Conflict: Denied Ops

March 5,2008 - The Conflict series has been around for a long time, making its debut back in 2003. For a series that has had five years to fix problems and a developer that has more-or-less learned the ropes from other shooters, a five year span would undoubtedly help the struggling shooter series…or so you would think. Denied Ops is anything but a step up for the Conflict series, and it ultimately feels like a budget title that was strewn together in an attempt to create another dot on the long list of shooter series with multiple games. But unlike those amazing series, Denied Ops does what the Call of Duty, Half-Life, and Metroid Prime titles could not do: kill a popular franchise.

The story in Denied Ops is the least impressive yet, with a military-esque vibe stuck to a boring and uneventful backdrop. From the demo we played, the original story actually had us hooked, with an evil dictator causing tension in a foreign country and when America steps in to help, he diverts his intentions on hurting the forces instead. As you progress through the game, however, you learn that not only does the story take a dive into the unknown; it becomes completely nonsensical to the point of hilarity. You can definitely see potential somewhere, as the story starts off strong but never really goes anywhere. Your locations shift to different locations, but other than the fact you are given new objectives, you are never really explained as to why you are there.

The characters are just as much enthralling as the story, and since you only have two of them this time around, you won’t have to put up with much. Your two stars are Graves, a sniper, and Lang, the assault rifle wielding potty mouth. Both can be switched during combat on the fly which allows for a simple and intuitive form of shooting, but it never really works effectively considering both do equal amounts of damage and enemies sometimes never respond when being shot. Its also deteriorating to note that there are instances when you could get shot from across the screen and die in one shot, yet you can rush at enemies within melee distance, get unloaded on with an automatic, and still stand to live another day. The inconsistencies with the game make enjoyment hard to withstand.

Your allied buddy isn’t to keen to specifics either, as he will more often than not, kill you. There are moments in the campaign when you are “ordered” by your unseen superior to engage the enemy silently, meaning you must order the other squad member you do not control to move to a door or engage a target at the end of a hall. It sounds easy, but your squad mate would literally stay in the spot until he either dies or you take control of him and move him yourself. This could get frustrating during locations with tight spots and trying to maneuver through enemy fire and corridors is not usually a good combination. If you happen to issue commands while your friend is in a vehicle too, he will probably run you down if you are in his path. The AI in Denied Ops is terrible to say the least, with enemies that avoid cover to shoot constantly or your allied squad mate who just loves to see you die.

The missions themselves are too contrived and barely offer any form of originality. Your basic mission will involve getting intel about a certain person, running to that location, usually disabling some sort of electronic device, and than killing said person. Rinse and repeat for ten missions and you get the core concept of Denied Ops. There isn’t enough diversity to give shooter fans anything to look forward too, but Conflict fans might enjoy the various changing locales from time to time. Than again, all of the levels offer the same dull variations so it’s nothing to go crazy over.

The visuals have not really changed since we played the demo, which is a shame for a series that focused on details. Everything in the game looks terrible, from the dull, bland terrains to the enemy and character designs, all of which look similar and childish. Even the explosions (which there are a lot of throughout), look like something a student just learning the ropes of animation might produce in class. The sound is equally as bad as the visuals, with bad guys screaming after they die and Land and Graves constantly spouting the same dull dialogue through all the missions, usually something revolving around mothers and sexual orientations.

The multiplayer aspects of Denied Ops give more to be desired of the campaign, but it’s still nothing to get excited over. While you can play the entire campaign online with a friend in co-op, the campaign isn’t any more fun with a human player, regardless of their intelligence level. The enemies still act stupid and the levels are still dull. You can also play around in normal deathmatch, capture-the-flag and other various multiplayer cliché modes, but basing these levels off ones in the game just offers disappointment.

Conflict: Denied Ops could have been a huge step in the right direction for the series. With so many years spent on one series, it’s a shame to see Pivotal Games at a lost of how to enhance the future of the franchise. With broken gameplay, dull levels, and bad visuals and sound, the game is an all-around letdown and only diehard fans should warrant picking this game up…perhaps when it hits the bargain bin.

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