Who doesn’t love a good helicopter game? Granted, I’m often a menace to my own team any time I get into a UH-60 in Battlefield 2, and things aren’t really all that much better for me when I’m trying to carry out a precision AH1 airstrike in Armed Assault - but when I’m thrust into the kind of cockpit where I have a pre-requisite minimum of at least three keystrokes just to properly enable and calibrate the radar system, I just can’t help but shine. So to this end, I was happy to see that Enemy Engaged 2 (a long-overdue sequel G2 Games has been working on) had been released. The original Enemy Engaged: Comanche-versus-Hokum - also known fondly as EECH - is quite ancient by today’s standards, and while the community has made excellent use of the since-released source code in overhauling the game engine and making it look much fancier, the game truly is in need of a deep-level overhaul to match up with today’s gaming demands. A fine touch only the game’s original developers could provide, right?

Much like the original, Enemy Engaged 2 promises a completely open-ended non-linear campaign structure that provides the ability to pick and choose which mission will be flown next (be it an escort mission, patrol, or surgical strike), and then be thrust right into a real-time theatre of conflict. Every unit destroyed or objective completed affects the campaign map in a number of ways, and since the option exists to play for either the Russians (flying the Hokum) or the Americans (flying the Commanche), there’s a lot of different ways to tackle this dynamic campaign environment. In addition, the game also sports a nifty seamless multiplayer integration where other players can drop in and help out the campaign from either side, along with all of the other expected flight-sim basics like Track IR support, basic or complex avionic toggles, and full joystick support. In a nutshell, all of the favored features from EECH are still intact.

And actually, this is where EE2 hits a bit of a snag; it’s effectively too much like the original. It’s not completely clear on what the overall development goal of this project was, but it is obvious that the scope was somewhat limited. Sure, at first glance it’s very easy to soak in the fancy new intro movie, re-styled menu UI, and generously overhauled graphics engine (complete with some hugely improved textures and new pixel shader support) - but from this point on is where opinions on the game will start to divulge greatly. Sim fans who haven’t played EECH will find Enemy Engaged 2 to be a pretty fine addition to their collection (also potentially due to the slight lack of other recent games easily fitting this genre), while those who have had extensive contact with the original will be left wondering what the point is. I bring this up because ultimately Enemy Engaged 2 looks and feels almost exactly like its predecessor – and this goes doubly so thanks to the fan-based efforts at releasing updated, modified versions of the source code. While it’s true that playing modified versions of the original game will most likely never yield the same amazing model and texture-quality updates the sequel has received, that’s honestly about the only thing that will be missed.

Unfortunately, a simple lack of progress isn’t the only problem with the game, as many older problems have carried over, along with some strange new anomalies. For example, squadron names in multiplayer will still consistently go out of synchronization after some time, which can cause confusion when trying to join into the same team a friend is flying in when it’s showing up under a different name on his end – this was one consistent annoyance I encountered in EECH which I’m genuinely surprised wasn’t fixed for the sequel. The AI still behaves erratically when performing battle maneuvers, and will often act in a single-minded manner going purely after their own targets without considering other threats to their well-being (this is especially noticeable when firing upon an enemy attack force assigned to destroy one of your bases – often they’ll still just keep flying rather than respond to a sudden ambush). Ground vehicles also still maneuver liked packed “clumps” of units that effectively stick to the road and maneuver around in a rigid, unrealistic manner. One final example is that the fixed-wing AI fighter jets are just plain broken most of the time – they can be seen either flying up to impossible altitudes, or circling around each other over an airfield like vultures in a manner that completely bypasses any form of physics realism.

There is something new that Enemy Engaged 2 brings to the table in the form of voice recognition – this cool little feature enables quick radio commands to sent to wingmen or support assets in the area. But alas, even this is limited and doesn’t seem to provide any options for directly controlling essential chopper systems via voice commands – something I feel really would have helped make this feature a worthwhile addition (even though this could also be accomplished through the right third party software). The game also adds a new campaign scene that takes place in Korea, but beyond this, I find myself genuinely stumped at trying to figure out what else would justify the sequel’s development time. Maybe if another cool gimmick like dual monitor support had been added (I could picture having the dynamic war map on one screen and the actual game engine on another as being a fantastic addition) then the upgrade would become worth it, but as it stands, Enemy Engaged 2 doesn’t seem to carry enough punch to actually make it worthwhile. When you consider it, this game actually has less functionality than the original in some respects because there is no longer any ability to fly the Longbow or Havoc attack choppers – this was possible with the original game simply by having one of its earlier renditions (Apache versus Havoc) installed, but is no longer an option now. Admittedly I did see word that this may be coming in a future update, but given how vague the official website is, I have no clue when that will be coming or what else exactly this will add.

In all honesty, I hate to pass bad marks to this game; in spite of all the time that has passed, the Enemy Engaged series still remains amongst one of the best chopper games available that can still be easily run on modern computers - and this isn’t simply due to lack of competition. The combination of a dynamic campaign, seamless multiplayer, feature-rich aircraft controls, and relatively easy-to-grasp gameplay has made it truly a classical game that is a great deal of fun to play. I also sincerely appreciate the fact that a sequel was made at all, which is an honor bestowed rarely on older games such as this. The critical flaw made by the developers however was in not paying close enough attention to their community, and realizing that in order to create a worthwhile sequel, they’d have to do more than just update the graphics and add a couple of features, which ultimately means that there’s little point to picking up Enemy Engaged 2 unless you’re new to the series. Otherwise, stick with the original for now and go grab the latest fan-based source code builds so that you can put the extra dollars you’ll save towards a shiny new Saitek X52.