Operation Darkness is a fantastical romp through the good old days of the final few years of WWII. The developers at Atlus studios decided to build a turn based RPG around something everyone can love, killing Nazis. If that weren't awesome enough you also get to kill Nazis with bazookas! There's more, but I won't spoil it for you other than to say there is certainly some fantasy in this role playing game.
OK, I don't know about you but I can't imagine how a game like that would NOT be super. I mean, the Japanese version is made by people who are so confident they named the company Success!
Come, join me as we explore the nooks and crannies of Operation Darkness for the 360.
Go on, hit the jump already, there'll be anime babes with guns, I promise.
I know what you're thinking, "Turn based combat? Didn't that go out of style with the last X-Com game from like....well I don't know how long ago but you get the point. Well, I certainly thought so. At least for a game that isn't built around trading cards and Saturday morning cartoons.
The combat itself is actually pretty good, because each character uses projectile weapons using cover is important, spacing of characters, matching up character abilities, etc. That part is very engaging. Its the same reason I like chess, moving people around a board and using strategy are excellent elements for use in a video game.
Its not too complex, a basic hit roll and damage vs. defense. I like that, simple straight forward. What are my odds of a hit and what'll the damage be? This ends the positive portion of the review. But I promise there will be anime babes, so keep reading.
Graphically, the game is ok, the spikey hair is a little off from what I believe was 'in' for 1944 but whatever. One major problem with a game built around an intricate storyline is that there are almost no animated cutscenes. 90% of all dialogue and story progression is through voice-over text using multiple drawings of each character to illustrate emotion. That may, emphasize 'may', have worked on the original xbox but for a next gen console (are we still next gen?) it's really inexcusable. Particularly when some scenes are and some are not.
The story itself is not bad, you get some History Channel clips with a narrator talking about real events and characters. After a few missions he starts weaving in tales of the Wolfpack and their noteworthy exploits. It's cool, I can handle a fantasy meets reality story but don't cheap out on me and give me text reading with angry face - sorry face illustrations.
So, as I said, it's totally fine that this game uses a turn based strategy. It can be a bit plodding though, you have up to 12 members of your team and there can be sometimes 20 or 30 Nazis and multiple waves. So, a round can take a while. None of my missions was shorter than 45 minutes and most took well over an hour. Also, not a bad thing.
No, the bad thing is that there are certain characters which cannot die. On one occasion I had, not exaggerating, one final dirty Nazi left. His turn comes up and he pulls a Panzerfaust (German Bazooka) I didn't anticipate and shoots my main character who had no more med packs. I had to repeat the entire 80 minute battle all over again. What I find atrocious about this sceneareo is that it isn't necessary. There's just no reason for not being able save during a mission. Not just bacause a main character gets shot in the face with a bazooka, but for milk dammit. I should be able to save my game and go to the store, buy milk, come back and start it up where I left off. That's just how I feel.
Ok, so you're thinking I'm a puss because I'm just not good enough to win every battle the first time through. That's fine, I can take that and accept it. So, let's get to the details then shall we? The camera in this game is nearly useless if the map is not in a sparsely forested area or on the beach and your target is further away than 15 or 20 spaces. While you can move the camera angle any which way you like, what you may not do is Zoom in or out. Out would be more preferable.
It was nearly impossible to line up certain shot angles without the camera being blocked by a building/tank/fencepost or other object. Even a 'see-through' effect would have worked. Instead, I'm one square too far to the right to shoot that Nazi bastard and on his turn he moves and kills me.
If that were all that was bad I could see someone playing this game. It's not though; you can't skip the dialogue which makes repeating missions more tedious, the maps are all pretty bland and while the story was interesting the characters were not. Other than not having them die, I did not care about them at all.
I was going to summarize for you but I changed my mind, if you didn't read everything I wrote, shame on you. Still, to top it off I'll say that with all its problems at least you can get it full price.
Final Score: D
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