2023-10-05 09:42:55
After brilliantly bringing Arkanoid up to date, Microids gives us the reboot of another cult Taito license. Operation Wolf is entitled to a complete facelift on consoles, with a new artistic direction which risks generating a lot of ink…
After the excellent reboot of Arkanoid, we were entitled to expect another quality game with Operation Wolf Returns: 1st mission. Released in 1987 in arcades, Operation Wolf is a bit like the ancestor of Time Crisis and The House of the Dead. A technical, fun and very action-oriented screen shooter, which stands out from other titles of the genre by the weapon used by the player since he uses a machine gun to sow death on the battlefield.
The game multiplies the action sequences at an impressive speed.
Bad news for fans, with 1st Mission, Microids is not delivering a remake of the original game but a reboot taking a lot of liberties with the original material. If it is still a shooter on screen, it is played with a pad on consoles. A VR version is nevertheless available, which should logically be much more interesting to play. Another notable change: the artistic direction has completely changed. Microids has in fact opted for a cartoonish look which seems to aim the game at a very young audience… A doubtful choice insofar as the license is aimed more at veterans and where the difficulty clearly reserves the game for over 18s…
There isn’t much diversity in the enemies.
And it must be admitted, the first contact with 1st Mission is disorienting. Visually, the game is very far from current standards. And if, strangely, the cartoon style is acceptable when it comes to the settings, the look of the characters is enough to put off players. We have rarely seen such ugly faces in the video game industry.
Pad in hand, the game is not unpleasant. You have the choice between 4 weapons (revolver, rifle, machine gun and shotgun), you can send grenades at your enemies and occasionally, you have the possibility of taking shelter behind scenery. Movements are done on a “rail” – which means that in practice, we do not control the character’s movements, just the aim. Everything is automated. To be effective, however, you will have to modify the reactivity of the stick, otherwise you will quickly end up running out of lives… Because even on easy, the life bar melts quickly. What is shocking, however, is the animations from another era, the slowness of the enemies who take a long time to shoot at you, and the relative lack of finish of the game. Clearly, the characters are ugly, their animations are dated from a decade ago, if not more, and we are completely bored in the game. The few bosses, without much inspiration, will barely spice up the progression.
One of the most punishing boss fights in the game.
It’s all the more a shame since there were a lot of good ideas in this game: rescuing the hostages forces us to be careful. At the start of the adventure, we are also led to think that we will have to avoid shooting civilians in the city… But we will not come across many of them and clearly, this could have brought a huge plus to the game. By shooting the animals, the player will also appear bulletproof vests and treatments, which will allow him to recover life. And then of course there is the presence of coop mode and VR mode, which quite logically offers much better sensations than on the pad. This had the potential for a great game.
Even at €29.99, the bill remains very steep for a game that ships in a little over an hour, and which we will probably never return to. Clearly, it is the artistic choices and the lack of finish which weigh down this project which nevertheless had everything to please nostalgic players.
Conclusion
If the announcement of a reboot of the series was enough to make fans of Operation Wolf fantasize, the final result is enough to make any player disillusioned. On paper, the game had everything to please with an arcade concept, some excellent gameplay ideas, VR compatibility and a cooperative mode. The problem is that the developers have taken too much liberty with the artistic direction and are giving us a cartoon-style shooter that seems to be aimed at children… Even though the target audience is precisely a mature audience. Visually, the game is unspeakably ugly, the animations are poor and the character design is one of the worst in the last 10 years. It’s all the more a shame since the foundations of the gameplay were solid and some of the promises were kept. On the pad, the game is just not very fun to play, the action is bland because of the behavior of the enemies who drag themselves around the battlefield like larvae. Even the boss fights are painful. Definitely, Operation Wolf deserved better treatment. It’s difficult, ultimately, to understand who might like this very uninspired reboot.
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Operation Wolf Returns: 1st mission
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On aime :
Some good ideas
A decent soundtrack
We like less:
The worst artistic direction in the last 10 years
Poor aesthetically
Really not fun playing the pad
Boredom, which sets in very quickly
Failed boss fights
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#Test #Operation #Wolf #Returns #Microids #failure