Returning for another bout of old school shooting carnage, Assault Hero’s 2 builds on the seeds its predecessor planted.

Instantly its clear Assault Heroes 2 is much better visually that AH. The detailing and the depth are excellent, there is no doubt that it is certainly one of the better looking Xbox Live Arcade games out there. Bosses are huge and explosions are bigger! The (no pun intended) assault of colour is glorious. Pretty much everything you see can be blown up. Trees, buildings, towers, boxes, lights, rocks and anything else that graces the screen. I don’t care on what scale the visuals are set because no matter what, this is an amazing achievement and worth any sacrifices that had to be made.

Storyline? Well, a few lines of text at the beginning tell you all you need to know. Should this be a basis for a ‘good’ storyline? I think so, like I said, it tells you what you need to know (in truth, you don’t actually need to know it - just blow stuff up). So it’s kind of a mute point.

The core gameplay mechanics remain the same, if it isn’t broke then don’t fix it, is how the old saying goes, and it’s very applicable here. Saying that, there are a couple of new features that have been implemented making the game better and in all honesty, more fair. This time there’s no excuse, everything heading your way is crystal clear. I have often found a number of top down shooters to be a little confusing when trying to figure out what is enemy fire and what’s debris. Not here. The indoor on foot sections return, and whilst they still aren’t as much fun as the outside action, they do offer a change, though not of pace. Everything is fast and furious and to be quite honest, very tough. You now have the ability to roll whilst on foot, a must for avoiding the barrage of fire power heading in your direction. The ever faithful ‘destroy everything on screen’ nuke is here and correct. God bless you ‘destroy everything on screen’ nuke, I somewhat owe you my life.

Your standard jeep remains, but you also have more vehicles to ride, none of them feel as comfortable as the ever faithful jeep, though they do offer a quick and sometimes useful change of pace. The Helicopter and a thing on legs that moves really slow (but has the handy ability of regenerating your health) are two of the vehicles that make an appearance, you also have the option of manning a tank. It’s still pretty slow, but can cause massive damage. The fourth and final vehicle is a spaceship, yes, a spaceship and although this sounds cooler than anything in the world ever the actual payoff is slightly flawed. See whilst everything else is viewed top down with precise controls, some of the action whilst controlling a spaceship, happens in a 3rd person view thus taking away the precise controls and altering it into something that would make Starfox cry. You have to be ultra skilled to manoeuvre these parts of the game and even if you are you’ll still more than likely come a cropper. It’s almost impossible. Granted, this 3rd person action doesn’t happen too often so maybe this can be forgiven, maybe.

Online or local co-op make this game even more fun, the pick up and play value is flawless. Your basic controls consist of left stick to move and the right stick to fire. Sure, there’s your nuke and grenades and cycling through your weapons, but it’s all very simple and instant.

Assault Heroes 2 is a must if you’re a shooter fan and haven’t played the original. If you have the original and enjoyed it then again it’s a must. If you don’t like shooters? Get in anyway.>>