DESCRIPTION

The modern world is a hot bed of political and military intrigue, with the large scale wars of the past replaced by smaller, more covert situations requiring specialized forces to handle whatever danger pops up. At least, that's what Tom Clancy and his ilk would have us believe. In that vein comes Spec Ops II: Omega Squad, the sequel to Spec Ops: US Army Rangers. Spec Ops II seeks to throw players into the realism of modern military crises via the first-person shooter genre.

Rather than offer true squad-based play, Spec Ops II focuses on individual character classes. In this single-player game, you choose from six different soldier types and take on the mission all by your self. Classes include Infantry, Grenadier, Machine Gunner, Sniper, Close Quarters, and Demolition. The specialty of these character types are fairly self-explanatory. When you choose one, you get weapons and equipment that would suit such an individual's needs. But you can also customize the payload and arsenal of your character down to the various instruments of destruction, as well as adding additional items such as medical kits, special optical devices and other assorted military surplus.

Once you select your warrior, you have a large number of missions to select from, each attempting to emulate a scenario that could potentially occur in the world of the early 21st century. There are four larger scenarios, each broken up into smaller missions. As you play through the game, you will attempt to save the free world in such locales as Antarctica, Korea and Pakistan. In each of these scenarios, you'll have to learn when to jump into that open firefight and when to use stealth and cunning to survive. As you progress through the game, you will be rewarded with awards and promotions to remind you of a job well done. ~ Jon Thompson, All Game Guide