Review written by Eric Pankoke

Buy Anthelion 2 from Clickgamer

"The Locust wars are over. Peace however is temporary. This delicate balance of civilizations is now being disturbed by an Ancient Evil - the Mysterious Watchers.” So it begins as you jump in the cockpit and embark on a journey spanning 15 missions that will leave you in awe. Do you have what it takes to save the galaxy again?"

The graphics throughout Anthelion 2 are consistently well done. The 3D engine handles like a champ on my Dell Axim X5, even with all the settings enabled. The special effects are quite well done, and you have a real sense of scope as you're rushing around a giant cruiser to take out the attacking fighters. The interface is very clean and well presented, and the text is very easy to read in all the messages and briefings. The portraits during dialogs aren't spectacular, but they do they job well enough. Overall the visuals are quite pleasant to behold.

The sound effects make you feel like you're in the middle of a battle in Star Wars. Everything is spot on, and there's nothing quite like the sound of an enemy fighter rushing right past your cockpit. In addition, as has pretty much come to be expected with any PDAMill game, there's good music going on in the background. And, unlike many developers, they always manage to have it playing during the game itself!

Wow. First of all, I have to confess that I'm not a big fan of this type of game. I never got into the many Wing Commander sequels or X-Wing variants or what have you, mostly because they were always too complex for my simple mind. In fact, I will even go so far as to admit that I didn't really care for the first Anthelion. A2 has made me reconsider the franchise, however.

The biggest plus to this outing is that they made it easy to play for those of us who don't normally venture into this type of game. You simply use the D-Pad to rotate around in space, and assuming default configuration: button A to shoot, B to change weapons, C to accelerate and D to break. To jump to a new location you can use the flashing button at the top right of the screen, and the main menu is always accessible in the upper left corner of the screen.

The second thing that caught my attention with this game is that you really feel like you're involved in expansive battles. In mission 3 you have to defend a diplomatic cruiser from some assassins, and the feeling you get buzzing around the cruiser as you search for your targets is just amazing. It's like playing out a scene from Battlestar Galactica. This is definitely an experience you won't get playing a 2D scroller.

There's also a story going on. This is something I wouldn't normally care about, but they've managed to throw twists in from the beginning that make you want to find out what's going to come next. Of course, if you really don't care about this you can play survival mode, which lets you fend off wave after wave of bad guys until you wind up dead. This mode is great for honing your combat skills for the actual campaign mode. You can also replay old missions if you'd like to see if you can do better the second time around.

If I had to complain about something, it's that even though you've got radar and arrows indicating where the opponents are, it is sometimes possible to get lost in the shuffle. Of course, you can always recover, but sometimes it can be disorienting for a bit.

After playing the first game, I wasn’t really holding my breath for part two. After having played it, however, I’m glad I didn’t let the past cloud my judgments. Excellent graphics, wonderful audio, and an epic storyline make Anthelion 2 an out of this world adventure. Anthelion 2 receives a score of 9 out of 10.

Pros:

• Excellent graphics and visuals

• Easy to play

• Intriguing storyline

Cons:

• Nothing major

Overall Score: 9/10

Many thanks to PDAmill for providing us with our review copy.

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