Before I go any further, some background on this... I purchased C:Do (Conflict: Denied Ops) based purely on experience of games in the same series; Firstly I played conflict: (hereafter shorted to C: with appropriate acronym for the game) Desert Storm 2 (C:DS2), I found if cheap in my local game store one day, and thought I'd give it a go and soon found that I enjoyed it greatly! The mix of FPS and 'tactical' or tactiCool manoeuvre really hits my button so much so, before I'd even finished the game I went and found a copy of the original game C:Desert Storm (C:DS).
Considering I purchased these games well after their 'technical' ability had been surpassed, their game play enthralled me. The fire and manoeuvre, the tactical placing and the small squad with a good mix of character abilities made these games a 1st class experience, soon after, now hooked on the conflict series, I bought C:Vietnam, a personal favourite genre in FPS games and again this game gave me an adrenaline busting gaming experience, as I was making my way through the Jungles of Vietnam, the Studio behind the Conflict games (Pivotal Games / Eidos) announced a NEW title, I pre-ordered it and awaited with baited breath, not only was it more of what I loved, they were introducing a co-op multi-player experience, C:Global Storm (also known as Global Terror) my pals with which I regularly played LAN games with were all so taken with my passion for the game series that they too pre-ordered a copy each! This game was by far and away, some of the best fun I've had in multi-player gaming.
Some reference to the series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_(series)
So... now that you understand WHY I decided to buy C:DO, let me go on to explain, using the above as the reason(s) why so far.. I am incredibly disappointed. Firstly, the pace of the game is wrong. ALL the previous titles demanded good use of the cover, complete with intuitive cover systems, They demanded use of the team as a whole, each member felt needed, be it the sniper, the gunner, the demo guy or the team leader (team leader was generally an 'all-round' character) and this lead to co-ordinated attacks, flanking events stealth with covering fire diversionary tactics in-fact, just everything I could dream of from a tactical shooter.
C:DO however does NOT have this, instead they cut the team to 2 men (the same development studio that released the much vaunted Kane & Lynch games...) and these 2 men, really only 1 makes much sense to use, the gunner, excepting the few real occasions where the snipers scope is required, the thinking has been taken away entirely... and so has the AI.
Now I can pick up and play C:DO just blazing away with a machine gun like John Rambo, on the screen the action is completely devoid of any feel for what’s actually going on. The AI haplessly runs directly into your gunfire, where previously I recall actually being caught off guard by the AI in C:GS and also C:V, now the enemy are nothing more than rag-doll physics waiting to happen.
Technically the game appeals well enough, sure, its far from Crysis 2 on full being run on 16 graphics cards in parallel, but I don't have any such gaming rig, I play on a rather humble pc which is only just capable of playing modern titles, and as such this game passes most requirements, some of the games assets look awkward and poorly modelled. The worst part of the graphics is that they seem not to have advanced much from previous titles where other games are pushing boundaries of graphical impact C:DO seems like it has graphics made for a couple years of so ago.
Sounds fit the bill well enough, 'booom' … 'peeyooww' the usual mix of standard FPS noises, the voices are nothing to write home about but fit well enough. There's not much to say really I suppose this is one area which at least doesn't disappoint me!
Summary, this game takes a good few steps back, the gameplay is 'frantic' but simply uninspired, If you want a budget shooter that has co-op feature, bypass this, try Conflict: Global Storm it's superior in almost every way.
I will point out am yet to complete this game... if I do I may return with more uplifting comments, but I think i may simply loose interest in the game and do something more productive with my time.
Gaming Review summary:
Graphics 3/5
Audio 4/5
Gameplay 2/5
Features 2/5
Weighted Score: 32%
Snooze Rating: Don't bother with this!
