For the Worst Thing To Ever Happen To Humanity (trotters crossed), World War 2 sure seems to get a lot of exposure in entertainment. I mean, the event wiped out 3% (an estimated 70-85 million) of the global human population in some truly horrific ways, but instead of being mournfully discussed in hushed tones, it gets bandied about with all the irreverence and glee of a UFC fight (well, at least in certain parts of the world it does).

An entire subset of games seems to exist solely to monetize events which survivors thereof are reluctant to revisit or discuss, all under the guise of empathy and education. But even in a genre as oversaturated, biased and tactless as World War 2 games usually are, every now and again a title comes along that properly portrays the subject matter and makes an honest attempt to Do It Justice.

A 2003 tactical shooter by (then) Illusion Softworks (which later became 2K Czech and, finally, Hangar 13); Hidden & Dangerous 2 is a fictionalized portrayal of British Special Air Service operations behind enemy lines, which boasts a tremendous presentation and engrossing atmosphere only slightly undermined by clunky controls and poor NPC behavior.

The great

H&D 2's best aspects by far are its design, presentation, atmosphere and attention to detail.

From cutscenes and briefings, which play like self-contained little masterpieces; a fantastic orchestral score by Michal Szlavik that seamlessly sets the tone of the gameplay; UI that is easy to navigate and fits perfectly into the overall presentation; inspired level and mission design that offer sandbox-y locations spanning the globe; to equipment that works Just Like The Real Thing because (and this is a true story) Illusion bought most of the weapons in the game so they could faithfully recreate the models and their operation (apparently, when they were coming back from a purchase, they got stopped by the police and had to quickly explain that the Bren in their trunk was actually decommissioned); H&D 2 epitomizes a level of polish few games ever managed to attain.

While the characters and scenarios are ficticious, a great deal of research went into their creation making them interpretations of real people and events (which, in my opinion, short of making a documentary, is the only tactful way to tackle such subject matter).

Two decades on, you will be hard-pressed to find a World War 2 game that does a better job of faithfully recreating the atmosphere of the time than Hidden & Dangerous 2.

The good

The gameplay, while intuitive and enjoyable, is not without its issues.

Your soldiers are all stat-based, with differing health, carrying capacity, stamina, accuracy, stealth, first aid and lockpicking proficiencies. As they progress through the game, they can improve their statistics, making your squad grow more capable (provided, of course, you can keep them alive from one mission to the next).

Gameplay modes allow for a single player experience (called the Lone Wolf) or a regular campaign where you command a squad of four commandos. There is also a co-op mode (introduced in the Sabre Squadron expansion, which comes bundled with the original game in the GoG release); and a largely-defunct multiplayer mode that won't offer much mileage unless you host your own server and can find someone to play with.

The game can be played from first- or third-person and allows a fairly elaborate (for its time) range of motion. Your soldiers can sneak, crawl, sprint or swim, climb, jump and even lean out from behind corners. Gunplay is fairly realistic and stat-compliant (as in Deus Ex, where your accuracy was determined by character skill); utilizing hand guns, long arms, machineguns, heavy weapons (such as bazookas) and explosives.

While you can issue (via a slightly obtuse interface) voice commands to your squadmates, Hidden & Dangerous 2 also incorporates a Tactical Mode which turns the experience into a sort-of RTS, allowing you to pause the game and stack commands for the entire squad.

In lieu of charging-in guns blazing (and in true commando fashion), the game also allows for a stealth approach, where you incapacitate (or kill) enemies, steal their uniforms and infiltrate objectives without firing a single shot. And while a mission will always, eventually, revert to shooting, the ability to postpone it in favor of an alternate approach is a welcome addition.

H&D 2's seven "campaigns" and 20 missions span the globe, letting you experience a sub-Arctic winter, the scorching sands of Africa, a dip in a Norwegian fjord, the claustrophobic humidity of a Burmese jungle, a brisk hike up the Austrian Alps, the close-quarter confines of a Normandy town and, lastly, the temperate forests of Czechia.

The objectives of said missions are as varied as their locales, making each feel distinct and unique, with zero recycled assets (another thing you don't see much of, nowadays). From riding a mini-sub to plant limpets on the hull of a German battleship to infiltrating archives located in an isolated Austrian castle, every single mission has enough novelty and engagment to keep the player invested and entertained.

The controls are a little clunky, but can be easily reconfigured to a more modern layout, and the infrequent annoyances – such as stuck combat music that persists despite the end of an engagement or bullets that magically penetrate sections of solid concrete – aren't really enough to derail the overall experience...

...what accomplishes that, every now and again, is the only real flaw Hidden & Dangerous 2 posesses.

The lamentable

The game's biggest shortcoming lies in the simplistic nature of its NPC algorithms.

While they work fine, for the most part, they aren't really impressive (except for their startling accuracy which would be — if it wasn't so annoying). The latter, at least, is offset by your character's health statistic, which allows for glancing hits and healing. If you try really hard, you can still die from a single shot, but – unlike Operation Flashpoint – in H&D 2, said occurence is an exception, rather than the rule.

But the poor pathing and inconsistent behaviour often break the spell established by the game's wonderful presentation. Opponents waver between getting stuck on terrain, standing in front of you – dumbfounded – and unerringly killing you in a single shot through dense foliage before you can even spot them.

While it's more of a sign of the times (I can't think of an early 2000s game that handled it better), it does erode the overall experience and can get a trifle frustrating when you have to replay a whole section of the game because some random sentry apparently tutored Hetzenauer.

The first time a squadmate dies because he walked into barbed wire – instead of crawling under it – in training is kinda funny. By the fourth, however, you may feel like giving the Lone Wolf mode a go.

Summation

While Hidden & Dangerous 2 is not without its flaws, the amount of things the game does really well easily outweigh its shortcomings making it not only a remarkable classic, but also still relevant — even today. By skirting the morality and emotional effects of World War 2 and focusing solely on combat, H&D 2 easily achieves its chosen goal and stands head and shoulders above most World War 2 titles published before – or since.

In a field typified by social commentary, moral judgement and one-sided rhetoric, Hidden & Dangerous 2 is also one of the few games that separates church and state, as it were, where the causality and implications of war are clearly delineated from the simple artithmetic of combat.

If you want to experience World War 2 warfare as a specialist in highly diverse scenarios, H&D 2 is still the game for you.

Pig Recommends:

• -if you are interested in more than just the combat aspect of World War 2 and want to see how it affected the people involved in it, try the following films and series: The Big Red One (1980), Das Boot (1981), Empire of the Sun (1987), Schindler's List and Stalingrad (1993) Thin Red Line (1998), Band of Brothers (2001), Letters from Iwo Jima (2009), The Pacific (2010), Hacksaw Ridge (2016), Dunkirk (2017), Jojo Rabbit (2019) or – most recently – Masters of the Air (2024);