Hidden & Dangerous rescued and re-released by GOG
WW2 stealth-o-shooters
Like a child who clambers up a drainpipe onto the roof of a crotchety neighbour and becomes a hero cheered by the assembled masses as she flings down years of lost footballs and frisbees, deflated and sun-bleached but still treasured, GOG have rescued another two games from the digital gutter. This time, it's the Hidden & Dangerous games. They're a pair of tactical squad-based World War 2 stealth-o-shooters release in 1999 and 2003 by Illusion Softworks (who are now 2K Czech), and they're still quite good. They've been off the radar for a while but are now sold DRM-free on GOG.
Adam has called Hidden & Dangerous 2 one of the best stealth games:
"Hidden and Dangerous is to Call of Duty what SWAT 4 is to Battlefield Hardline. Rather than treating war as a shooting gallery, Hidden and Dangerous uses a combination of first- and third-person direct squad control to simulate the tactics of SAS operations behind enemy lines. The sequel improves the stealth mechanics, allowing the player to take prisoners and steal uniforms, as well as incorporating a greater variety of appropriate objectives in its missions."
And here's what Jim said about the first in his Very Important List of PC Games:
"Hidden & Dangerous, for example, used a third-perspective across a squad of special ops characters conducting clever missions in exciting World War II scenarios. This game is important because it was the subject of the sample review I produced for my interview at PC Gamer magazine, thus getting me through the door of the industry. It was probably a fairly good game, too."
Okay, maybe that game's importance is quite Jim-specific.
£4.69 will get you Hidden & Dangerous, its expansion, and the revamped 'Deluxe Edition' that was given away free to promote the sequel. But, as GOG explain, not everyone liked all the Deluxe changes - so this packs both. You might want GameRanger to help you play online.
£7.79 gets you Hidden & Dangerous 2 plus its expansion. These instructions should let you bypass the collapsed GameSpy and play online.