Bradley (The leader), Conners (Heavy weapons) , Foley (Sniping) and Jones (Demolitions) are heading back to Baghdad to take care of some unfinished business and well... that's the story basically. I suppose Desert Storm 2 is a rather topical game now and I'm sure that's exactly what the marketing department over at Atari was thinking too. Although I'm sure they wouldn't want to cash in on something as harrowing as a war (I'm winking now, if you can't tell) I can't help but feel though that maybe efforts could have been made to contact Mr. Bush and ask him to push back the war so that various issues could've been sorted out before release.

Conflict: Desert Storm 2, like the original, is a team-based shooter. Don't go in expecting Ghost Recon style creep and shoot game-play though, Desert Storm aims to give you a more action packed depiction of war. That's not to say that it's a ‘pick up and play – go in guns blazing' type game though. To tell you the truth, the learning curve is quite steep. The controls, while efficient once learnt, can be a bit of a turn-off to newcomers and can also affect how often the game is played in the enjoyable split-screen cooperative mode. You may find your friends turned off before they're turned on because of having to learn the control layout. The upside of the rather more complex controls is that they give you more advanced control over your men than most other games.

Unfortunately though, the teammate AI is severely lacking. Although you can leave them to their own devices, it is not recommended you do so. The ASA (Advanced Suicidal AI) engine is an unfortunate part of Desert Storm 2 and the original. While suicide bombers and kamikazes may have been a large part of war over the years, you really don't want it from your teammates, especially when (unlike in the original) losing a teammate ends the mission. Luckily, you can heal a downed teammate, but only if you have enough medi-packs in your possession. This is actually a very effective part of the game, as you will often find yourself with three downed teammates and you'll have to race across a still active battlefield trying to heal them before you are taken down yourself. The only problem is trying to get your newly healed teammate out of danger before he just stands up again on the spot, out in the open shooting at someone, or many someones that he has no chance of defeating. Thus you will often see your teammate drop again on the exact same spot you healed him.

Now if there was one thing in the original Desert Storm that really irritated me, it was the use of spawning enemies and they're back in the sequel. In certain sections of the game, you will find yourself shooting at the same building or structure for what seems an eternity as it spews forth a seemingly endless amount of enemy troops. Well guess what? If you really wanted to, you could spend an eternity shooting at them, because they just aren't going to stop unless you make your way over to their location. Once there, the vomiting will stop and you won't find what you would think must be a room full of about 10,000 troops or a woman rapidly giving birth to fully suited, super-fast-maturing children. What you will find is an empty room that, before you arrived, possessed a magic not seen since Lord Of The Rings.

All shooting is handled using a rather twitchy auto-aim system. The problem is that the auto-aim, although improved over the original, is a bit out some of the time (and when I say some of the time, I mean often). The auto-aim is not only clumsy in its responsiveness, it is also inaccurate. Sometimes you will be locked on and the shot won't register (especially frustrating when sniping!) and at other times you will hit a hill or wall that your sights indicate you have easily cleared. It should be noted that manual aiming is available at all times, but I think the auto-aim is a necessary evil, as the manual aim is a bit too slow to be particularly useful when under heavy fire. It's just that the auto-aim could have been slightly less evil.

For all its problems, Desert Storm 2 still delivers a lot of fun. As stated before, the controls (once mastered) are efficient and you have a lot of control over your teammates' actions. More so than in most other games of this ilk. The game also gives you the chance to take a spin in a tank or jeep (both of which feel very loose to control), but only when the game wants you to. Unfortunately, there are plenty of trucks sitting around that you can't take. The difficulty level is judged quite well, with the game still giving a fair challenge on medium and a pretty hefty challenge on hard, though the difficulty often stems from your teammates' stupidity. The game delivers more on atmosphere rather than robust game-play mechanics, but atmosphere can go quite a long way and that is certainly the case here.

Desert Storm 2 isn't going to win any fans purely through its looks, but it has had a fair facelift since its last incarnation. Character models are solid enough without ever coming close to brilliant. Rag-doll effects are present, but the effect isn't exactly gobsmacking and to be honest, I probably wouldn't have even noticed they where there had I not read it. The environments are rather standard in design, though they are below standard when looked at from a technical standpoint, even though some efforts have been made to polish them up with some bump-mapping and the frame-rate is now pretty solid.

The sound is actually very effective and is one of the main reasons for the strong atmosphere. Distant gunfire is constantly audible, giving off the impression that something sinister and deadly is always in waiting. The sound of tanks trundling through the cities is quite unnerving, especially as they can sometimes take your entire team out with one shot. The music is rather nondescript action/war movie type stuff, though custom soundtracks are supported so it's not exactly a problem.