Game Reviews

Special Ops

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Special Ops
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"Still alone, need to contact HQ for backup but before that let's complete the mission at hand" says the Duke Nukem look-alike protagonist of Special Ops.

"What mission?" I wonder, as I round a corner and get shot by one of the terrorists from Counter Strike. I press the shoot button but nothing happens. So I tap it again and fire off a shot at his foot. This kills him instantly.

I can hear gunshots coming from around the corner, so I carefully edge out and see another identical terrorist desperately firing his pistol at a stone wall. I end his days.

Three more terrorist clones charge out of nowhere and stop suddenly, firing their weapons in unison. I chuck a grenade at their feet and they fall over, presumably dead.

I head towards a green arrow on the ground and the level abruptly ends.

As you can probably tell, Special Ops has its fair share of issues.

The controls are unresponsive, the Unreal-powered visuals are poor, the AI is virtually non-existent, and there's a button that's supposed to slow down time that doesn't really slow down time at all.

Not fair

Each level has its own set of mission objectives. You might need to finish with a certain amount of health left, or get a certain accuracy percentage, and you get a star for completing each one.

It's not a very fair system though, because enemies never seem to miss and you can't duck into cover or react fast enough thanks to the shoddy controls.

You earn courage points as you play. You can use these to upgrade your stats, hire team members, and buy new weapon sets. But the difference between each gun is barely noticeable, so it's not really worth it.

Also, team members didn't appear when I started a mission, so I lost a fair few courage points for no reason.

It's the general consensus that the FPS genre just doesn't work on mobile, and a game like Special Ops is only adding fuel to that flame.

Special Ops

Special Ops represents everything that is wrong with the mobile FPS
Score
Chris James
Chris James
A footy game fanatic and experienced editor of numerous computing and game titles, lively Chris is up for anything - including running Steel Media! (Madman!)