Conflict: Denied Ops - Hands On Test & Interview
The Conflict franchise of squad-based shooter games has certainly been popular, ever since it first graced our monitors back in 2002. Since then, each additional release has stuck to the same formula: four teammates, third person perspective, kill bad guys, etc but the new cowboy in town, Denied Ops is going down a slightly different route. We've previewed this game before (read it here) but we recently had the chance to try a spot of hands-on testing, as well as pop a few questions to one of the game's designers.
Conflict: Denied Ops Trailer
Denied Ops is being released on the PC, 360 and PS3, and we managed to have a reasonable blast on all three platforms, running through an opening level before tackling a few others. Something else that we tried our hands at was the co-op play - C:DO offers "drop in" 2 player action at any time in the game - but more of that in a moment. We first tried the PC version, initially with the supplied gamepad (a Microsoft Xbox 360 controller) and then with the keyboard and mouse, albeit rather awkwardly due to a lack of space. Initial impressions were quite favourable: the controls and command system, used to instruct your cohort, felt simple but effective; within a matter of minutes, there was a mass of bodies and debris cluttering the level. Each character has their own main weapon, with no ammunition limit, but I found myself just sticking to the same person all the time, only telling the other to keep up. Overall, the opening level required little in the way of swapping between the characters, other than for pre-determined tasks, such as planting a bomb. For the most part, the teammate was only really needed to revive you, once your health hit zero; speaking of which, Denied Ops eschews health bars (as is common in today's games) and one only "dies" once both characters have hit the dirt.
The co-op gameplay (2 player online or split-screen) felt quite similar: it was nice to have a really useful soldier next to you, providing covering fire and so on, but it didn't feel particularly necessary. This is almost certainly down to the difficulty setting, for which C:DO has a dynamic version, affecting later levels; by not progressing far enough into the game, there's good chance that we didn't experience enough scenarios that truly require the unique capabilities of each person (one is a sniper, the other a heavy machine gunner). The opening level provides a spot of tank action, though, so one should expect various vehicles and new tactics to appear throughout the game, as the tank was more effective with both players in it, compared to being handled by just one.
Denied Ops seems to work best on a console (and the preview samples suggest the 360 version gets the slight nod in performance over the PS3, especially with loading): the reason for this is the weapon targeting. Rather than using a small reticule with which to aim, players have quite a broad area to fire at - only switching to the sniper and his telescopic sights can one reach pin-point accuracy. It's more noticeable once you start using a mouse too, as changes in direction and aiming are far more rapid than with a gamepad, making the gameplay somewhat easy. There's no denying that there's plenty of shooting mayhem and fun to be had in C:DO - the level of damage one can do to an environment does vary quite a bit, but the "puncture technology" aids gameplay a lot, just it does in Call of Duty 4. Pivotal Games know how to make things go kaboom in a big style and let's face it: that's what we want in a shooting game. No doubt everyone will look at the graphics and feel somewhat underwhelmed, especially after the likes of COD4 and Crysis. They're certainly not the hottest around but they suit the feel of the game. Conflict: Denied Ops is also a bit of a switch compared to the previous titles in the series, and there's nothing really new here, for the whole genre, but as long as the later levels provide more of a challenge (and even bigger kabooms), then there shouldn't be anything really wrong with the final version.
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