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IGN Operation Darkness review: "Epic fail"
- Thread starter Volcynika
- Start date
drakesfortune
Directions: Pull String For Uninformed Rant
IGN Review said:
Sounds absolutely dreadful.
Permadeath can be done well... but it just hasn't. The over reliance on surprise reinforcements seem to be the deal killer in this game, but there are a plethora of reasons why the systems have sucked in other games.
-Fire Emblem, King of One-hit kills.
-Tactics Ogre, Land of the Most Tedious Leveling System Imaginable.
-Hoshigami, Ruining the Blue Earth With Horrifically Long and Slow Battles. (Stella Deus, which is like a sequel without permadeath, is still boring as sin.)
-Warsong, Save and Reload after every single turn.
FFT kind of did it well, actually, but 99% of the time it is more time efficient to just reload.
-Fire Emblem, King of One-hit kills.
-Tactics Ogre, Land of the Most Tedious Leveling System Imaginable.
-Hoshigami, Ruining the Blue Earth With Horrifically Long and Slow Battles. (Stella Deus, which is like a sequel without permadeath, is still boring as sin.)
-Warsong, Save and Reload after every single turn.
FFT kind of did it well, actually, but 99% of the time it is more time efficient to just reload.
Or how about how fucking unintuitive the cover system was? Can't shoot around corners, standing behind seemingly low or narrow objects and you find an invisible wall of doom that is absolutely impenetrable.
Sorry Silent Storm 4 years ago did this shit far better. Such an unique concept too that I wanted to like too, it's a shame what they did here.
Sorry Silent Storm 4 years ago did this shit far better. Such an unique concept too that I wanted to like too, it's a shame what they did here.
NeonZ
Member
Path of Radiance's graphics were bad, but they still were above what a PSX or N64 game could do (Well, except in a few scenes which zoomed in the map models).
And Radiant Dawn did get bashed by reviewers claiming that the game looked visually identical to its predecessor, even though that's just a lie.
OD's permadeath system is probably one of the most fair methods to be in a SRPG so far. You've got a guy who can bring characters back to life with a large radius of casting. Permadeath only occurs if you actually finish the fight with the guy dead on the ground. You can take the fight all the way down to one single enemy and then run around and resurrect the fallen characters, and you're still fine.
You also get auto-heal abilities so that if the character is holding a healing item(s), he will automatically use it instead of dying, even if stepping on a landmine. And finally, if you are standing next to a corpse that has a healing item on it, you can take the healing item and use it instead of dying.
If people still hate the idea of perma-deaths, that's fine, but to try and say that this game in particular is unfair about the practice compared to other games in the genre seems odd to me.
You also get auto-heal abilities so that if the character is holding a healing item(s), he will automatically use it instead of dying, even if stepping on a landmine. And finally, if you are standing next to a corpse that has a healing item on it, you can take the healing item and use it instead of dying.
If people still hate the idea of perma-deaths, that's fine, but to try and say that this game in particular is unfair about the practice compared to other games in the genre seems odd to me.
Greymalkin
Banned
Sho_Nuff82 said:
Perhaps, but given that Ninja Bread Man on the Wii got a 4.0 from IGN in graphics a 1.5 is just not realistic OR fair.
Characters permadie (I like it as a verb!) if you don't revive them in 3 turns.Volcynika said:
You do that by touching their body, which triggers a cutscene with a cute nurse coming to its rescue. Your saved character is then taken out of the field for the entire battle and you can't add him back until the end of the fight.
All in all it's a nice system, not too punishing: basically you only get the urge to reset your game after a few bad moves on your part, since a single mistake is usually easily fixed by rescuing your dead character. In short, it's kind of a buffered permadeath thingy.
Wasn't FFT using quite the same principle? Been too long I haven't played this one, can't seem to remember.
Anyway, Valkyria is easily the best SRPG this year, a reaaaaally nice and fun retake on the old formula.
duckroll said:
The crazy part is that the game's budget was supposed to be north of (pinky to mouth) 2 million dollars. Not that tiny of a budget, and it seems like they would have dedicated another 10% to fix the SUPER BAD camera issues that are the most responsible for making the game a chore rather than a joy.
sixteen-bit
Member
wait till the inevitable $10 Gamestop clearance if you mustEvander said:
inertiatic
Member
Hey, huge boobs are huge.
