28.9 hours played
Written 28 days ago
[b] TL;DR - [/b]This game might be an a acquired taste for some, and for those who enjoy it, this is the best video-game fast food option out there.
I first played this game on XBLA when it was released. As a closet fan of Jackal, the idea of a vehicle-based dual stick shooter was something I’ve always been interested in when it would show up. Particularly those with fun controls. Renegade Ops hit every note perfectly for me. I finished the game, got every achievement, and then STILL continued to play the game long after that to max out all of the character levels.
Now I’ve done (almost) all of that for a second time 14 years later. I still have some grinding to go again to max all the characters, and I felt like I would put some words down here to convince people to give it a shot. And maybe encourage SOMEONE that an HD remake and/or Renegade Ops 2 would be something that they should pursue.
[b] Graphics - [/b]To say the game has a simplicity to its graphics is to do this game a slight disservice. That said, I do believe it’s true. The visual distinctions and coloring of the game is very simple. You can look at a battlefield that is mostly realistically colored, and see at a glance where the enemies, ammo, health, and weapon pickups are because everything that you might need for gameplay is highlighted in blue, green, and red colors so that they stand out. The backgrounds and boundaries of the levels are STRONGLY detailed, however. The trees, dirt roads, and surrounding sights in these levels are intricately detailed. As with many aspects of the game, you can tell someone had LOTS of fun creating it. I ran into a slightly annoying glitch during my playthrough because of the VSync settings. The score popups would jitter around which can be seen in [url= https://youtu.be/HLBP0QJIkAc] this video. [/url]I could turn this jittering off if I disabled VSync, but this would sometimes cause background objects to not load into a level, and in Mission 4 I even had the game not load a needed ramp into the graphics. I could drive up the air still, thankfully, but it still was an annoying choice I had to make: to deal with the constant jitter or deal with unpredictable level graphics that were sometimes affecting gameplay.
[b] Gameplay - [/b]The brilliance of this game lies here. The vehicles you drive handle beautifully. Some people will disagree with me here, and I’m here to say that, for me, this is the best arcade shooter featuring vehicles in existence! The directional movement if you’re using a controller is intuitive and reminds me not only of Jackal, but also games like Super Sprint and Offroad. Vehicles bounce around, boost, and flip causing a TON of dopamine when you’re able to pull off a hairpin turn to launch a missile directly into an attacking tank’s weak spot. There is something so visceral about how this game drives that it is, as I said above, one of my favorite games of all time, and I often come back to it when I just want something purely FUN. For those not using a controller (something the game repeatedly tries to encourage ever time you start the game) this could cause some irritation because of how controlling the vehicle with the WASD keys is not as intuitive. For those people a “Tank Style” option exists in the Options menu. If you’re having difficulty, maybe start by investigating that option.
[b] Story - [/b]What story is here is VERY slight. It is presented in comic book panels and “motion comics” because that was very much the “style of the time” in the early- to mid-2010s. The speaking characters might as well be 1980s professional wrestling personas for as hyperbolically good and evil they are. That said, you don’t NEED anything else to justify the gameplay. It gets you into a ridiculously designed level and tells you where you’re going next. It’s utilitarian, and ads a fun spice of parody to the entire affair. The only thing that I will criticize about the story (and really the game as whole) is that the only reoccurring female character who is voiced in the game [spoiler] turns out to be a villain and is the main antagonist of the DLC [/spoiler]. From what I have played of Avalanche's other games, I am aware that they can play with gender roles and stereotypes with humor, and I would have liked to see this twisted a bit more to subvert player expectations and tropes.
[b] Final Word - [/b] It’s a quirky vehicle shooter with heart and plenty of silly fun. A game I have bought twice and 100%ed twice. Perfection in what it aims for. 10/10
