Conflict Desert Storm was one of my favorite titles of 2002. It wasn’t very polished nor was it innovative within the constraints of its own genre. It wasn’t very pretty, the control was wacky and awkward, online connectivity was completely ignored and minor annoyances speckled the entire game. But there was something alluring about the team based battle game play set in the war that our generation could identify with, especially in a time when hundreds of U.S. soldiers were soon to be descending upon the region once more. In addition, CDS took the military team based combat genre to a more action-packed arcade level that was quite absorbing. The game kept my attention all the way to the finish which was much more than I could say for a lot of the games I played last year.

Breakdown

So when I was entering the Los Angeles Convention Center this May for E3, I was elated to see a poster for CDS: Back to Baghdad covering the wall of an adjacent building knowing that a game warranting such a prompt sequel would certainly have a better budget and accordingly a better chance at receiving the polish it deserves. Stepping into the ring with games like Rainbow Six 3 and Counterstrike, Back to Baghdad might seem like a doughy, past his prime fighter who should have skipped the trip to Krispy Kreme and continued on to the gym. But forsaking comparisons, BtB will satisfy all existing fans and pull in a few more. Dramatically recreating the urban warfare currently taking place overseas, on the news stations and in our minds, this game has been vastly improved over its predecessor with sharper and tighter control, a shiny new face-lift, more focused mission objectives and story advancement and a pool of new extras.

The biggest hurdle to liking the first CDS was the crappy character control. Commanding your squad and switching soldiers was efficient but getting your character to shoot and walk straight was a chore. Both problems have been fixed as the auto-targeting is much quicker and accurate and the walking axis seems to have been re-calibrated - I’d even venture to say its fluid. Another hindrance in the first game was the relative uselessness of the first-person view which was zoomed in too far to use as an alternative. Now, you can actually play the game in first-person mode and use it for an accurate shooting view.

More importantly, the slowed down floating feeling of the first game has been sped up to a realistic pace and the game generally feels much more alive. The first few levels are testament to this new pace as you lay siege to a small city and find yourself in the center of an urban fire fight, the likes of which was never seen on the first game. Mortar shells chew canyons into cobbled streets, snipers unload clips from two and three storied buildings, tanks block narrow avenues and swarms of enemies (many more than before) attack intelligently from hiding places, doorways, windows and ambush points. A.I, enemy and friendly, are both greatly improved with enemies advancing with much more structure to their attacks (although many of them still abandon cover for certain death) and troops will cover themselves better than before.

The games basics remain the same. Control Panel, compass, health bars, weapon skill levels, squad control, aiming cursors and the easy of switching and using weapons. With the improved A.I. and the urban claustrophobia the difficulty has been ramped up and you will find yourself hiding more than before, advancing in pairs instead of all together and sneaking up on tanks constantly. 75% of the game is open firefights and the bulk of them are engaging, but finding weapons and using creativity to get past a particularly difficult intersection is the best part of the game. This is especially engaging in the 2- and 4-player split-screen mode where you and a friend can coordinate attacks, provide cover fire and work on two separate objectives at once.

Unfortunately, although the first few missions give hope, the latter missions surrender to the tried and true but increasingly blue search and destroy chestnut. Finding SAM sites and detonating C4 plastic explosives is only fun once or twice but you’re made to do it far too often in this game. The eventual result is a tiring (although exciting) routine of shooting through a level, clearing the objectives and making it back to the extraction point in a hale of gunfire. There are a few interesting points such as being taken prisoner and escaping to reassemble your team or being ambushed in a city beleaguered by a dust storm. Otherwise, the game’s 10 missions are anti-climatic and seem to end too quickly (unlike the first game). Online connectivity for content download promises that the brevity of the game will be fixed in the future.

Despite the usual lack of detail that this genre suffers, CDS: BtB’s environments, buildings and surface textures are a good grade or two higher than before. The urban surroundings are more complete, down to the volumetric dust particles and the complex use of lighting and shadow. The number of different environments is also greater as you go from desert, to village, to city, to sewers and mountain compounds. Cut-scenes are prettier than before but no more elaborate. Most of the sound clips seem ripped directly from the first game which is fine but its great to hear the detail involved in the sounds of each firearm. Silenced weapons are obviously quieter while larger heavy artillery is loud and intimidating. The great use of the Xbox’s hard drive and the ability to create your own soundtrack is essential if you have some Middle Eastern music lying around - I created the perfect soundtrack using vocal recitations from Mohammed Reza Shadjarians album “Dashti”.

This is a sequel of improvements. Imperfect, of course but worth every second. It’s difficult to ignore the lack of comparable sophistication in some instances in the game but through theme, action and good old fashioned game play, Conflict Desert Storm: Back to Baghdad emerges as a short single player experience with plenty to offer. Either way, it’s certain that the team at Pivotal Games considered the reactions to the first game when making this sequel. Hopefully they will even more so with a third installment next year.

Posted: October 29, 2003