Graphics or not, the game is almost as enjoyable as the first title. The levels are very well thought out, and detailed to the extreme, but offer nothing new or exciting, aside from the larger outdoor levels. I actually found many of them to be boring, and derived. Also, it seems that Raven may have been reaching on a few levels, such as the one where you must find your way to the meeting room in "The Shop". No gunfire. No knife-fights. No hiding. The level consisted of simply finding the meeting room, traversing the halls, and locating the elevator. Yippee. Did I mention that you could talk to people who would give you utterly useless information? You can!

A few maps presented some rather annoying issues, such as invisible walls that blocked your path and objects with bounding boxes much larger than the object itself. I found myself cursing at the screen numerous times as I zoomed in to an enemy 40 yards away, reticule right between the eyes, only to hit an invisible barrier that extended from the tree the bastard was standing next to! ARRGHHHH!!!! Random anomalies, such as impact marks floating in mid-air around doorways and such raised a few eyebrows.

The sound offers nothing really new, but it does present the high quality standard one has come to expect from Raven developed games. The musical score is hardly memorable, as the default volume is rather low, and you may just finish the game wondering if there was in fact any music at all! Each weapon contained a full tone to them, and each accurately sounded like their real-world counterparts – or so the entertainment industry would have us believe anyway. Personally, my favorite sound effect had to be the mini-Uzis. Not really sure why. They just sounded "neat".

About halfway through the game, I found myself longing for the end to arrive. I grew rather bored and didn't get the sense that my trials would be rewarding, nor the fun factor improved as I further made my way. I was right. The game never really took off, or created the sense of pure enjoyment. I was overwhelmed by the feeling of "Been there, done that", which is understandable, but not always acceptable. Honestly, I had a tad more fun with the first SoF title. Which brings up SoFII's real saving grace…


Multiplayer

If the multiplayer demo was any indication, SoFII's multiplayer component will be the next mega-popular online game. Thankfully, the MP system requires much less hardware gusto than the SP portion. Raven purposely did this, as to make the MP more accessible to a larger audience. At the moment, there aren't very many retail version servers running, but the game is still new. I suspect the audience will grow respectably once people fully tire of the free demo.

There are several different MP modes. Standard Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Elimination (team-based last man standing), and finally, Infiltration – which is probably the most popular at the moment. Infiltration pits one team against the other, in a match of "defend" or "acquire" a set objective (such as a briefcase). The offending team must make it back to their base with the objective in order to score, which is easier said than done. Once a player is killed, they are out for the remainder of the round, much like Counter-Strike. Arguably, this is the most entertaining multiplayer mode, although I prefer Deathmatch and Capture the Flag.