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I have no history with Shadow Ops and therefore no nostalgia for it. In fact, I never heard of it until I saw it on sale on GOG. Early 2000s shooters I never heard of intrigue me and Shadow Ops was dirt cheap so I figured I would give it a shot. The description on the game’s GOG and Steam pages talks about all-out assault with stealth and infiltration, hunting down a terrorist overlord, and fighting alongside international special forces. It sounds like a good recipe for an action game and I went into it thinking that maybe I found a hidden gem. Developed by Zombie Studios and published by Atari, Shadow Ops: Red Mercury was released for Xbox in June, 2004 and PC in September of that same year. For this review, I played both versions. I did consult the game’s PCGamingWiki page before playing the PC version to see what I may need to do to get it running properly on a modern system. I ended up tweaking some ini files and applying a widescreen fix. Shadow Ops does come with a multiplayer component and the Xbox version has a co-op mode but I didn’t get the chance to check them out so this review will only focus on the single player.
The story follows Captain Frank Hayden, a Delta Force operative, as he and his team attempt to recover a bomb code named “Red Mercury” in the possession of a terrorist. Basically, you chase the bomb all around the world in an effort to prevent disaster and there are some interesting twists and turns in this otherwise average plot. It’s a fine setup for the gameplay with well directed cut scenes in my opinion. I did watch some of the “making of” videos and apparently the developers aimed for cinematic or Hollywood style action. I will say I enjoyed the cut scenes and the intensity the plot tries to convey. That combined with the action-packed gameplay make for a decent romp even if the gameplay is more flash than substance. The story does go on a bit longer than I thought it would. It’s not a super long game but just when I thought I reached the end, it kept going. It took me almost seven hours to beat on the Ranger difficulty level.
I have read that some say Shadow Ops is similar to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare titles. Obviously, it pre-dates those games and I guess that’s somewhat accurate. It’s similar to Call of Duty in the sense that it’s a flashy linear shooter. The environments keep you and the action contained and the gameplay can be fast-paced and intense. As for the cinematic approach, I would say they nailed the audio work and flash. Firefights typically consist of loud gunfire, a lot of shouting, and sometimes you’ll be surrounded by explosions. There’s not as many scripted events as what you would see in a Call of Duty game but the audiovisual presentation can make for a loud and flashy experience.
You know how games typically have gimmicks to draw people in? A selling point? I’m not entirely sure what the gimmick of Shadow Ops is supposed to be. Maybe it’s the cinematic approach or what I’ll call intense action or maybe both. Let me explain. Behind all the flash is a pretty straightforward first-person shooter. But it’s one that attempts to keep you on your toes at all times and I would say it succeeds at doing that. The game comes with multiple difficulty levels and I played on Ranger which I equate to Normal. It should be noted that the difficulty level you select does affect things like how much damage you take and inflict for example. On the hardest, Delta Force, you are given only one life, and if you die, you have to start the campaign over from the beginning.
The campaign plays out in levels with no manual saving. That means, for most difficulty levels, if you die or encounter a bug like getting stuck on something in the environment, you have to restart the level. Luckily, levels are not so long that replaying sections becomes tedious. Also, the weapons you start the level with are all you get. For some reason, you can’t swap them out with others. You run through the environments gunning down baddies which are everywhere and can come from anywhere. You need to be alert at all times. You can run, crouch, throw and roll grenades, and aim down sights but can’t move while doing so. However, you can lean while aiming. Health does not regenerate but can be replenished from health packs found in the environments.
The description on the game’s Steam and GOG pages contains the word “stealth”. There’s one level where you get to use suppressed weapons but that seems to be as far as the stealth goes. I never found that crouching actually made me quiet enough to truly sneak up on anyone but staying low and behind cover is often a good strategy for staying alive. Once spotted, enemies will run around and shoot at you, lob grenades, take cover, and they can come from anywhere. They will appear in windows, on rooftops, and sometimes they will appear behind you. You are encouraged to stay behind things, lean out from cover, and conserve ammo. Ammo and can be found in the environments and enemies will drop some but if you spray all the time or make no effort to make shots count, you can drain through ammo pretty quick.
