Where Conflict Desert Storm ended, the sequel continues. Set in the 1991 Gulf War, Conflict: Desert Storm II takes you another 300km behind enemy lines. As a squadron, you will be tasked to eliminate the Chemical Warfare, Supergun and Scud Missile threats posed by the enemy, and to eject the last die-hard elements of the elite Republican Guard from their fortified positions inside Kuwait City. Like in the first game of the series, you can choose to play as the British SAS or American Delta Force. Your team consists out of four men: an Assaulter, a Sniper, a Heavy Weapons expert, and a Close Quarters and Demolitions expert. Nothing much has changed here.

After just seconds of hands-on time, I noticed that the developers had invested a lot of time in improving the graphics compared to the first game. Conflict Desert Storm II literally puts twice as many polygons on your screen, and the frame rate has also been significantly improved. Even when running around through city levels, with tons of soldiers storming towards me, helicopters flying over head, and tanks shooting holes in the walls, I still couldn't spot a slow-down in the frame rate. Also very noticable is the new feature added to this game: 'rag-doll'-physics. Rag-doll physics is a technology that makes the dead interact with the environment. It prevents the dead from falling through a wall, for example. And it allows players to blow around the dead bodies. It makes the game even more enjoyable as it really adds to the realism.

Not only the graphics have been hugely improved, but also the sound effects have been polished up. You can now hear the bullets fly around you almost literally. The voices of the soldiers have been recorded slightly better also, though when being updated during mission through radio sometimes it is hard to figure out what he is trying to say. But then again, you could also think of that as a nice addition to the realism of the game (if you know what I mean).

Having good graphics and sound is nice and everything, but what really makes a game worth buying is good gameplay. I thought the gameplay in the first Conflict Desert Storm game was pretty well done, so the way I saw it, Conflict Desert Storm II could go one of two ways: either it would turn into a not-so-good game, or the game would become even better. Fortunately, I can tell you that Conflict Desert Storm II went the second way.

Like in CDS, the sequel has an in-depth gameplay, starting in the training missions all the way up until the end of the game. The controls have pretty much stayed the same as in the first game, so players are not forced to go through the training missions, which meant I could hop into action right away. And boy does it start off hot! It is noticable that the makers have tried to make the sequel more action-paced.

In the first level, you already have to clear your way through an enemy soldier camp just to get into a town where you will be fired upon from almost every angle. The teamplay starts right away, and I loved every second of it. A level or two further in the game, three of my men got wounded and couldn't move because a tank got them in sight and tried to kill them. Luckily I found myself an anti-tank bazooka, and I blasted the tank into bits. I patched up the wounds of my teammates, and we bravely continued our dangerous mission to free Kuwait from the elite Republican Guard.

As far as I could tell from the preview code I got to play, Conflict Desert Storm II will be a great team-based shooter for the GameCube. If you liked the first game, or if you are into the Ghost Recon/SWAT-style games, then you will definitely love Conflict Desert Storm II. Stay tuned for a full review on this game after the game hits the stores in Europe, November this year.