Shadow Ops: Red Mercury

Jun 15, 2004

Zombie is known more for promising titles than great games. Spec Ops is a perfect example -- a game that could have been great, but failed to be. Shadow Ops: Red Mercury is, in essence, the latest version of Spec Ops, this time for Xbox, home of all things first-person shooter. Unfortunately, Shadow Ops continues the tradition as a game that will likely leave you thinking of "what could have been." While there are moments that are truly pleasing, there's also some serious AI problems, graphical ugliness, and odd design choices. While Shadow Ops is fun for the most part, it's a bit too flawed to be great. Better luck next time, gang.

Set, for the most part, in the Mideast, Shadow Ops begins roughly three-quarters of the way through the story and then works its way backwards after letting you witness a truly horrific moment. The story itself is pretty much standard Hollywood fluff, so expect betrayals and some stiff banter in the cut-scenes. It's passable, but nothing that will keep you gripped. Instead, it's up to the action to keep you hanging. And it probably will, despite everything that's wrong with the game.

Lean On Me
Shadow Ops makes use of standard first-person shooting techniques, but offers a very helpful lean function that actually is something other developers should rip off. Yes, lean has been used before, but it's very effective and even vital in ShOps. Hold the Left Trigger to zoom and then lean left, right, or up with the Left Thumbstick. This is analogue sensitive, so you can lean a fraction or poke your head completely out of cover. This is the most useful action in Shadow Ops next to plugging bullets into enemy noggins with a few well-placed shots. Cover is important in ShOps, very important. It's everywhere and most sections of the large levels see you finding cover, leaning out and taking on enemies who storm in and generally take one of three different cover spots again and again. Cap one and another runs in to take his place. Once they stop coming, it's time to move forward to the next section, where the same situation plays out.

Psst! You're Facing the Wrong Way
You could shake things up by running at the enemy, but this can sometimes break the game as the AI doesn't seem ready to handle any deviation in the gameplan. Even when playing ShOps as its meant to be played (hiding behind cover and taking out enemies slowly), there are AI blips where enemies will end up facing the wrong way or will throw grenades off walls and right back at themselves (oh, high comedy indeed), but when you try and do the unexpected the AI will often break down further.

However, the real AI problems come from your AI teammates, whom you'll have for about half of the missions. Your buddies can't be commanded, which is fine for any game, so long as they have some decent AI dictating their actions. But they don't. There's no friendly fire, so go ahead and shoot at your allies as much as you want, it doesn't matter. I can forgive that, but it seems that it's almost impossible for enemies to do your teammates harm. Numerous times I watched as grenades exploded at an ally's feet, only to watch these Supermen fail to even flinch.

Their invulnerability is coupled with some absolutely horrendous aim. It won't be long before you'll catch this lovely scene of your guy and an enemy standing, literally, two feet from each other, guns blazing. They never hit one another. Even G.I. Joe would have to laugh at these two. It's up to you to come up from behind and take out the foe. Sure, sometimes your guys do take down enemies, but they are mainly just window dressing, and who wants to dress their windows in a first-person shooter? All of this doesn't hurt the gameplay itself, as early on you'll learn to depend solely on yourself for success in each mission, but it's a big flaw that should not be in any game.

There are other little annoyances, like being shot through walls (and being able to target and kill even the most well-hidden enemies), the incredible length of the levels without a single save point (die and you must start over again), and the terrible imbalance in the first two levels (which feature the worst of the AI blips and end up being among the hardest levels in the entire game). Still, I played ShOps to its conclusion because, overall, it's not a bad game. There's some variety, though minor, in the missions. While the majority have you cleaning all clocks, there are two instances where you must play sniper to help clear the way for your team and in the later stages you'll have to become a tank killer. I think most gamers can enjoy this on a basic level, but the flaws are pretty noticeable and more particular gamers (like myself) will get a little frustrated after a while with all of the stupid crap the enemies and your teammates manage to accomplish.

There are also, unfortunately, a couple of bugs I stumbled across while playing through Shadow Ops. One three occasions I was forced to commit suicide because I couldn't proceed further in a level. The first came when I activated an elevator and didn't immediately jump on it before it headed downwards. There's no way to recall it and the only option is a leap to an instant death. The other two came when, for whatever reason, events didn't trigger to open doors so I could proceed in the level. Remember, there are no mid-level saves, so after these incidents, I was forced to wait at least a minute for the level to reload so I could begin at the starting point once more.

Lovely Vacation Spots
On a positive, there are a number of very different areas to explore. There's the mideast levels, which look like stock footage from CNN, but there are also jungle areas (which would be a tough area, save for the fact that the camouflaged enemies all wear red berets), a train, subway station, and the streets of Paris. The variety is nice and the environments are the only area where the game even slightly shines graphically, with some nicely textured walls and a generally good -- if generic -- look to each area.

You'll only have three weapons for each level, plus some grenades, but those weapons change between levels for some reason. In one area you may have a sniper rifle, a machinegun, and a pistol and in the next you might suddenly have a shotgun instead of the pistol. This is seemingly random as far as the design goes and, for the most part, each weapon is pretty much the same. For instance, you can use the chain gun to snipe enemies from across the screen (I kid you not), because the target reticule turns red when over an enemy. This means you can crouch behind the husk of a car, lean around the bumper, aim in the general direction of some sandbags at the end of the block, wait for the reticule to go red, and then fire. Sniping with a chaingun? Come on now, that's just idiotic. Isn't it?

That's "T" for "Teen"
Strangely enough, one of my biggest gripes is that this game had to be rated "Teen" for some reason, which means there is no blood in the game, making any of the "gritty realism" in ShOps fall flat. Even the explosions seems a bit cartoony with big fat sparkles from a grenade or RPG pop that look more fitting for a fireworks display. No, blood and fancier explosions aren't required for an FPS, but if you're going to try and sell realism and grit, as ShOps attempts, then you gotta go all out.

Where ShOps makes the most of the military "Hollywood" realism, is in the sound. In luscious 5.1, the score is top-notch, among the top-tier for a console FPS. The sound is also good, with the cacophony of gunfire seemingly coming from all directions -- it's oppressive, but it's supposed to be. The dialogue in the cut-scenes is decent, but the in-game chatter is very repetitive and downright laughable when you reach Paris and have to listen to your French squadmates in their overly froggy accents.

Length Matters
The single-player is lengthy, with most of the two-dozen levels taking about a half hour a piece (with replay attempts). The average gamer will probably finish in about 12-14 hours with two harder difficulties to tackle after that. But if you're not one to just accept single-player, there is also split-screen co-op and eight player Xbox Live and System Link play. The co-op offers ten unique, but unscripted (as in no cut-scenes or dramatic score), levels to play through progressively with a buddy. The Live component is mostly standard, with Deathmatch offerings, but also a somewhat weak VIP mode, which has one player -- armed with only a handgun -- trying to reach the evac helicopter with the assistance of his team, while the other team hunts them down. Some of the maps (of which there are only a few), are a bit too small to make this last very long. It's more of a quick confrontation and the round is over than a prolonged battle featuring inventive tactics..

The co-op and multiplayer are decent additions, but with games like Rainbow Six 3 and Pandora Tomorrow out there, this is about as generic and average as it gets. Strangely enough, this is one to get more for the single-player, as flawed as it may be.