Shadow Ops: Red Mercury [Xbox]

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.

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