The true sequel to Naval Ops Warship Gunner, Warship Gunner 2 improves on the basic design while having a new storyline.
The Clinical:
Gameplay: Good, improved branching story helps
Graphics: Decent, what you would expect of a PS2 game
Sound: While the music is nice, it gets covered by the lack of voice overs and the drone of gunfire
Value: If you like the series, get it. As a stand alone it is good as well, but don't go back down the series if you start on this
Tilt: Since it is the latest in the series and being a fan, I really like it
The Good:
The research tree is much more free allowing you to pick individual items that you want to research instead of block units. Now you can work your way to weapons or hulls of your choosing and can invest in other things later just for fun. The challenge of finding and collecting additional part to unlock research is also great fun.
The story line is much better then the original, though it is still a stretch. Who honestly uses the navy to launch a coup? And how does such a coup get pulled off? That being said, you spend the story as Captain Schulz of the one ship that will be instrumental in restoring the proper government in your fatherland. The adventure leads you from Asia, across the Americas, to Europe and then back. During this time you can have up to two adjuncts from three possible choices; Werner an old friend and fellow officer in the Navy, Instructor Tsukuba your old instructor, and Dr. Braun a German weapons specialist. You travel across the world with either Werner and Dr. Braun, Instructor Tsukuba and Dr. Braun, or just the good Doctor herself. Each combination represents one of the three possible story lines, each with their own missions and personal issues that you help resolve. With each story branch is your trusty Lt. Nagi who does offer some good spats with the Dr.
The medal system is an interesting way so show progress and makes you feel like you have actually accomplished something when you have the shiny medal to show for it. Some are easy to get, such as clearing a certain level or reaching a certain point total, while other will require lots of time to get.
Designing your own ship or the now available submarine is the meat of this game. On top of building the ship from the hull up, you can refit your design anything with all sorts of weapons. The only restrictions are the class of your hull, the weight limit and your imagination. The addition of subs and frigates and some special hulls make things that much more entertaining. The process of building the ship is fairly easy to get used to and there is a pretty good in game manual.
Actual combat is engaging enough, though the maps can be somewhat large and can take some time to get across if you have slow ship and/or no long range guns. The long pauses between combat can get pretty boring. Fortunately there are 3 different enemy layouts, EL1 which you go through the first time, and EL2 which you go through the second time. From the third from on you go through EL2b, which is the second layout of enemies with lots more back up and tougher opponents.
A great feature is the training feature that lets you replay levels and lets you pick out the layout and who you want to accompany you as your adjunct which does have an effect on the dialouge and just what enemies show up.
After beating the game twice you should have unlocked several bonus levels that are quite fun and provide the characters with more, well, character.
The Bad:
Lenght. This is a long game that will easily cost you over 100 hours of your life. While the game does provide 3 possible paths and increasing stage difficulty it takes so long to get some medals, such as the one that congratulates you on spending over 100 hours playing and the one for beating the game 10 times.
While the game keeps track and rewards you for killing certain types of ships, the designers must not have ever played or even attempted to get some of those kill awards. Unlike the original, it takes forever and a day to complete some requirements. For example in the entire game one will only encounter a total of 8 Battlecarriers or BCs spread over 2 missions. One such goal is to have sunk 999 of these. This is just plain silly. While it is understandable the designers wanted a uniform requirement and reward system, they should have provided feasible means of doing so like they did with the Superships and the Boss Rush special feature. Even more annoying is the fact that more then anything other ship the BCs kill thresholds are connected to the research tree.
Enemy layouts is another annoying issue. After beating the game for the third time onwards, you have to deal with ships mainly using laser weapons and that are armored. While it is sort of fun to have that additional challenge, when you are trudging through the game looking for BC, transport, and Supership kills while trying to get the medal for 10 play throughs, you really wish there was an option to pick what layout you have to go through. It really would be great to go plowing through the EL1 storyline with your pimped out ship of doom making a play through, which still takes 3-4 hours doing the bare minimum.
Air power hasn't improved much which cripples the Carrier or CV class. It also makes you wonder why they bothered with the BC class or even giving the ships the possibility to have aircraft. Some are sort of useful like the support helicopters that pick up sailors and crates for you but they have a tendency to be shot down a lot. Against ships aircraft are useless, even in big numbers unless you drop the difficulty down to the easiest setting. Another thing is the number of planes they let you have. The most massive Carrier boasts a measly 30 planes which on normal after the second play through (when you are most likely to get this hull) makes them only good for getting rid of the multitude of planes the enemy will send at you. The reason their planes are effective is because they have 12 Carriers filling the sky with aircraft. this combined with limiting armament for Carriers cripples that class and makes the BCs a waste. If you are going to use a BC, you might as well go for the full blown Battleship or BB. All in all planes are more of a nice daydream of something that should be a factor but isn't.
The sound is decent but just that. Lack of voice overs and the dull drone of gun fire gets old quick. The musical scores, when you can make them out from under the blazing guns is quite nice though.
Over all: A good game for fans of the series and a good one for new comers too. The few problems there are are outweighed by the name good features the game has to offer
LockDown over and out...