Operation Darkness
Operation Darkness
History and fantasy collide
Operation Darkness is a turned based strategy game where history and fantasy collide head on. You get to fight the secret battles of World War II and undertake the toughest mission of all, attempt to assassinate Hitler himself as part of the British Special Forces. During these missions, you will face Nazis, vampires, zombies and other horrors. Your characters will gain the ability to use special attacks and transform into werewolves as you progress to meet this challenge.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay in Operation Darkness is slow but, this is inherent to turn based strategy games. It does take a bit of time to get used to the flow of the game but it is easy to learn and play. As you start playing through the game you may wish that the pace was a bit quicker.
There are essentially four sections to the game. First is the Interlude, where you prepare for the next mission. This is where you will equip your team and decide on their skills. You have to put a bit of thought into how you will equip your team and what skills to give them. One skill which you will want early in the game is the auto-restoration skill. It automatically uses a health item your character has when they are low on health. You only have a limited number of slots for equipment so you must balance it between items such as extra ammunition and health.
One strategy for setting up your characters is to have a balance of weapons. For every mission I found that a variety was very useful as you did not know what you were going to be up against. For example, snipers are good for long range cover fire while you need bazookas for tanks. Going in with only sub machine guns won’t do any good. Grenades were excellent for attacking enemies in groups. You can recruit new members to your team as well as purchase new items for them but you can only carry so many team members. Therefore, if you recruit a new one with a full list, you will have to discharge an existing one.
You will also decide on which mission to do next in the interlude portion. You may pick between campaign missions or armed reconnaissance missions. Campaign missions can only be played through once and armed reconnaissance missions can be played through numerous times. This allows you to gain experience as well as any weapons you may find on enemies.
Second is the mission information area. This is where you will gain all the information not only for the upcoming mission but, also where you will see the storyline advance. Here you will watch some cut scenes or events, and receive your mission briefing. After that is completed you get to select your party. Depending on the mission, your party size will change. By listening to the briefing, you will be able to decide it you need to take characters which can destroy tanks for example, or those who act as snipers.
Third is the gameplay itself. When you begin a mission there may be a cut scene. After the cut scene you will see the Conditions for Victory and the Conditions for Defeat. The conditions for defeat may include any team member dying. Lose a member and you have to start the mission over.
The action menu is what will be driving your character. It contains a list of commands you can give the current character, such as movement and attack. It is basic and very simple which is nice to see so you can focus on strategy while playing rather then going through a long and complicated menu which may distract you from the gameplay.
Movement is very basic. A grid will pop up and you get to move your character as far as their attributes let them. One great feature here is the fact you can attack before moving, something not all turn based strategy games let you do. This allows you to hit and run which is very helpful in some situations. Scrolling through enemies is fast and easy, allowing you to see which one you will be most effective against with the weapon you have picked.
You will need to use a lot of strategy in this game, no rush and attack. Hiding behind rocks and knolls is required. The AI, while slow at making decisions isn’t stupid. They back off at times and they rush you at other times. I found that they would kneel and stand repeatedly for about 5 to 7 seconds before making a decision sometimes. This needlessly added to the length of missions and was a huge distraction. Yet, the AI is smart enough to toss a grenade at you if your characters are grouped together.
Cover tactics are a nice addition to the game and work well enough that they are useable. These tactics are cover move, cover attack and, cover ambush. The instruction manual describes them quite well and when you go to use them they make sense. I recommend reading it. It not only has some great gameplay tips but, it also has well written explanations of strategies and tactics to use. Cover move is allows a character to move up to 150% of normal. Basically you select an area of the map or another character as the trigger. If it is a character, when they move or attack, the character with the tactic set will make there move. The cover attack allows for support fire for another attacking character. The cover ambush allows the character to ambush any target that moves within its range of fire. These definitely were not after thoughts and after you use them once or twice you will find them very useful.
There are also special attacks available to your characters called “MS Attacks”. These are gained as your character levels up. They do consume MS points so they are not a limitless attack and some do require you to use a specific weapon. When using them you can’t move your character for that turn. They do require you to use strategy.
