UKTerrorist

Militia 2 Review

Before I begin, here's an introduction to the movie, taken from the readme:

"Militia 2 is the sequel to the popular Counter-Strike movie, cs_militia part 1. What started as a small group project of about 5 people, quickly boomed into a 30+ person production as Daniel Frome (director) strived to take Militia 2 to a higher level than Part 1.

The film follows Russ, a Special Forces soldier, as he tries to rescue his captured teammate (and other hostages) from a terrorist infested household. Russ plans an attack with his squad members to eliminate the terrorists, but each battle ends in more bloodshed; what had begun as a small search and rescue operation is now a brute struggle of survival of the fittest.

The Film features custom mapping by talented artists Mojo and Outkast, but is based on the official counter-strike map, cs_militia. It also features an original music score by The_Family_God and voice talent by some of Toronto's best young actors."

Whilst not being extremely experienced in movie reviews, I couldn't help but jump at the chance to be one of the first to see this spectacle, a day before it's released to the public.

It's been on the cards for a while. Only a few days ago we received news that Militia 2, the sequel to the much acclaimed Militia 1, was ready for release and would weigh in at 29 minutes long. Many began to wonder whether it could live up to all the hype. Well, I'm happy to say that it fulfills all expectations and more. The meaty 269mb download is sure to detract a few, but I urge them to forget the size, as it's definitely the best CS movie (whether it be frag movies, directed movies or whatever) to date.

From the opening credits, which are very nicely done indeed, you know you're in for a treat, the way it seamlessly follows on from the original Militia is done superbly by The Family God and co. TFG hasn't forgotten how great a movie can be if it has the correct audio accompanying it, and the musical score in Militia 2 is beyond words. The music used fits each situation perfectly. One major thing I noticed that's different in Militia 2 is the quality of the voice acting. While in the original the voice acting wasn't bad, it did seem a little "cheesy" at times, but that's been rectified in the sequel, with each character being ultra serious to attract both the Counter-Strike fan and the general movie buff.

With the movie being 29 minutes long, some will expect sections of it to drag on a little, but this is not the case. Something crucial is always happening furthering the plot.

The way the camera constantly moves gives it that extra feeling that you're not just watching snippets from numerous player demos, but that you're watching a professional production that will hopefully be met with the same reception from the general public as it has with myself.

Without trying to spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it yet, I'll go over a few sections which I myself was very impressed with. At one point there's a firefight in front of the Militia household, and while Russ runs away, there's a great sequence which has a flashback to a small conversation between Russ and those captured earlier in the night. This is done superbly and really adds to the atmosphere. When the action scenes take place it's quite remarkable to see the effects of bullets spraying up against the different textures. The blood seems to splash out of the bodies slower than it does in counter-strike itself, and this extra gore will no doubt make it popular with action-movie fans.

What CS fans will enjoy in this movie is the site of things not associated with the modern cs_militia map. There's an APC that drives up to the house containing backup terrorist troops, there's a CT with an AWP/AWM who flies over in a helicopter and there's also other features such as a fire inside the bar area downstairs which creates rubble not seen in the normal map.

The end of the movie doesn't exactly give us any indication of whether there will be a sequal. But the response TFG gets from everyone will perhaps spur him on to create Militia 3, or another spectacle.

All in all it's a great movie, a lot of effort produced this epic and the public shouldnÂ’t hesitate to download it.

Download mirrors are now available from CS-Nation.

Final Mark: 10/10 (nothings perfect, except this)

PS. Brad pulling out his duals is sooo 1337.