Iaido Sword
Banned
That chick who throws the fireball is pretty hot.
Therefore the score should really be 3.5/10
I like how they hide everyone's eyes (except the chick) with mysterious shadows.
Therefore the score should really be 3.5/10
I like how they hide everyone's eyes (except the chick) with mysterious shadows.
I bought the game and I've had a lot of fun with it so far. I really like that most weapon acquisition is done on the field as you pick the Nazis clean after killing them. The auto recovery system is a godsend for keeping important characters up. I've kept on every character and very rarely do I even have a dude fall and need revived. Story is pretty decent although I wish you could turn off the voice acting which is fucking horrendous.
I wish the demo had been set up better. They picked probably the worst level in the game to make a demo because of all the buildings in the area which exacerbates the camera issues. Most levels are open areas with trees and wrecked vehicles to cover behind so the camera is less of an issue (though still not good.)
I wish the demo had been set up better. They picked probably the worst level in the game to make a demo because of all the buildings in the area which exacerbates the camera issues. Most levels are open areas with trees and wrecked vehicles to cover behind so the camera is less of an issue (though still not good.)
Hey, welcome to the club of three of us now who are actually playing this game on gaf.Aselith said:
Yeah, it's pretty fun. Mission 20 has seriously caught me off-guard, however. Whoosh those Magier-rushes are brutal!
And yeah, I spoke too soon on the voice acting. The fake german accents are horrendous, and
Jude's
I still find the Wolf Pack's voice acting to be good for the most part, however. Gallant/Frank/Edward, etc.
AzureNightmare
Banned
Hey, this looks like an AWESOME N64 game!
Takeda Kenshi
blew Staal
Having played the game now, I can say with utmost certainty that the person who did this review doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.
I really freaking enjoy playing this game. The camera is wonky, but if you're good at gaming it'll take you about 5-10 minutes to master its idiosyncrasies.
Werewolves + Vampires + Nazis = win.
I really freaking enjoy playing this game. The camera is wonky, but if you're good at gaming it'll take you about 5-10 minutes to master its idiosyncrasies.
Werewolves + Vampires + Nazis = win.
I'm also currently chewing slowly at this game. It has its flaws (anyone figured out how to buy items in bulk yet? Please? It is getting crazy stocking up on meds and Bazooka ammo =/) but it is enjoyable for its WW2 + mystical creatures setting. The camera angle problem is easily solved by switching to the sub map that displays friendly and enemy units' positions. I've completed 4 main missions and 2 sub missions, and I'm enjoying it.
Reviews by "professionals" make me laugh these days. They are good for tickling my gamer's sense and amuses me with their exaggerations, since 80% of what is written arises from pure ignorance.
Reviews by "professionals" make me laugh these days. They are good for tickling my gamer's sense and amuses me with their exaggerations, since 80% of what is written arises from pure ignorance.
BrokenSymmetry
Member
BlazingDarkness said:
Agreed. I don't mind subheaders that are a pun on the quality of the game, but this is not meaningful or professional in any way.
So did anybody else actually finish this game? The actual strategy largely boils down to launching an all-out assault and hoping the enemy dies before you run out of healing items, the camera is execrable, and the graphics range from bad to abysmal. But the sheer absurdity of the premise, and the way it just kept ratcheting the absurdity up another notch from time to time actually got me to play all the way to the end.
The game really should've ended after you
. That was the ludicrous apex of the whole premise, and everything after it just felt pretty pointless by comparison.
For a game as mediocre as this is, the credits were long to the point of just being sad. This doesn't really surprise me.
The game really should've ended after you
kill Hitler
vireland said:
For a game as mediocre as this is, the credits were long to the point of just being sad. This doesn't really surprise me.
ixix said:
Yeah, I finished it.
What do you mean by "everything" after Hitler? You mean the Eagle's Nest? I thought those were fun.
Or do you mean the final chapter? That final Chimera fight was awesome! You didn't like that?
