- With integrated THX, this is one
of the best-sounding games ever
- Co-op is most enjoyable mode in the game
- Good story, but not entirely original: somewhat resembles the
plot of the George Clooney movie “The Peacemaker”
- Ho-hum single-player game becomes
bogged down in mediocrity due to lack of frequent save system
- Unpredictable weapon aiming
- Annoying multiplayer glitches
- Teen rating means there’s no exploding craniums
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Shadow
Ops: Red Mercury
Score: 6.5 / 10
Featuring THX sound, HDTV-supported
graphics and cinematic cut-scenes, and a solid-if-somewhat-familiar
storyline, the Xbox-exclusive Shadow Ops: Red Mercury (SORM) could
easily be mistaken as a theater-ready movie. Unfortunately, with all
those big-budget blockbuster film qualities, the development team must
have forgotten that they were actually working on a video game, because
as impressive as the sensual elements of SORM are, it fails to be
entertaining.
As elite operative Frank Hayden, it’s up to you to track down Red
Mercury and prevent it from being used for nefarious purposes. What is
Red Mercury, and why is it so dangerous? It is a highly destructive
nuclear device that is so small it can fit into a knapsack. Terrorists
have their hands on Red Mercury, and as Hayden working for the CIA,
you’ll travel around the globe including jungles and cities before
squaring off in a final showdown that determines that fate of millions
of lives. Vaguely familiar in its plot to the movie “The Peacemaker”
(George Clooney
as a soldier hunting down nukes) the SORM’s
story plays out rather nicely “if” you play through the single-player
game. Sorry to say, that’s a pretty big “if.”
The single-player mode of the game is difficult even on the lowest
setting because of a disadvantageous save system. Although the game
informs you at various points during mission that you have completed a
particular
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mission objective that should trigger a game save, the only way you
progress to the next mission is to complete your current mission on the
very first try. So although you can make it to the last chapter of a
particular mission, if you happen to get killed in action, you don’t go
back to a save point somewhere during the course of a mission. No,
you’re forced to start from the very beginning. And even with a decent
story leading you through the game, because of the derivative nature of
the levels that borrow heavily from Tom Clancy titles (not only in their
location but in appearance too), if you get easily frustrated by
repetitive, over-and-over-playing-the-same-mission gameplay due to the
lack of a good save system, you won’t even bother trying to progress
very far through the single-player mode.
Even worse, SORM is predictable in its enemy placement and A.I. The
enemies always appear in the same place during the game, and even on
higher challenge settings, don’t always act smartly. Making things more
difficult, there are times when the A.I. gets away with an unfair
advantage. Even if you think you have cleared an area of all possible
threats, enemies perplexingly appear out of thin air and fill you with a
few rounds of hot lead, and this doesn’t help your goal of reaching the
mission objective before getting killed. Other times, it’s hard to
figure out where gunfire is coming from (usually a hard to find sniper)
and then there’s times early in the game when you can’t even tell right
away if you are shooting a foe or friend because of a similar clothing
appearance of both your support squad and those trying to kill you.
Because of the single-player mode’s deficiencies, SORM had a chance for
redemption with its Xbox Live-supported multiplayer mode. Alas, it isn’t
much better than its single-player counterpart. The expected capture the
flag and deathmatch are here, but the problem is that the multiplayer
levels aren’t exactly multiplayer friendly compared to other similar
games such as Unreal Championship, Counter-Strike, Rainbow Six 3, Ghost
Recon, and even Halo.
These levels don’t create a totally horrible online game, especially if
you’re into the soldier-type FPS, but they certainly won’t rank anywhere
near the best available on Xbox Live multiplayer. On top of ill-suited
levels, I personally ran into some weird multiplayer glitches, some that
could be explained away as lag, but one that I don’t see how could. I
was unable to reload my weapon during more than a few matches, even
though I had ample ammo in reserve. And naturally, that led to an
untimely demise from an enemy that I was left helplessly swallowing lead
from because of this bizarre glitch. This might not be a widespread
glitch, but it didn’t make my SORM online time fun, to say the least.
The only mode that proved to be enjoyable was the co-op mode, which was
the only way I (with the help of a partner) was able to actually finish
game levels without dying. My longest stretch of gameplay with SORM was
playing the co-op mode. The co-op mode is just as difficult as the
single-player game, but it certainly helps immensely to have someone
covering your back in the heat of a firefight.
Handling the FPS festivities is an okay control schematic. Moving around
is down with the usual dual-thumbstick setup, and the controls are
responsive as they need to be. Shooting is another matter completely.
While the shooting of weapons isn’t bad and gives the proper timely
response to your weapon firing, the targeting system is not reliable.
Shooting targets is a hit-or-miss proposition. Even if you have a target
in your crosshair, they don’t always respond as if they are being shot.
In fact, it takes more hits to take down a single target than should be
necessary. Conversely, you may think you don’t have a solid target lock
to take down a target, but somehow he is killed by your fire.
You can use lean around corners and cover tactics, and this is
completely essential to being able to complete the game. But the only
way to lean is to use the weapon zoom at the same time, and this can get
confusing, especially when you are involved in the midst of a big-time
battle and knowing where all, not just one, of your enemies are placed
in relation to your current position is supremely important.
It isn’t as impressive as SORM’s sound elements, but visually the game
is better than average, and if you have the capacity to support HDTV
480p you’ll really be in for an eye-candy treat particularly during the
many gorgeous cut-scenes. Unfortunately, while the graphics are good,
there’s not too much seen that you haven’t seen in other similar games.
Jungle and city environments are so cookie-cutter that it would be hard
to figure out if what you see was from SORM or Rainbow Six 3. One
question I have is why is SORM a “T” rated game? I’m certainly not a
violence-in-games-is-good-proponent, but in a war-oriented game, the
lack of blood due to the game’s rating is a bit perplexing and headshots
just don’t seem satisfying without heads exploding into a bloody pulp.
Movie quality production values aside, an uneven single-player game,
questionable A.I. and game physics, and the glitches I encountered
during multiplayer action unmercifully deliver a quick killshot to SORM.
Not even a good co-op mode can overcome the bland and
“been-there-done-that-better” flavor of SORM. Fans of the soldier
shooting genre are better off sticking with the current and upcoming Tom
Clancy games than looking at the weak shadow of a game that SORM
ultimately turns out to be.
