not the best but a whole lot of fun
graphically speaking everything is pretty surprising: the game doesn't easley slow down, thought when it does it is understandable, but still pretty annoyng. and the sound is just good. the voices are exactly right for the characters.
the story is just sweet. all characters have a story, you can guess them all, by the end. all the characters have also a psicological growth during the game: for instance rico, at the end, will appreciate his half helgast camerade. i know story isn't much important in this kind of games, that people could live just as well with or without it, but if there if a storyline, and it is pretty good, doesn't hurt anyone, does it?
the gameplay is at first pretty strange, even if after a while you'll feel it's only the natural way things should go. at first you'll get sick for the difficulty to aim and stuff like that, but after a while... that won't be much of a problem.
but there are some problems...: first the difficulty: in normal difficulty lots of people has the granade luncher or something like it, most of them are hidden and some of them can get you before you get to even notice their presence. in the hard difficulty most of the enemies have a granade luncher, most of them is hidden and can get you. it is amazigly frustrating that when the enemy uses a weapon itmay kill you in one shot, but after a certain point of the game you'll never be able to do that, not even with the granade luncher. i mean, a shot in the head, after all, it is supposed to be a shot in the head. the same for a granade: if it can kill me with one shot, just if i stand in the nearbys, i can't see why it shouldn't kill an helgast just as well...
and about the weapons: come on, they could have made out something more: there's the shotgun, the accurate light machine gun, the "i shoot like crap but i shoot lots of bullets bfore reload" gun, the big gatlin gun, some different but all similar pistols and granade guns, the usual sniper gun, and the knife. i mean, come on!! some of the weapon are often useless because: A) they are not givin you any bullet- B) enemies seems to be some srt of invincible, superior people- C) you know some a**h**e is shooting granades to you like it's rainig, but you can't see him, you can't even guess were he is, and if you try to move you'll soon and sure be dead- D) you know you'll have to reload, and your enemies will have you first.
in the end, it a real good and solid game, with many good points and many good ideas. it's probably the best on ps2, but that's because there's no other game specifically made for it. it will give you many hours of fun in the story, and many others on the "battlefields", but if you have a good computer, or a gamecube, or you're lucky enough to have the new x-box, you can find so many games that are mach better, without any kind of problems. this is a real good game, but not the best around, and i suggest you buy it only if you can play with your playstation only. otherwise, you should at lest rent it first.