Developer: IguanaBee, Fair Play Labs
Publisher: GameMill Entertainment, Maximum Games
Platform: PC, Xbox One, PS4, Switch
Tested on: PS4
G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout – Review
Let’s be completely honest here for a moment, G.I. Joe will forever be one of those 80s things that were very nice for that time period, but have somewhat lost their charm in our current society. Sure, army men fighting to stop terrorists from reigning over the world may sound like an interesting plot, but we are already confronted with these topics on the day-to-day news, making it so that you don’t really want more of it. We reckon this sudden game release has to do with the fact that there’s a new movie (rumored) to release in 2020 called Ever Vigilant. Then again, according to IMDB another one is also bound to be released in 2021 as well. It seems we’re getting a Joe overload the coming time. Let’s first focus on this barebones experience called Operation Blackout first.
Story
The villainous Cobra has taken over the world and has also taken over the world’s supply of energy. There’s honestly not much more you need to know than that one line of text when it’s about Operation Blackout. You will play as both the evil Cobra’s minions and the goodie-two-shoes of the G.I. Joe side of the fence when playing through the story mode. The story is well-brought though, with proper comic book-like cutscenes that do have a certain 80s vibe surrounding them.
Graphics
Graphically Operation Blackout is not that much to write home about. The cel-shaded visuals create some leeway for a title such as this, especially when mashed together with the comic book-like cutscenes in-between missions, it doesn’t mean the game looks good. You’ll have a fair number of characters to choose from, but they all look quite bland and undetailed, and the same can be said about the mission areas you find yourself in. These different environments are empty for the most part, or have repeated clutter in it, where you see the same few objects being copy-pasted around the place.
Sound
The sound design is a mixed batch in this release. You’ll have very repetitive music blasting through your speakers, and even though it suits the setting, it’s being looped too quickly. Other than that, you actually have proper voice acting supporting the story segments, and the mission objectives when playing. We feel that if the music would have been a bit better, the game would have nailed a significant portion of its atmospheric presence.
Gameplay
G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is a third-person shooter that situates itself in the G.I. Joe universe. You only have two options, namely wade through the missions of the Campaign mode, alone or with a friend, or play the Team Battle mode. The latter being a PVP mode for you and your friends. For the most part, you’ll just be shooting down the opposition, while combating the horrible controls of the game. We have to be honest, it’s fun that the campaign mode can be played with a friend, which is something that gets forgotten in many new games nowadays.
The Team Battle mode is a nice way to play some competitive matches with your friends, but sadly, if you’re alone, you will not be able to play this mode. The developers forgot to add A.I. in this mode, which would have been quite nice seeing half the world is on lockdown at the moment. Then again, when looking at how stupid other A.I. characters in this game are, we’re not surprised that the team behind this game was too lazy to program A.I. for the different options in the Team Battle mode. Either implement a game mode properly, or don’t.
This small licensed title feels barebones from start to finish, ranging from the horrid controls, the poor mechanics, the sloppy graphics and the badly programmed A.I. The biggest downfall is that it doesn’t support online play, that you cannot add bots if you wish to play separate matches and that things just don’t feel optimized.
Conclusion
G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is one of those games that was rushed to completion in order to keep certain licenses in place. The game feels bland from start to finish, has horrible controls and even though there are a few unlockables to be found, it doesn’t motivate you to keep going. The game can be completed in a few hours, which doesn’t warrant its high price tag either. Perhaps fun for diehard collectors of G.I. Joe items, but even then we’d advise waiting until this one hits the sales bin.
No Comments