I admit I wasn’t impressed with the gameplay at first but it grew on me over time. Not that it’s bad but it’s not amazing, either. The intensity, frequent and consistent action, and solid sound design really helped get me into it but it didn’t take me long to really see how the game functions in terms of challenging the player. The intensity comes from multiple things, especially if you’re accustomed to more modern shooters; the lack of regenerating health, the inability to manually save your progress, ammo conservation, and how the enemies spawn. Also, enemies are decent shots. The game encourages you to move slow, check your corners, and always stay behind cover. If you’re exposed, you can expect to get shot. You enter an area and enemies could be lying in wait or come through the ceiling or come pouring out of doorways and buildings. Basically, advancing and completing objectives will trigger them to spawn or appear. Once you see how it works, things become easier and you can pretty much predict when the bullets will start flying. It doesn’t take long to see that enemies will be around almost every corner, especially later in the campaign.
Some of the enemy placements can feel a little cheap and I found the penultimate level to be the most frustrating mainly because every encounter consists of a seemingly never ending supply of bad guys. Other than that, and the lack of gore, I found the action to be quite enjoyable. The campaign always keeps you on your toes. Certain levels will have you accompanied by AI teammates and they will shoot at and kill enemies and alert you to snipers and guys with RPGs. You’ll have to complete objectives that are typical for a game like this including destroy things, cover teammates, and clear areas. But the objectives never actually challenge you. The game’s description mentions a race against time but the reality is you can take as much time as you need. Even if your teammates are telling you to hurry up or the objective seemingly needs to be accomplished quickly, there’s no chance you’ll fail unless you die. Basically, there’s no penalty for taking your time to do anything.
The game will take you to numerous locations around the globe and the variety is nice. You’ll engage bad guys on a moving train, the streets and rooftops of Paris, a research facility in Kazakhstan, and through a town in Syria among other locations. You’ll navigate through plenty of corridors and rooms, you’ll get to use gun emplacements at certain points, and the environments are very linear and funnel you where you need to go so you should never get lost. Besides health and ammo, there’s nothing to find, no collectibles of any kind, so there’s very little reason to explore. As mentioned before, the linearity keeps the action contained and there’s plenty of baddies to shoot between the start and end of levels.
Visually, the game definitely looks like a product of its time but I don’t think it looked bad for 2004. I like the environmental variety, visual effects, and some of the enemy death animations but I do take issue with some of the weapon models in first-person. The angles of certain handguns just seems off in my opinion. As it relates to the PC version, unfortunately, certain settings cannot be configured in-game, only in the ini files and the widescreen fix does result in the HUD being stretched and some of the ammo information is cut off. When it comes to the audio, as I mentioned earlier, I think the sound work is great. From the shouting to the sounds of weapons fire, it all sounds good and helps add to the intensity of the action. The soundtrack gets the job done. The music sounds like stuff you would hear in an action movie and the tunes are a good fit for what’s happening on screen. On the technical side, the frame rate in the Xbox version tanks frequently. The PC version ran fine and smooth and I encountered no major issues in either version.
So do I think Shadow Ops is a hidden gem? I’m going with no. It’s not terrible by any means but I wouldn’t say it’s a must-play shooter, either. It took me some time to get into it and once I got into the groove of things, I was having a pretty good time. I can see what the developers were trying to to do to differentiate it from others of its kind. I can see some aspects like the lack of checkpoints and not being able to save progress manually being frustrating for some and whether or not the cinematic approach and intense action really carry the experience will be up to you. But I think it’s a fun romp. It’s not my favorite shooter even among its contemporaries and as far as Hollywood-inspired action goes, I think Shadow Ops nails certain elements but I also think there are other games that do the whole action movie feel thing a bit better. Nevertheless, the action is solid for the most part and I enjoyed it. It’s a run and gun shooter that keeps you on your toes from beginning to end and it can be a challenging experience.
I do recommend Shadow Ops: Red Mercury. If you enjoy run and gun first-person shooters or are looking for Hollywood-inspired action, I think Shadow Ops is worth a shot. It may not be the best or most polished game of its time, but it is fun. If you like the idea of a shooter that keeps you vigilant and on your toes, Shadow Ops delivers. Considering you can find digital copies for PC for pretty cheap with or without a sale, I would say check it out if you’re at all interested.