With the success of Call of Duty 4 last year, the Medal of Honor series has found it hard going to compete. CoD reinvented itself and went on to become the biggest selling game of the year, while MoH was looked upon with both disgust and sympathy. Medal of Honor: Heroes on PSP was received well back in 2006 and now the sequel looks to continue this trend.

Nazi scum need to be shot and you're one of the soldiers sent in to do the job. If you expected a CoD4 style story that makes you actually care about the character you play as then you won't find one here. This ambiguous hand with a gun isn't even given a game - something that the developers would cover up by saying "He's an everyman". You probably wouldn't care about the character's name anyway, as there is absolutely no plot to be found at all here; each mission, of which there are seven, opens with a briefing from a fellow soldier. This hero of war is your stereotypical, gruff, American who will annoy you more than help with the mission ahead. In the game there is often a disembodied voice from a radio that gives you commands, but nothing that actually affects what you're doing. That's all that really needs to be said about the story of a World War II game; you shoot Nazis and then you shoot some more.

PSP first person shooters are something that has become the bane of the handheld community. How can you control an FPS effectively if you have just one analog stick? Well, once again EA prove that the face buttons can be used effectively to aim, even if this method will never be as fluid as a stick. The controls of the game are very similar to the first game, if not identical, which means that those who played it will find the controls easy to pick up. The action button, used to activate bombs and on-site weaponry, is up on the d-pad, which can feel cumbersome at times. You'll often press the weapons button (right on the d-pad) by accident when trying to let go of a machine gun, causing death more than a few times. All of the controls work well though and even if they aren't as good as those in Syphon Filter, they do the job as well as they are expected to. If you've found it hard to get the grips with PSP shooter controls then Heroes 2 won't do anything to change your mind - on the contrary, you'll probably hate them even more. But if you can deal with the hardware limitations (they aren't going to change, you know) you'll be able to enjoy the game to the full.

The campaign mode will be your first port of call here and at seven missions long, it's a short one at that. Each mission sends you to a certain area of the country and you fight your way through it, completing objectives as you progress. These tasks are either primary or secondary, with completing the former making up the basis of each mission. The enemy often has a weapon or a base that you must destroy, sabotage or infiltrate. As you make your way to this location, other tasks appear along your very linear path - there is absolutely no way you can get lost - which can vary from protecting certain areas to sniping enemies to let your comrades through. You have two companions with you throughout each mission, who are surprisingly able when it comes to a firefight. They can defend themselves against the enemy, allowing you to sneak behind a nearby wall and recover your health, shown by the now standard blood-spattered screen. All of the missions may be extremely linear, but they are enjoyable, with some memorable ones standing out, such as the one where you are assigned the simple task of pushing through the German defences, but this beach assault is both intense and fun. There's nothing new in any of these missions, but for such a short campaign - roughly three to four hours long - there's a lot to do.

With three difficulties on offer, the game can be as hard as you want it to be. It seems that EA are trying to get non-FPS fans on board with this game, as there is a simple targeting system included as an optional help in the missions. This makes the gun reticule larger and it turns red when it's over an enemy. If you shoot while it's red then you will most likely hit an enemy, especially if you use a heavy automatic weapon. This makes the game both easier for newcomers and more relaxed for those fans that don't want too much stress while they're on the bus. That's not to say that the game is too easy though, as certain sections of missions are harder than others, with a steady progression of difficulty as the game progresses.

There is also cover everywhere in the game, giving a false sense of security when you duck behind it. Shots can still hit you if you're not fully behind the barrel or stone block between you and the enemy, which emphasises the lack of a decent cover system; all you have is the ability to duck with the down button on the d-pad. This hardly constitutes for a cover system and makes certain battles feel like you're just running towards your foe, guns blazing. Despite this, the game feels solid in most of its aspects. The guns feel weighty, with the sniper rifle and bazooka the obvious choice for any Medal of Honor veteran, while the enemy AI allows you to feel like you are in charge of this war. They don't seem to know what to do at times and get caught in uncomfortable positions on occasion, but sprinting across an open stretch of land with a pistol, popping shots at unwary Nazis, feels as good as it should do.

One thing that the PSP sorely lacks is a strong online community and Heroes 2 attempts to change this with a staggering thirty-two player online mode. This may seem like too much for the system to handle, but it works tremendously well. Slowdown is limited, something that even the PS3 finds hard to deal with, and even though the modes available are standard shooter fare, you will have a great time fragging fellow PSP owners over the net. The three modes you have to choose from are Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Infiltration (Capture the Flag). After going through the main campaign and achieving gold on all missions - each mission gives you a medal at the end depending on which secondary missions you undertook - you'll be ready to get stuck into the online section. It doesn't add enough hours to the game to make up for the length of the campaign, mainly due to the lack of originality in the modes, but this is the first time that thirty-two players have been able to compete on the system. It's just a shame that you can't help getting a feeling of déjà vu from the modes on offer. If EA had added just one original touch to the multiplayer, it would be possibly the best online found on the platform, but as it is, you may become bored with the options. A real shame considering the potential that is holds.

Shooters on the PSP always suffer from looking like a downgraded version of their console counterparts and while Heroes 2 may not be as good looking as Metal Gear for example, it is a decent looking portable game. The textures can be bland and explosions always look more like a small balloon popping rather than a tank blowing up, while the Nazis all look the same and your comrades are just palette swaps of them. Despite this, the overall smoothness of the game is good and the environments themselves are conveyed in a clean and inoffensive way. The sound is very similar in quality to the graphics, with the gunshots and explosions sounding decent, although there is no music to be found in-game. This is apparent after a few minutes of play and you begin to wish that the opening music was added to certain sections. It's not as if much would be needed - we're talking about the war after all, not a jolly fantasy adventure - but having some climactic themes when the battle heats up would be nice. The game is okay aesthetically, but it never reaches its full potential.

If you want to take on the Germans once again on your PSP then Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 is a good choice. It may have problems and the length of the single player campaign is disappointing, but the intensity of the battles make it fun to play. If you prefer you shooters on console however then you should probably give this a miss, as while the controls are perfectly serviceable, you can find better and more complete FPS experiences on both the PS3 and 360. Possibly the most important reason for leaving this game is if you have a Wii - the version on that console, while I have not played it personally, looks to be a more complete and fun way to experience this game. Hopefully EA won't leave the PSP behind with the inevitable Heroes 3 though, and hopefully they will make the small improvements needed to make it an essential experience, rather than just the above average one that Heroes 2 provides.

Reviewed by Sam Atkins for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).