Operation Darkness

So did developer Success pick ideas out of a hat? Or throw darts at a board? Maybe they went with a more sophisticated method like designing a game content randomizer program. Whatever the case, Operation Darkness is one of the most bizarre amalgamations of concepts we’ve ever seen in a game—not that that’s a bad thing.

Basically, it’s a strategy game that’s built like an action-shooter but actually uses traditional turn-based combat straight out of a J-RPG. You’ll move the members of your platoon around a grid based battlefield and select attacks and other actions from a menu. As you complete missions and rack up kills, you’ll earn points that you can spend on weapons and supplies like med-kits (item management figures heavily into the game’s strategic structure) and your soldiers will level up and earn new powers like magic attacks and the ability to resurrect fallen teammates.

Wait, magic? Resurrection? Yes, really. Although Operation Darkness is set during the height of World War II, it mixes historically accurate weapons, locations, and plot details with supernatural elements such as vampires, zombies, and werewolves. The game’s single player campaign—which is essentially a series of disconnected battles in which the objective is usually something like “kill all the bad guys and don’t die”—follows lead character Edward Kyle and his buddy Jude Lancelot as they are inducted into a secret Army company called the Wolf Pack. Guess where it got its name.

Our hand-on time with the game showed us that while it is indeed deeply strategic and has plenty of potential, it also has quite a few kinks that need to be worked out. For instance, the battlefield interface is a real chore: the camera is uncooperative and the targeting system really doesn’t help at all. Enemy AI is equally clunky, with Nazis sometimes moving and acting in ways that just don’t make sense. Multiplayer could also stand to be improved since the only mode basically just offers co-op versions of random missions from the single player campaign. None of these problems are insurmountable, but Operation Darkness will definitely need a few adjustments if it’s going to succeed commercially or critically.