NS:WMD is twice as good as the original...but zilch multiplied by two still doesn't amount to much...
Never mind how well NS:WMD and its ilk fits my jet-setting lifestyle; did I derive any thrills or enlightenment from the game’s actual content? Honestly, no. I had fun plugging enemies with my M40 rifle while shuffling through the Iraqi desert, but I’m easy to please whenever sniping is involved. None of the other levels contained especially memorable events; the entire game is just a series of area-clearing exercises that are differentiated ever so slightly by the number of enemies and their arrangement around each particular area. I strongly disliked the game’s insistence that I stock my limited arsenal before each mission with little or no foreknowledge of the upcoming level’s particulars; I got lucky when I selected the sniper rifle for the wide-open desert spaces, and likewise made a fortunate selection of the combat shotgun for the close-quarters cruise beneath the starless skies of Krikkit (North Korea, actually, but the substantially flat, drab, inky blackness that hung just off the deck of the cargo ship brought to mind a similarly dangerous isolationist culture).
Strategy, stealth, and all but the most basic breach procedures have no place in NS:WMD. Just find a card-carrying Axis of Evil club member, shoot him (or sit back and have a laugh while your spotter/partner drunkenly blasts away at the air surrounding each enemy), and move on. Any player who doesn’t share my all-inclusive fanaticism for first-person shooters will likely despise this title. Although I didn’t come away from NS:WMD with the same “what have I done with my precious money and/or time?” angst that the title’s predecessor provoked, the game is useful for little more than some casual piddling on a mod-quality target range.