Simple 2000 Vol. 119: The Survival Game 2

The first The Survival Game (Simple 2000 Series Vol. 56) was met with scorn and ridicule... which is par for the course in the world of dodgy Simple 2000 software. The developers went back to the drawing board to tweak the game engine and perhaps improve it a tad. Three years later, D3 Publisher releases the sequel to the Survival Game and we're saddened to report that the scorn and ridicule continues.

Players take on the role of an air gun assailant who assembles a team and then invades the Tokyo Marui BB Sports Field to take on other teams of air gun agents. At the outset of the main game, five heroes are selected and then two are chosen to go into the battlefield. The action runs at a clumsy pace although the controls aren't bad. The spray from the airsoft guns is somewhat accurate and the visuals are pedestrian but get the job done. Where the game falls flat on its face is the poor quality of the enemy AI. There were times when members of the computer-controlled team stood facing a wall instead of actively roaming the field hunting for targets. Hunting and shooting is sort of the point of the war games that The Survival Game attempts to simulate. Despite its failings, NCS still invested about an hour in the game. We're suckers for the Simple 2000 Series....