your squad for the mission. Grab a squad member from the pull-down menu and assign him specific characteristics. Add equipment and weapons for your squad and you'll soon be ready to start your mission.
Some of the things to be mindful of when playing the game are your health and the weapon you're using. Getting wounded isn't fun, being dead is even worse. Try to find and collect Medkits to keep your health at 100 %. The weapon that you're using can either be helpful or a hindrance during a mission. Change weapons when necessary and be sure to keep enough ammo around.
When your squad members do well, their rank is advanced and they get better at what they do. If the squad members get killed, their replacements start out at the bottom. Advancing in rank also seems to make the next mission tougher. At the end of each mission, you'll be given a breakdown of how it went. A screen will list the enemy casualty list, the number of squad members you have left and if you've successfully completed the mission.
The various player environments include Antarctica and Korea. Other locations are Pakistan, Thailand and Germany. There are also training levels at the JFK training facility at Ft. Bragg.
Weapons used in this game are pretty intense. There are assault rifles like the SAS 7.62mm. There is also the Uzi 9mm sub-machine gun with a silencer. And who can forget the old terrorist standby, the Ingram MACK 10? You only get one shotgun, the NEOSSTEAD 12 Gauge, but it is one tough scattergun.
As is the case with just about every game nowadays, Spec Ops II is set up for multi-player. There are specific environments and missions assigned to the Multi-Player portion of Spec Ops II.
If you're really gung ho on war simulations, then Spec Ops II: Green Berets is one to put on your "must have or die" list. It has good weapons, tough battle environments and is challenging to play.
You'll find Spec Ops II: Green Berets at your favorite software outlet. If they don't have it, or if you want more information about the game, visit the Ripcord Games web site. It can be found at www.ripcordgames.com.