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Zeewolf 2 - Wild Justice is an open 3D tactical helicopter shoot 'em up, released in late 1995 by Binary Asylum. Following on from its predecessor, Zee2 is much the same game as the original with many small tweaks and additions to perfect the formula. As with the original game, Zee2 is still quite processor intensive and requires a meaty processor (020+) to run at it's smoothest - so bare that in mind if playing the game under emulation.
Anyone familiar with Zeewolf 1 will be instantly at home with this game; which opens in a very similar way and has an identical game format. After a few presses of the joystick or mouse, the characteristic mission briefing screens give way to the game itself (and anyone looking to figure out the controls and capabilities of the game won't go far wrong by reading my review of Zeewolf 1 here on Lemon Amiga).
As usual, most missions begin over open water to give the player essential seconds to get a bearing on where they are and what they must do to complete each mission. A trip to the in-game status screen ('Enter' key) will usually dish out some useful mission information; such as friendly carriers, bases, and supply dumps, as well as pinpointing the locations of the various enemies lurking about the landscape. Having selected your task priorities, it's time to head out and see what all the fuss is about.
Fans of the original game will instantly notice something good about Zee2 - speed! The Asylum guys knew they had a winner on their hands and worked hard to improve the many refresh rate issues which proved to be the initial weak point of the whole package. Now it is possible to dash around the map as smoothly and as quickly as befits this type of game, and turns an awful A500 experience into a very playable one. The chopper also seems to be much more nimble - and is able to spin around enemies with much more dexterity. Your main weapon; the chain gun; also seems to cannon off more rounds per second, and the auto-aim has also been tweaked to offer much better accuracy on targets.
A new and improved status strip now tops our Zeewolf screens, complete with the usual map, target camera, and statistics gizmos - and proves a welcome addition (even though it narrows the viewing experience a little).
Another big game addition is a new Remote Link feature which enables the pilot to switch vehicles by way of landing next to a remote tank. As the tank connects to the Zeewolf, the scene switches to another craft; which can be anything from a gun boat to a tank - to another helicopter; which you can safely throw into battle while your Zeewolf stands safe where you left it. Once the remove vehicle gets destroyed (and there is a very good chance that it will), control returns to the chopper and life carries on as before.
Also improved in this game is the availability of more landscape variations - from brown and cream deserts, to white and grey snowy wastes - and makes a welcome change from the all-green maps of old. There are more types of trees, more types of buildings, and more destroyable structures: such as off-shore oil rigs, oil wells, labs, bunkers, ports, and airports (complete with watch towers and hangers). This all adds to the depth of the game and makes for more varied missions than the standard seek and destroy format. Vehicle enhancements also include more types of boats: such as oil tankers and special troop carrying landing craft. Enemy aircraft are now easier to shoot down, and even the standard tanks are a bit less deadly than they used to be.
Sadly, this increase of easiness also extends to the new batch of missions. Veterans of Zee1 will find the first 8 missions a pushover which can be brushed aside in just one sitting. But before we write off Zee2 as a doddle, the creators do have one or two tricks up their sleeves. For example, on later missions the inclusion of radar jammers means the pilot doesn't always know when danger is ahead, and has to rely on flipping the status map on and off to avoid enemy hot spots. After mission 8, the missions do start to get much more confusing and difficult.
Take mission 9 for example. In the mission brief (pictured above), the aim is to fly a remote helicopter over to the enemy base whilst carrying a smart bomb in the shape of a tank. On arrival, your controls freeze and everything blows up, enabling you to take the Zeewolf over to that same location to pick up weapons and supplies from a vehicle hidden in a dome. Then a bunch of commandos have to be liberated and then flown into the exact same area to allow them to destroy the base from the inside - and that's only after completing a number of side missions along the way. For this reason, it becomes essential to study the briefings in greater detail.
Some missions deliberately give you barely enough ammo to get through all the objectives. Some give you barely enough fuel, or enough information, and it often becomes necessary to ransack the status briefings just in case you've forgotten something. In these desperate situations it becomes necessary to think out-of-the-box - such as finding alternative ways to destroy things when ammo is limited or non-existent.
Another note here is that, as with the first game, some objectives are time critical and require trial and error to discover what must be done in what order. For example, on mission 13, one of the objectives is to rescue a friendly tank. Simple eh? Unfortunately, the tank is under fire right from the get go, and requires immediate and direct action from the start. Even when the player knows what must be done, it isn't uncommon to have to restart the mission again and again just because you turned up a few seconds late. Luckily, the 'Esc' key can abort and restart any mission without costing lives.
In summary, Zeewolf 2 - Wild Justice is a direct improvement over the original. The graphics may remain the same as Zee1, but with slightly more variety in colour, destroyable objects and of course, speed! The sound may also be identical except for the main theme and 'game over' music, but that doesn't prevent the playability from reaching further and faster in every direction. Some later missions may be more frustrating than Zee1, and the difficulty curve is particularly steep compared to the original, but fans of Zeewolf will be pleasantly surprised. Despite a few small bugs, a worthy addition to the Amiga hall of fame.
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Same is the original i.e. quite blocky. However, the addition of more environment elements adds one more score point over Zeewolf 1.
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Again, the same pops and bangs as the original - sparse but effective. Apart from a new title tune, I couldn't detect anything new.
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Thanks to a greatly needed boost in frame rate speed, the game is almost perfect playability wise. Pity some of the later missions are more frustrating and annoying than Zee1.
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| Overall, despite the view distance still being very short, I'll agree with most reviews at the time by awarding this a very solid 9 out of 10. Recommended! |
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