Shadow Ops: Red Mercury
- June 01, 2004 00:00 AM PST
Hands-on impressions of Atari�s military FPS
After two years in production, Atari's big-budgeted, �ber-hyped military FPS is ramping up for a June release for those who like to play soldier in the safe confines of their home.Inspired by blockbuster war flicks like Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down, and using a modified Unreal II engine, Shadow Ops: Red Mercury boasts Hollywood-caliber production values with the kind of frenetic intensity only video games can provide.
The game's painstakingly rendered environments, based in Chechnya, Syria, Bosnia, and Casablanca, are built around cover objects that players will need to master using in order to progress, and the amount of research that went into re-creating real places, weapons, and even weapon-loading movements is jaw-dropping.
For all of its amazing texturing and full-on orchestral score, the previewable build of Shadow Ops played like a simplistic shooter in the vein of Medal of Honor: Frontline, bent on waging an all-out assault on your immediate senses. The single-player mode featured five campaigns, and although the multiplayer deathmatch and capture-the-flag games were a riot, co-op play will only be available via split-screen, not online. The game could use some more work as the levels were extremely linear and the A.I. scripting was a bit flaccid. In addition, the hit detection and stiff animations could use some tweaking before release.