I actually really enjoyed it despite it's flaws. It's certainly not a "must play" or anything like that, and there are quite a few things that it really should have done better, but there's also quite a bit of fun, and I thought it really ended up feeling pretty satisfying by the time you're dropping gigantic fists out of the sky and calling in air raids to defeat 60 foot tall dinosaurs.
I mean, it ain't perfect, but calling it the worst game on the 360 (as IGN did) is still ridiculous to me. But oh well.
Started up Spectral Force 3 the other day. Seems pretty straight forward for the genre so far, but it's solid enough to entertain.
Still, I kind of appreciate the fact that Operation Darkness at least tried to do something different. The SRPG genre as a whole really needs more people to take some risks, imo.
Hunahan said:
heh? o.o Chimeras in a WW2 game?
Hunahan said:
...You're kidding me.
Last time I did that was in Persona 3. Hunahan said:
@_@ I, uh, I can't seem to recall the last time I did this. Oh wait, maybe wayyyyy back in one of the Thunderforce games? TF 3 perhaps? I've certainly killed dinosaurs in games, but via air raid?!
Okay this seals it. Kage and Lau are going to have to wait. :lol
Hunahan said:
The
Eagle's Nest
"Hey guys, I'm Frankenstein's monster!"
"World War II is nothing but an elaborate plot to resurrect Dracula!"
Hey guys, Jack the Ripper is here to help us! Pay no heed to the fact that the Whitechapel Murders were nearly 60 years ago!"
"I am Hitler! And if you think you're tough enough to handle me, well, how do you like this goddamn dragon!?"
The final chapter is terrible. It's
a big, empty field with the stragglers from the fight with Hitler
Alexander Vlado for the fiftieth time accompanied by -- hooray! -- more damn dragons
an out-of-nowhere last boss accompanied by a synth choir who's all alone and too slow to do much of anything before he gets stabbed, clawed, and burned to death.
the four consecutive battles in Berlin.
Awesome. With all the spoiler tags this post looks like a declassified CIA document.
No matter how many bad things I hear about Alone In The Dark, there are the lines about it trying new things and having flashes of brilliance that still make me want to play it.
Ditto for this game and the knowledge that there are Dinosaur air raids. There is only one thing better than calling in planes to attack dinosaurs, and that's -
Ditto for this game and the knowledge that there are Dinosaur air raids. There is only one thing better than calling in planes to attack dinosaurs, and that's -
dark_chris
Member
Monroeski said:No matter how many bad things I hear about Alone In The Dark, there are the lines about it trying new things and having flashes of brilliance that still make me want to play it.
Ditto for this game and the knowledge that there are Dinosaur air raids. There is only one thing better than calling in planes to attack dinosaurs, and that's -
That pic is made of all sorts of win! :lol :lol
Ryu Hayabusa
Member
AgreedPimpbaa said:
Monroeski said:
I don't think I'd go so far as to claim that Operation Darkness has flashes of brilliance, but it has a unique premise that it exploits to occasionally hilarious effect. The actual gameplay is pretty weak, but the game is plenty playable as long as you can get past the camera, which I found annoying but functional enough on the largely barren battlefields that make up the bulk of the missions. It actually has some neat ideas with the Cover system, but that becomes less and less useful as the game goes on, reaching near uselessness around the halfway point before experiencing a bit of a resurgence towards the end as some new skills become available. With the auto-healing the game devolves into a slugging match between you and the enemy wherein you spam special attacks, the enemy spams special attacks, and by god you see which one of you runs out of healing items/soldiers first. Without the auto-healing the game is close to impossible. One-hit kills are downright common in the latter parts of the game, and there's no way in hell your sole reviver would be able to handle the workload if your guys didn't use a healing item automatically every time they took a tank shell to the face.
As an amusing aside, one of the later healing items is morphine. A typical battle may well see most of your characters going through a half dozen or more doses of the stuff. So not only are you commanding a squad of werewolves, pyromaniacs, and murderers, you're commanding a squad of morphine-addicted werewolves, pyromaniacs, and murderers.
Really? I found the cover system gets more useful as the game goes along.ixix said:
Once you get the anti-tank rifle, and particularly once you get Max to carry it, cover ambush with Cynthia + Cover attack with Max will eliminate 50% of the troops on the field for you. Not to mention, drive tanks down to frequent one-turn kills.
