Metascore
80 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 22
  2. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. The plot is interesting and well told. The sounds effects and graphics are detailed, realistic, and both beautiful and gory. The enemy AI is outstanding and provides players of all skill levels with a stiff challenge.
  2. The "deadly" combination of awesome and versatile weapons..., fantastic model animation and gore effects, coupled with incredible outdoor environments and highly realistic weapon and environmental sound effects is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat right till the end.
  3. The action level in SOF II is high, so prepare your adrenal glands for some intense shooter battles. Playing John Mullins is still a blast.
  4. Offers everything you'll want from a FPS plus much more.
  5. The developers did a fantastic job of utilizing a still great quake 3 Arena engine and GHOUL II technology that provides ultra realistic damage modeling.
  6. The overall presentation immerses you totally. The detailed graphics, and the sound complement each other to create living breathing levels.
  7. 90
    With solid action, great graphics and lots of replay value, SoF2 is easily one of the best action games of the year.
  8. 90
    If you like first-person shooters with lots blood, fire fights, screaming and explosions… then you’ll rip through this – loving every minute of it.
  9. 88
    Technologically amazing and delightfully wicked, this one's a keeper, but still won't shelve "Jedi Outcast" or "Halo" anytime soon.
  10. Though it introduces a few new features that don't quite work, it retains and improves upon virtually every element of the original, both in its single-player campaign and in its multiplayer mode.
  11. Good graphics, fun gameplay, crafty AI, a random mission generator and more bursting heads than you'd find on a teenager's face will keep this one on my hard drive until the bitter end.
  12. I’m maybe a little less impressed by this title for several reasons. Foremost is the fact that, although my system satisfies the minimum daily requirements for vitamins plus iron, the game ran so ridiculously slowly as to be almost unplayable.
  13. While SoF II won't contend for Game of the Year, it's worth its price tag for both its combat-heavy single-player campaign as well as its robust multiplayer package, highlighted by the random map generator.
  14. It may not be revolutionary for the genre, but it's as good an FPS as you're going to get today, with decent multiplayer to back it up into the near future.
  15. 80
    Excellent level and mission variety leads to an experience that ranks among the best seen this year.
  16. Pick it up if you are in dire need of a first person shooter fix, and simply cannot wait for "Doom III" or "Deus Ex 2."
  17. Raven's attempt to infuse different styles of gameplay into SoF2 come off looking like they were stuck on at the last minute with Elmer's Glue.
  18. The first 15 to 20 minutes were a lot of fun. Then the rest of the game set in. [July 2002, p.90]
  19. While better than its predecessor on almost all counts, SOF II still does little to turn heads in the genre. Instead, it blows them clean off. [August 2002, p.66]
  20. It's a shame that the single player campaign is such a letdown - SoF 2 is an incredibly addictive multiplayer game, and if the polish shown to the online portion had transferred over to the single player game, we'd have a candidate of GOTY 2002 here.
  21. Anyone who gets off on the violence in this game is reveling in violence solely for violence's sake. [Sept 2002, p.78]
User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 35 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 19
  2. Negative: 3 out of 19
  1. The game is not perfect but for the time the graphics were state-of-the-art and the gameplay and realism were top notch and allthough it has been 6 years the game has aged but still feels fun and refresing compared to newer games like COD and MOH and also the weapons may not be new or as fun as you would have thought SOF2 Had spawned the realism of modern shooters and you have to hand it that. Full Review »
  2. The first FPS game to incorporate the "leaning" and "prone" tactic to the genre which over the years gave way to macros to perform a lean while strafing, commonly called "the electric slide" allowing the player model to be about 75% harder to hit due to being in a form not recognized by the original game code, thus spawning many mods to a game with an open source code. However, hidden Quake developer console commands ultimately ruined the multiplayer aspect allowing players to shut down servers and hack other players resulting in an extreme loss of interest in trying to keep servers up. These were earlier days when Punkbuster's system of detecting aimbots and hacks was in it's infancy. Full Review »
  3. [Anonymous]
    0
    It's just like the first game but worse in every aspect. I was extremely let down by this game when it was released, it's uninspired, weapons feel and sound worse, the revolutionary gore system was downgraded and have never been seen again in a FPS since the first game... The entire game that used to be fast action just slows down and you even have to go to meetings (yes really!) in boring buildings. Full Review »