Conflict: Denied Ops Review: Is it Just Another Boring Shooter?

Conflict: Denied Ops Review: Is it Just Another Boring Shooter?
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Overview

Conflict: Denied Ops is the fifth game in the shooter series by Pivotal Games. You play as Graves and Lang, who work together to uncover typical military conspiracies. The game has you traveling around the world in 10 missions jam packed with intense gunfights and explosions. These missions however start to seem repetitive after playing for a while, making it hard to stick it through to the end. With average graphics and repetitive gameplay, Denied Ops does not differentiate from the sea of other first person shooters.

Gameplay (3 out of 5)

Graves and Lang have a single weapon, and they stick with it. This choice of only using upgrades and add ons to improve their weapons can serve as a way of making players use teamwork, or like it did for me, frustrate them. For those that want to utilize the teamwork, the friendly AI does a pretty good job. Players can tell the AI to go to locations or attack enemies, even if you are under heavy fire. While ordering him, he does an alright job of following orders with relative ease. I did however run into several occasions when he would sit there doing nothing while enemies were right next to him. His reliability is an issue in a game which revolves around team play. The enemy AI is another thing altogether. While compared to other games, the enemy AI seems clumsy and disorganized.Their animations are poorly made and their interaction with the environment is little to none.

While walking around the various places, you can easily notice the high amounts of explosive materials placed around key locations. These placements feel tacked on and the graphics aren’t amazing enough for you to enjoy the explosion. The environment can also be affected by these explosions, but not to a gameplay changing amount.

The key portion of this game’s gameplay revolves around the intriguing cooperative mode. Rather than playing with the AI, you can play with a friend via LAN or online. You can play through the relatively short campaign (5-6 hours) with them which can be mildly amusing. However,the gameplay doesn’t do much to make it fun for you to play with your friends. A bright side is that I did not encounter any network issues are lag that would ruin the mindless shooting.

The gameplay to me is just about average when comparing to other first person shooters. Don’t expect a mind blowing experience, as there are better titles out there for around the same price.

Screenshots

Graphics (2 out of 5)

Graphics are a key part of any game as it adds to the overall experience. Conflict: Denied Ops’ graphics offer nothing to improve the game, and makes the game look even worse. Denied Ops features graphics that feel outdated and not polished at all. While looking at specific objects in detail, the screen turns into a blur and is a turn off for those wanting to enjoy the scenery. Even though the game features interesting locations such as castles and old cities, the graphics aren’t up to par with today’s standards.

Multiplayer (1 out of 5)

Multiplayer is a must for any online shooter as it adds much needed replay value to the game. Denied Ops includes several basic game modes that are now standard in any shooter. You can fight with up to 16 players online in deathmatch, team deathmatch, and conquest. The multiplayer suffers a severe flaw that makes the multiplayer not even worth playing. Just like the campaign, you are stuck with one weapon, depending on which character you choose. The game turns into a frenzy of Graves and Langs which shows the lack of customization in Denied Ops. Another problem is the number of people actually playing online. Due to the nature of these types of games, players stop playing after a while leaving you unable to play the multiplayer at all.

Conclusion

It is clearly shown that Conflict: Denied Ops isn’t one of those games that you will keep on your shelf for long. It doesn’t add anything new to the shooter genre, and is somewhat a step down from today’s games. With below average gameplay even with the cooperative mode, poor graphics, and a useless multiplayer system, this game is another example of a budget title aimed for the bargain bins. I highly suggest that you look at other alternatives before taking the plunge into this mess.