Review: Here’s a review of Saving Private Clancy…err…I mean, Hidden and Dangerous.
If you ask ten gamers out on the street what movie they would like to see made into a videogame, nine of them would say Saving Private Ryan (well, that was a made up statistic, but you know what I mean). Then if you asked the same gamers if they liked the Tom Clancy game, Rainbow Six, nine out of the ten would probably answer yes also (again, made up.) Well, I have good news for those nine gamers; you can play Hidden and Dangerous on your Dreamcast, which is a good combination of both.
In Hidden and Dangerous, you take control of the Special Air Service (SAS) group during World War II. You basically play as a group of soldiers from all over the world, and your job is to go behind enemy lines and reek some havoc. Sounds like fun doesn’t it? Well it is, to some extent.
When you first start the game, you might be a little lost. The menu system in Hidden and Dangerous is not only a pain to move through, but it’s also hard to see. It seems like the developers made everything so small to help your in-game sniping skills. Luckily, the developers also included an “Auto-Setup” option that you can hit, in turn it will supply your men with all the supplies and ammo they will need for the coming campaign.
Unfortunately, you can only supply ammo in the beginning of each campaign, one might freak out and say, “Ah, I’m out of ammo already, we’re dead!” (Editor’s note: Don’t freak out in battle.) But have no fear, because the dead guys on the ground are here to help. In Hidden and Dangerous, you can actually pick up supplies, guns, and ammo from dead enemies and even fellow soldiers that’ve bit the dust during battle. This is just one of the many things that differentiates the title from Rainbow Six
Another difference in the gameplay department is the actual missions. Yes, they are “tactical,” and require planning and multiple skills such as demolitions, stealth, and assault, but they are different in one major way. You don’t have to plan out a map in the beginning! Instead, you just take control of one soldier and say, “Follow Me!” and the other three guys will follow you around. This can also be a pain though, because setting your fellow soldiers up in different locations can be quite a chore sometimes. However, the developers did include an in-game map where you can “program” your fellow soldiers to go and do certain tasks. Though, that too can be a chore at times, and I usually don’t bother with it.
Hidden and Dangerous is one of the few Dreamcast games that sport the “Powered by Microsoft CE” logo. This of course means that it is a port from the PC. How do you take all the commands from a keyboard and put them on a Dreamcast controller you ask? You make a ton of button combinations. When you first start the game out you will have to flip back and forth from the controller to the manual learning the combinations and what each of them do. Thankfully, all of the combinations eventually become easy to remember, and even if they don’t, you can always go out and snatch yourself a Dreamcast keyboard to use for the game, if you don’t have one already that is.
As you’ve read so far in this thing I call a review, Hidden and Dangerous has some flaws and inconveniences in it’s gameplay department, however, I’m now ready to make a good comment on the title’s gameplay. The missions rock! The developers did a magnificent job on the mission designs. For example, on one mission you’ll simply be sneaking across a bridge encountering only 3 or 4 enemies, and the next you’ll be running through an entire enemy camp just hoping you can make it through without getting shot (that mission is my favorite)! You will also have to blow things up, and steal civilian clothes in order to sneak through a city that is occupied by the Germans (you can even still a car in that mission). Great missions…‘Nuff said.
The music in Hidden and Dangerous helps set the mood for the gameplay, but it’s nothing special. The sound effects are really the best part of the game in the audio department. Everything down to the gunshots sounds so realistic it’s scary. Being able to actually see bullets flying at you makes it even scarier. Unfortunately, the gunshots flying by you is the only thing really impressive about Hidden and Dangerous graphically. The textures are okay, but the collision detection is horrible. It’s a shame, because with better graphics, and more specifically, collision detection, this title could be considered a great. Instead, it’s considered “just another PC port.”
