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It seems that “Ops” is the new industry buzzword.
Shadow Ops from Atari and Zombie Studios is the latest entry in a rather crowded Xbox genre. While Shadow Ops doesn’t do too much to distance itself from other, similar games, it is solid enough to justify a purchase for avid Xbox gamers looking for more FPS action.
In Shadow Ops you take control of Special Force agent Frank Hayden who is in charge of recuperating the red mercury. You see, this red mercury now belongs to someone who plans on using it to destroy the world by using its nuclear powers. The story, although not particularly interesting, is told through very Hollywood-esque cutscenes.
Despite what the name may inspire, Shadow Ops isn’t a military simulation. In its most basic sense, the gameplay is simply to keep going forward while killing the enemies you spot before they have a shot to kill you. There are a few missions that for variety allow you to fight with an actual squad. They aren’t the smartest bunch but don’t really get in your way and will occasionally help you out. Other times you’ll need to do some mild sneaking in order to plant explosives.
Shadow Ops succeeds at throwing a number of enemies at you at once. The enemies in the game are relentless, although not very smart. They will wait you for to pass a corner and then ferociously attack you. Other times, smaller groups of enemies will come at you from different spots forcing you to rapidly press that trigger. Some show some intelligence and cover or throw your grenades, though. Not that I’m complaining about the rather brainless gameplay since there are a variety of weapons to use like the ever-popular pistol, shotgun and assault rifle. These are joined, in some missions, by a machine gun and bazooka. There are also a lot of barrels to explode in the game. And let’s face it; everyone loves to see things blow up.
The rampant shooting is slowed down by the rather scarce amount of ammo that the game gives you. You can sometimes find health packs and ammo from fallen enemies, though. More ammo and health packs can be found in the easier difficulty settings (there are four). If you run out of ammo and are crazy enough, you can run into enemies and simply beat them with your ammo-less weapon.
The game has plenty of multiplayer modes, as well. You can play though the ten missions with a friend via the cooperative mode. These missions offer a variety of goals to complete but have none of the single player mode’s plot, which is a rather weird decision. If that isn’t your thing you can always go ahead and play four-player split-screen multiplayer on your Xbox. If not, go online with Xbox Live and you can face up to seven other players. The adversarial multiplayer modes include the typical Capture the Flag, Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes. There is also a VIP multiplayer mode in which a player is handed only a handgun and needs to be protected by his team while the other hunts him down.
The game’s visuals are pretty good for the most part. There are a few levels full of detail while there are others that are rather bare. The enemy models aren’t particularly good but animate very authentically and even feature rag-doll physics. The various weapon models are excellent and feature first-rate particle effects. Other effects like the explosions look pretty good, as well. One thing to remember is that since the game is rated Teen, there is no blood. If you have the proper setup, you can enjoy the game in Progressive Scan.
Shadow Ops brags about having “Hollywood sound design” and the audio backs that claim up. The soundtrack is convincing, right up there with the best of war films thanks to its Dolby Digital 5.1 support and also one of the first games to earn that notorious THX certification. The sound effects are fitting, particularly the gunfire adding life to the on-screen action. The dialogue is solid throughout the game, particularly in the cut-scenes but also in the gameplay since the enemies speak their native tongue.
Shadow Ops doesn’t attempt to innovate anywhere. Both its single- and multi-player modes have been done various times before. But everyone knows that Xbox is the console for FPS so Shadow Ops’ lack of innovation can be overlooked. There is a lot of value in the game with a rather large single-player mode (about twelve hours) and co-op, four-player split-screen and Xbox Live support. While there are other FPS that do things better, Shadow Ops is a solid entry in any FPS fan’s library. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Jul 1, 2004
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