Cover attack>Dragon Slayer absolutely brutalizes the dragons until you get stomped on.
For bosses Cover attack>Werewolf punch is amazing.
I agree, "moments of brilliance" is too strong, though. There really isn't any brilliance in this game. There's quite a bit of "fun" or "good," though.
imo, of course.
Fair enough. Sounds like we got different types of enjoyment out of the game. I skipped over a lot of the story bits, like I usually do in SRPGs. If you're really interested in the story, or it's craziness, then I can understand why the after-ixix said:
Hitler
As for gameplay.....I guess I figured that in an Operation Darkness thread of all places we'd be safe to go ahead with spoilers. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm pretty sure the Chimera was ramped for those who didn't do the Eagle's Nest. By the time you clear that dungeon, the final boss is slow and easy, but that's sort of the standard curve for most RPGs I play.
Eagle's nest was optional at best, more of a "completionist's finale" than anything. You can't expect that kind of content in a RPG to really be stuffed with new things, imo. Most people who play the game will probably never even find it. If you really found it boring, you could always just skip it imo.
Hunahan said:
Max + Anti-tank rifle + Find Weakness skill was actually the exact combination I was thinking of when I said it got useful again toward the end. In the middle part of the game there's not much to reason to use Cover Attack for anything other than the occasional mass melee boss beatdown. But in the grand scheme of things I found tanks and Magier and Vampire squads to be a way bigger pain in the ass on the whole than the bosses themselves, and you're better off hurling MS attacks and bazooka fire their way in my experience, especially if you can catch more than one in a single attack.
It's really the Find Weakness skill that brought Cover attacks back into vogue for me, since the skill doubles damage when it's maxed out and doesn't apply to MS attacks. But Find Weakness is a reward for finishing an optional mission very late in the game, so I didn't start using Cover again until the final set of missions.
Hunahan said:
I did skip it, in the end. I did the first two missions then decided I was really just ready for the game to end. I also skipped about half the Armed Recon missions, so I wasn't even all that overpowered when I trounced the last boss.
Hunahan said:
I decided to err on the side of caution since there are people in this thread either still in the early stages of the game or asking about a possible European release. I also think that black boxes add a certain flair to any body of text.
Quixzlizx said:
Also a good argument for spoiler tags.
I restarted this little gem doing a no Auto-Cure run, and I find myself thinking more (only because I happen to be seeing Game Overs more). Auto-Cure is seriously Easy Mode for players new to the SRPG genre, without it things are getting more interesting.
The characterization is decent. Being a Japanese srpg though, it is no where as sophisticated as Bioshock or Torment, but the narratives are well done.
OD's 2D anime art on HD is pretty, and often I find myself anticipating the next set of cut scenes after a satisfying fight.
Maybe I just have a softspot for the usual suspects of Thompson/Stein/MP-40s along with blowing tanks up using Panzerfausts/Bazookas. 1 hit kills by knifing Jerry remind me fondly of Wolfenstein as well.
The characterization is decent. Being a Japanese srpg though, it is no where as sophisticated as Bioshock or Torment, but the narratives are well done.
I particularly like Eward's discriminatory attitude towards Germans, and Cordelia's mixed German heritage being brought into the fold for some drama; I was chuckling away at Jude's reaction when he found out his CO is 600 yr old werewolf:lol
Maybe I just have a softspot for the usual suspects of Thompson/Stein/MP-40s along with blowing tanks up using Panzerfausts/Bazookas. 1 hit kills by knifing Jerry remind me fondly of Wolfenstein as well.
I'm a total sucker for Xcom/Jagged Alliance games, so I got this from Gamefly and have been drudging through it.
I was actually having a decent time with it until I got to the first Norway mission and stepped on a hidden mine which immediately ended the mission I had just spent an hour and a half on.
I turned it off and vowed never to play again. But now I want to (Valkaria can't come out soon enough)...
How are you supposed to spot mines?
I was actually having a decent time with it until I got to the first Norway mission and stepped on a hidden mine which immediately ended the mission I had just spent an hour and a half on.
I turned it off and vowed never to play again. But now I want to (Valkaria can't come out soon enough)...
How are you supposed to spot mines?