Terrorist Takedown 2 (PC)

When it comes down to it, what do you really expect if you pay just a tenner for a game? This is a question that has plagued your faithful, intrepid reviewer during the course of the last few days, specifically with reference to Terrorist Takedown 2 (TT2).

It really is difficult to critique a game that has been released for ten pounds. The temptation is to treat it like a full price game, comparing it to the most recent shooters available.

However, the obvious flaw here is that somebody spending a tenner on TT2 won’t be expecting Crysis-standard production values. They might not expect quite such low standards as are on display, but still – what do you expect for ten quid?

Having got that out of the way, Terrorist Takedown 2 is essentially a bog-standard, run-of-the-mill blaster, set in the Middle East. You are a member of an ‘elite’ team of terrorist/bad guy busters and you start off in a typical urban, sandy area fighting off a ridiculous stream of enemies.

In some ways, TT2 is a budget Call of Duty 4 – it has a very similar damage system, where if you take hits just hide for a bit and you’ll be ok. The setting helps to solidify this comparison, being that both effectively start (if you ignore the boat mission in CoD4) in a Middle Eastern city filled with terrorists/freedom fighters.

Your team is trying to locate some hostages, primarily, before other factors come into the equation. All pretty standard fare, really.

Enemies are pretty dumb, although they sometimes display a semblance of intelligence. Generally they suffer from the “try to hide but leave large bits of themselves sticking out” syndrome of many low budget shooters.

Killing them is relatively satisfying, with surprisingly loud squeals of pain emitted when your bullets thud into their flesh, splintering bone and tissue like it was cheap crockery.

Unlike the relatively sublime CoD4 though, TT2 feels very raw, like someone has taken the former game, poured vinegar over it and then rubbed it vigorously with a pumice stone.

The graphics options are numerous, with all sorts of bloom, anti-aliasing and so on available for toggling. Things will always feel a bit leaden and the optimisation is clearly not as pronounced as in CoD4.

I could go on for a long time like this. Everything is competently done, for a game that costs a tenner, but I’m being generous because of this. Full price and people would laugh while playing, which isn’t the sort of reaction you want.

For a tenner, you shouldn’t be expecting a world-changing game experience. You certainly won’t get one with TT2. Put your critical faculties to the side, stick it on Easy and just blast dumb terrorists for a while.

5/10

David Brown