Also, there is a transform option. This is where you transform into a werewolf and have some fun. All of a characters stats will be increased substantially but, at the cost of MS whenever a team member acts. Therefore, when MS reaches 0, the character will return to normal. Only certain characters will enter have this ability.
Something you will do on the battlefield is pick up weapons and items. By moving next to a dead enemy and using the Pick Up command, you will be able to add items to your character. Two drawbacks here are you can only carry a limited number of items and you may be so involved in the battle you have no time to grab items. Unless I was next to an enemy while moving I rarely had time to pick anything up as I was so involved in the mission and gameplay.
The poor and awkward camera in this game hurts it. The movement isn’t very fluid as it follows the game grid rather than giving you a nice flow. Zooming in and out seemed to either have been missed or it just didn’t zoom in or out enough, depending how you look at it. Either way it was so poorly done you will use the right or left triggers a lot to find your enemy. The map, accessed by pressing Y, is a very basic and simple map of where your enemies are located as well as some objects that are on the map. It does leave one wanting but it does get the job done and works well with the battlefield.
After completing a mission, you will return to the Interlude, where you will want to save your game right away. This is one of the most frustrating points of the game as there is no way to save during missions. This is aggravating as some missions do take a lot of time and you are forced to play through them once you start.
Overall as a turn based strategy game, Operation Darkness plays decently.
GRAPHICS
Overall, turn based strategy games don’t do much graphically for gameplay. For cut scenes though they usually try to add some pizzazz to keep you entertained. Operation Darkness follows through with standard fare here.
The cut scenes are a two sided coin. Some of the in game cut scenes before starting a mission are not up to par. Characters move very roughly and some sections of the scene need work. A good example is the water at the beginning of one mission; the waves look and move as if they were clouds going back and forth. The FMV sections before missions had real life footage of World War II which is good at setting the mood and adding some realism to a fictional story. The cut scenes between missions where your characters are moving the storyline ahead could have used real time movement rather than the picture scene style of graphics they used.
In game graphics are pretty standard. The backgrounds and scenery, such as grass and sand, look like blurs with lines drawn to add edges and lack any real detail. The character you are currently focused on does look decent but, had some flaws. A good example here is the knee joints. The characters, when standing, move up and down slightly. I found that, while obviously not a gameplay killer, the pants formed a solid edge behind the knee rather than a fold. It did get my attention fairly quickly but didn’t deter me from playing.
Oh, and no mouth movement during cut scenes was a disappointment. It is something which is standard in most games. If you closed your eyes here you wouldn’t miss a thing.
SOUND
Again, while some may not find sound that important in a turn based strategy game, how the sound is used is important. The weaponry is fairly basic. Guns sound like guns and tanks make a whooshing sound. The music does set the mood but can be distracting at times but, you can turn it off in game if you like. I did find my head at times bobbing back and forth to the beat as if was in a dance club at times.
The voice work in cut scenes is very well done. The accents fit the characters very well, the tones were bang on for the scenes and they were very easy to understand.
VALUE
Even with its underwhelming in game graphics, sometimes slow AI and poor camera, fans of turned based strategy games will enjoy Operation Darkness. At first it does seem complicated but it has a very short learning curve and simple gameplay, but still requires quite a bit of strategy to finish missions. The lack of in game saves will be a turn off for those with limited gaming time. The side missions add quite a bit to this game and extend your playing time even more. While the developers put a lot of time into the gameplay, they seem to have neglected the camera. Not the end of the world for this type of genre but, it did stand out as a sore point in the game.
BOTTOM LINE
Whether you are a die hard or casual fan of turned based strategy games, the demo on Xbox live is worth a try. Die hard fans may want to buy it while casual fans this genre with some time their hands may want to rent it to see if it’s your cup of tea.
Pros
- Excellent instruction manual
- Very well done gameplay structure
- Simple to learn
- Hours of gameplay
- Armed reconnaissance missions add replay value
- Excellent voice work
Cons
- Gameplay feels slow at times
- Graphics may leave you wanting
- AI may be frustrating AI at times
- Can’t save games during missions
- Very poor camera
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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