Honestly, a lot of what made Spy Hunter so much fun has fallen by the wayside in Spy Hunter 2. The evil organization NOSTRA has resurfaced, with nefarious plans of powermongering and domination on its mind. The missions are displayed between levels as you are briefed by your organization, and there are several different types of missions involved. Some involve escorting important characters through the level, keeping enemies off their tails until they can manage escape, and other missions involve defending assets. The good ol’-fashioned run and gun missions that are part and parcel of the Spy Hunter mythos are found here as well, but the balancing of the escort/defending missions hasn’t been tuned well at all. Enemy vehicles have weapons far greater than your own, and will shoot up your poor Interceptor like a hot knife through butter. You’ll find yourself throwing your controller and cursing on more than a few occasions trying to get past certain levels, and with a restart system that kicks you back to the beginning of each level, Spy Hunter 2 can be infuriating. Artificially increasing gameplay length through unfair play balancing is no way to add extended value, and there’s no incentive to go back and play again once the game is beaten.

The aforementioned Interceptor retains the ability to transform into different vehicles, such as a motorbike, boat, Skidoo and a 4x4 mode for certain terrain types. The weaponry provided at the beginning are pretty basic – just some machine guns and minor explosive weapons – but progress through the game will unlock new weapons like missiles and shields. The play balance issue rears its ugly head here as well, however, since your enemies will simply increase in strength and firepower accordingly, providing little benefit to earning the new weaponry.

The sound is workmanlike, but presentable. Explosions go boom, machine guns chatter, and the techno music isn’t bad at all. On the graphics end of things, it’s pretty bland, unfortunately. The framerate is very solid, but there’s not much candy to attract the eye while whipping about at 60 fps – the original’s levels may have been smaller, but the presentation was better than what’s offered here.

All in all, Spy Hunter is a disappointing sequel. The effectiveness of the mission design is effectively neutered by the poor play balancing, pulling the rug out from under the player before the game even begins. The series has dropped from third gear to neutral – let’s hope that the next entry gets things back on track.