Operation Darkness official thread

[sirhansirhan]

Has anyone played the demo to this game yet? I'm trying to decide if I should buy the game the day it comes out, buy it cheap later, or not buy it at all. It looks like my kind of game. I'd like to decide soon, because if you pre-order the strategy guide directly from DoubleJump, they'll send you an autographed one, which is sort of cool.

So anyway, what's the gameplay like? All I really know at this point is that it's something like an SRPG that involves werewolves and Nazis. I have yet to read any actual reviews or first-hand testimonials, but the premise sounds like fun.

[danielscheil]

I hope the us version will be (pal) codefree

[Sudo]

I played the demo and love the premise, but the graphics and camera are absolutely horrible. If they manage to fix the camera for the retail build (which I highly doubt) I'll rent it, but if not I won't bother.

[FlufflePuff]

I did not enjoy the demo at all. Found the camera and control schemes to be pretty akward.

[carlcarlson]

At a glance it looks pretty sweet, but the graphics and animation in the video are horrendous. I'll definitely check out the demo though because the premise intrigues me. The art style on the site is so good, it's a shame it didn't seem to translate into the game.

[heybtbm]

I played the demo and love the premise, but the graphics and camera are absolutely horrible. If they manage to fix the camera for the retail build (which I highly doubt) I'll rent it, but if not I won't bother.

Exactly how I feel.

The camera makes the game almost unplayable. You basically have no control and no way to see your characters around buildings/environmental features. This game has the worst camera I've ever experienced in a SRPG...and I've played them all.

The graphics are terrible...almost PS2 quality with High-res textures slapped on top. Absolutely pitiful. I'm not a graphics whore by any means, but this presentation borders on insulting. Completely half-assed.

The gameplay is the standard SRPG with a WWII/supernatural twist. Unfortunately the gameplay is outright annoying. Oh I almost forgot the clincher...

If any of your characters (usually around 10 per team) dies in battle, the game is immediately over. No "phoenix downs" no reviving after the battle is over, just "game over". Even Fire Emblem lets the battle continue. WTF is that? Some battles can take longer than an hour, so I hope the people who buy this game plan on either replaying battles over and over -or- can play a perfect game without dying (good luck).

SRPG is my favorite genre hands down. I will not be picking this one up until it's easily <$20 (if at all).

[carlcarlson]

Well I just got done with the demo and I'm pretty disappointed in the way it turned out. I enjoyed playing it enough that it makes me sad that some aspects of it are so bad. I can get past the ps2 quality graphics, but the control and UI are horrible. It really is almost unplayable. Also, after fighting in a battle for about 40 minutes one of my guys died... and game over. That's it. I know it's the demo, so maybe that's why there aren't any checkpoints, saves or whatever, but if that's how it is in the end game, then it will be very very frustrating. I really hope this game stays in development for awhile longer, because I like the premise, but the execution right now is falling waaaaay short.

[PDorr3]

I will cut to the chase I tried the demo out awhile ago and could not bare to finish it, after a few fight sequences I really pretty much knew I would never like the game...it just seemed very boring or something was just not right about it. I will pick it up though if it ever hits below the $20 mark though.

[Cryomancer]

Camera isn't too nice, I'll agree there. The characters dying thing only matters for certain story people, (which I THINK it tells you about before the battle, can't recall now). You can recruit other nameless soldiers for your team too, they can die for sure. The first time I played the demo, I did indeed lose because one of my story people died. I played again and, now knowing this could happen, played a bit more cautiously. Honestly, the best character in the demo is the sniper girl, she kills something almost every turn. And you do actually get lots of healing items, and if you bother to set up your skills before fighting, your guys will even use them automatically when they are dying (not wasting a turn on it). The medic has more than he'll ever need so he can help the others too, and of course the fallen enemy have them too. It's not THAT difficult to stay alive.

I for one will be buying this launch day, as it's one of the three Japanese 360 titles I bought the system with hopes of being able to eventually play. Only one left!

[carlcarlson]

I really hope they fix the camera, because I keep finding myself wanting to play the demo again. That's a good sign. And you're right Cryo, it's only story characters that can't die. My problem was that I couldn't keep them straight, so I didn't know who could be sacrificed. I also didn't really know what to do about the Needle. The mission objective was to kill everyone BUT the Needle, but I killed everyone around him and didn't see any "capture" option or anything like that, so I shot him. I died later, so I don't know if that is what I was supposed to do or not, but that's one of the problems: it seemed like there were alot of things that were unclear.

Kind of off-topic, but does know anything about Atlus' other srpg, Spectral Force 3? It's due in a little over a month and looks decent.