Conflict: Denied Ops' plot is simply a rehash of the story told in just about every previous shooter game – a malevolent dictator is hell-bent on causing global chaos and it's your job to stop him. While most games are at least comprehensible, there is nothing logical about Conflict: Denied Ops' story. You know that your characters are somehow preventing a nuclear war, but that's about it. Over the course of the game, players are sent to numerous locations around the world to put an end to various terrorist schemes. If there was meant to be a link between them all, then we missed it – one second we were blowing up submarines in Russia, and the next we were rescuing hostages in the middle of the ocean. While individual stages are slightly interesting, it's better to ignore the wider picture if you want to retain some level of sanity.
Like other Conflict games, Denied Ops allows players to change characters on the fly. However, this time there are only two characters to play as, which unfortunately translates into much less variety. Pressing B in the Xbox 360 version hot-swaps you from one soldier to the other, like you could do in Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. The first character is Lang, a no-nonsense guy with a machine gun and rocket launcher. Next up is Graves, a philosophical and stealthy sort of person with a sniper rifle. The only real effect of changing characters is that you get a different set of weapons. Lang's setup is better if you prefer going in Rambo-style, but Grave's sniper rifle is perfect for killing enemies stealthily from afar. Players will probably spend a little more time as Lang, simply because he is far better at getting through the game's frequent close-quarter skirmishes.
"Alright, who put the fence here?"
In the Conflict: Denied Ops single-player campaign, players control their AI buddy, similar to Electronic Arts' far superior Army of Two. The control scheme is well-implemented – the left trigger commands your team-mate to fall in or advance to a certain spot, and the left bumper to cover a certain area or target. The system may sound a tad simple, but surprisingly, it is robust enough to get you through the entire game. The hot-swapping and AI control system work well together, but unfortunately, they are the only promising features of Conflict: Denied Ops – there are countless other problems that make this shooter nothing more then a mediocre game.
Only certain team-mates can do specific tasks, such as hacking computers or placing explosives. While this isn't a problem in itself, sometimes you might forget to order your AI buddy to fall in, so he'll still be in the last location he was ordered to some way away. In these instances, it's painful waiting for the AI partner to backtrack to your position. There are also problems with the AI team-mate during vehicular gameplay. Aside from the fact that tanks and hovercraft are really cumbersome to manoeuvre, your team-mate can't drive while you man the gun emplacement – it only works the other way around. But then again, your AI partner isn't that good at shooting the turret at enemies either. Indeed, we found it far better to forgo driving and simply proceed on foot. Even though this takes longer, it's much less painful. Playing Conflict: Denied Ops in co-op (in either split-screen, system link or online) makes gameplay less frustrating, but you will still have to brave the other broken elements of the game.
The cover mechanic in Conflict: Denied Ops is somewhat unwieldy, as you have to use the D-Pad to peek over and around corners. We saw in Medal of Honor: Airborne that shooting from behind cover could be implemented well in first-person mode (by using the left thumbstick to peek while aiming down the sights), so it's questionable why Eidos have used a far inferior system. Instead, the best way to survive skirmishes is to keep running while holding the trigger down. As there is unlimited ammunition in Conflict: Denied Ops, this style of play is the most rewarding.
Players never have to worry about running out of ammunition.
Another major problem with Conflict: Denied Ops – and this is becoming more of a problem with first-person shooters – is that grenades take far too long to throw. As you complete levels weapons upgrades become available, including a grenade launcher for Lang's machine gun. Indeed, it is much quicker to fire explosives from this gun than it is to pull the pin on a grenade and throw it. By the time players get to the final level, the characters' guns become fully pimped-out killing machines. If anything, there are too many additions to the default fire-arms – a better option would have been better to give players a wider array of weapons. Nonetheless, the ability to fire the sniper rifle accurately around corners is a nifty, though not original (cough…Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter…cough!) addition. The final weapons-based flaw is that the rocket launcher can only be fired while aiming down the sights, and it has no lock-on function.
Portions of Conflict: Denied Ops requiring stealth are executed well, as you can usually kill guards silently without alerting other foes. However, this may be because the enemy AI isn't the smartest in the world. Sometimes they'll take cover, but that is really all they have been programmed for. When foes are able to overpower you, it's only because of their high number rather then any degree of skill.
Environments in Conflict: Denied Ops are highly destructible. However, this feature of the game is really overdone, with walls and wooden boxes exploding at the drop of a hat. It is also ludicrous that bullets can destroy cover, but not penetrate it. For example, if you want to kill an enemy behind a sheet of metal, a full clip of ammo will reduce the cover to rubble, but the foe behind it will still be left standing.
Things that go 'boom'!
Conflict: Denied Ops' visuals are perhaps the most disappointing thing about the entire game. Textures are rendered well, especially in the outdoor environments, but that's about it. Characters, weapons and structures look simple and bland, and quite often downright ugly. The lighting isn't too bad, but the animations and explosions are very uninspiring. In essence, Conflict: Denied Ops looks like a last-gen game on a current-gen console. The soundtrack doesn't fare much better, with annoying music, ordinary effects and laughable dialogue and voice-acting.
Players can generally pick the order in which they complete levels in Conflict: Denied Ops. Missions are broken down into a number of primary objectives, and in the Xbox 360 version, you can earn achievements for completing bonus goals such as saving allies or not setting off alarms. However, another reason to avoid paying top dollar for Conflict: Denied Ops is that it only takes about five hours or less to complete. The multiplayer mode won't extent your time with the game either. The online component supports deathmatch, team deathmatch and conquest, but lacks any real type of structure as you are forced to play as either Graves or Lang.
To put it simply, Conflict: Denied Ops is a very disappointing game. The story, visuals and sound are downright awful, and as the game can be finished in about five hours, Conflict: Denied Ops is mostly a poor addition to the action genre. The first-person shooter is redeemed slightly by the well-implemented command system, but there are so many other gameplay flaws that any enjoyment to be found is completely destroyed. Conflict: Denied Ops will only satisfy the most hardcore of FPS fans, and that will only be when it hits the bargain table.
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