Another small change that veterans of the first Assault Heroes might pick up on is the difficulty level, something that has been ratcheted down slightly with quicker health recharges and faster respawns for your vehicle once it's been destroyed. The infantry sections are obviously more of a challenge since you're away from your armored shell, but the change is a welcome one.Ĭlick here to watch the walkthrough. Sometimes you'll have the option of jumping into a warp tube and playing a bonus portion of the level, other times there will be purposefully placed impediments to your progress that require a more slender frame to pass through. There are also portions of some levels that require you to dismount from your vehicle and bring the noise on-foot. While the vehicles do stay rooted in the traditional weapons of minigun, flamethrower, flak cannon and freeze ray (the new kid on the block), they all play a bit differently and require you to approach situations in new ways. This time around you'll find a helicopter (which requires a long window of time for takeoff), a large tank, and a walking assault mech in the later areas.

Also, as in the first game, your hero still has other vehicles other than his trusty buggy to make use of. Heck, there's even a sewer portion of one level that houses mutant freaks created by the radioactive sewage produced by the enemy. One is an icy tundra, followed by a sweltering jungle replete with monkey-like enemies and buzzing flies that launch gooey green stuff at you. As you progress you'll move across various zones, each of which has a different feel and different enemies. The standard enemies range from regular infantry minions to the gobbling suicide bombers that we all remember from the first to tanks that provide for a bit more of a challenge. Bosses have multiple levels that you'll need to pummel in order to proceed, taking different shapes and in some cases changing into different creatures altogether. There are just so many little touches to the environmental interaction that other games can't come close to that makes Assault Heroes 2 great. Every monitor, computer desk and crate can be blown up and used to your advantage. Everything in the environment has multiple layers of detail added and even more destructible fodder has been thrown in for your destructive pleasure. For starters Assault Heroes 2 looks much better than the first.

Where AH2 differentiates itself from the rest of the top-down arcade releases is in the general look of the game and the way it keeps the gameplay as fresh and as varied as possible. From then on AH2 is all about you bringing the fight to the masses in classic top-down shooter form. Apparently the bad dude from the first game was a mere underling of your main foe this time around. The standard text crawl starts things off and is your only real indication that there's a small story behind your actions. Those who played the first Assault Heroes should be instantly at home with the game's introduction. Don't worry, we have the answers.Ĭlick here to see multiple weapons. Now the only question is whether the second installment can push the tried-and-true formula far enough to offer something new and exciting while still keeping that same Assault Heroes style and feel. Now Assault Heroes 2 is staring the Xbox Live community dead in the face with more of the same top-down assault (surprise, surprise) action that we remember from the first game.

Review executive assault 2