I’m sorry, but games actually have to be playable in order to be called a game. Last time I played a game that was filled with as many bugs as Enemy Engaged 2 was back in the old console times. I checked support but the same old advice was given, "check your drivers, make sure your PC specs meet the requirements and turn off anti-virus", but obviously being where I am, I know all that. Still the game must be played and my job must go on.
Enemy Engaged 2 is a helicopter flight simulator game. At first glance (i.e. watching the intro movie), you would expect the game to be a fast-paced, action/arcade helicopter game. But trust me, you’re in for a rude awakening. This game is a 100% hardcore flight simulator, so if the game took one step closer in its gameplay, you might as well step into a real helicopter and enjoy zooming around the city. Unfortunately for this game, there was no enjoyment.
I don’t know what’s wrong; either it’s rushed development or whatever, but the game has some serious performance problems. The computers I tried this on well exceed the requirements and it still runs like a hog being bashed with a shovel. One of the advances from Enemy Engaged to Enemy Engaged 2 was the graphics, but in this fashion, time worked against the game. I think the helicopters were the only things that looked fine in the game. Everything else; trees, foliage, explosions, smoke, particles, looked just plain awful.
Heck, even navigating through the menu system was a pain. The game is pretty robust and thorough in its options, I’ll give it that, but just trying to quickly get into the game was frustrating. Menu after menu of the same gibberish, that’s something a normal gamer doesn’t want to see. Combine that with random crashing (more below), and you got a headache.
After selecting either the campaign missions (Russian or U.S. missions) or the free-flight mode, you’re given the option of what helicopters to pilot. For whatever reason, I experienced a few crashes just trying to see the different helicopters. But after choosing your helicopter, you’re shoved into the game. Well, here is where problems arose. First, there is no tutorial. I ended up having to constantly switch to and fro to the control menu and just do a bunch of trial and error. Where was the tutorial I expected with loads of useful information? Who knows, what I had to do was just put on a blindfold and start guessing.
The story, I didn’t care for. Something about a war between two countries. Well, isn’t that plot the same derivative tripe that’s in every other generic flight simulator? Who cares, I’m a pilot in some helicopter and I have to shoot things. The end.
The interface, if you can call it that, is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. Everything looks flushed out and you can’t really tell what you’re doing. Combine that with the rather horrendous voice-acting (who tends to constant repeat the same help phrases over and over) and you just want to bail out of the helicopter and save yourself from the agony. Configuring controls is a pain — heck, even piloting is a pain.
I can tell you now, the community for Enemy Engaged already decided to not embrace the sequel. Instead, they just continued playing the completely modded version of Enemy Engaged. Unfortunately, G2 Games can’t even do what the community did and actually make a decent game. I’m sorry, but this is a poor example of a flight simulator, let alone a game in general. Pretty disappointing that the game fails in just about every category. Bummer.
