Article Type: Preview
Article Date: March 14, 2002
Product Info
Game Title: Global Operations
Developed By: Barking Dog Studios
Published By: Crave Entertainment, EA
Release Date: Q1 2002
Min. Spec: P2/450 and a 16MB 3d card (GForce 1)
Rec. Spec: P3/600 and a 32MB video card
Files & Links: Click Here
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Boldness Through Balance
Literary great James Thurber once wrote, “You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.” On the surface, this is an obtuse concept, yet many players of tactically oriented first-person shooters will immediately relate to the message of that line. In life, be it virtual or physical, balance is the key to the ultimate success. The passage also tells the reader that while compromise is desirable, ultimately, there comes a time at which decisions must be made.
Balance is a virtue that has been notably absent from the tactical first-person shooter genre for some time. Newcomers to the virtual melee either love or hate what they will find. Either unseen snipers camp out and eliminate enemies as soon as they spawn into the realm or machine-gun wielding maniacs spray everything in sight without regard to coordinated effort, teamwork, or strategy. So great is the desire for such balance that one of the greatest titles in the history of tactical FPS games isn’t even a stand-alone title, but rather, a mod for an existing title. Counter-Strike, a modification for the popular Half-Life title, was originally designed by game players to adjust the code to allow human versus human team-based play, using a variety of weapons, equipment, uniforms, and maps.
A New Breed
Electronic Arts introduces Global Operations, a stand-alone title that pits team versus team like never before. Freshly opened for public beta and recently gone gold, Global Operations features fast paced, hard-hitting tactical gameplay serious enough for the hard core operator yet action packed enough for the run-and-gun Butch and Sundance blaze of glory hounds.
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Choose your weapon!  |
Have Guns, Lots of Guns, Will Travel
The single player game consists of thirteen richly detailed environments with enough scenery to dazzle and plenty of advantageous attack and defensive positions. Players are encouraged to get their vaccination shots and have their passports handy as missions will call on their skills in far off places like Mexico, Chechnya, Canada, USA, Argentina, Peru, Uganda, Antarctica, Colombia, Sri Lanka, North Africa, and even aboard a freighter in the South China Sea! Mission types vary, but multiplayer team vs team players will be comfortable with the missions available. Teams must either carry out or prevent actions such as demolition of key installations, assassination attempts, hostage rescue and recovery, and theft and hijacking operations.
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| Attention to Orders, troops. |
The level design shows remarkable consideration for the balance we spoke of earlier. While the levels are large and wide open in many cases, snipers do not necessarily rule the landscape like in other titles. Here, marksmanship is as vital a virtue as any, yet small arms and close quarter contact are the orders of the day. Nevertheless, a skillful and well-placed sniper can rain havoc upon an unprotected approach. Veterans will love the allied AI snipers, which actively engage and destroy that most hated breed of multiplayer scoundrel, the spawn-campers. Teams will square off in such diverse landscapes as a genetic research substation, a hydroelectric power plant, a sleepy village, a plush mansion, a dark and ominous airfield, a security camera laden art gallery, a tight urban neighborhood, busy training depots, and rebel outposts, to name a few! Danger can lurk around every corner, and from every shadow, so it pays to be clever and cautious.
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| Truly caught between a rock and a several 7.62mm hard places. |
Tools of the Trade
Of course, what would a multiplayer team game be if you couldn’t configure it as you wish. Half the fun of being a team member is donning the uniform of your chosen ranks and distinguishing yourself from the rabble of mercenary players! In Global Operations, right out of the box, we are treated to a new world of complexity of weaponry, equipment, and skins. The weapons systems are wonderfully detailed and rendered. Authentic weaponry was modeled and sampled, giving the game a crispness of texture and a richness of sound to accompany these high tech marvels of mass chaos. Each weapon is rated as to its accuracy, the power of its ammunition, the number of rounds per clip and the clips carried, and its rate of fire. As if this weren’t enough, the player may modify the weapon with a choice of suppressors, scopes, and high-capacity magazines. Depending on player class, one may choose from a bevy of heavy machine guns, high-power rifles, assault rifles, shotguns, automatic pistols, and even grenade launchers and anti-tank weapons. Certain classes can deploy timed or remotely detonated plastic explosives, or to use high tech sensor equipment to track and classify the movements of friend and foe.
What is there to stop everyone in the game from simply picking up the meanest, nastiest beast of a weapon they can and then just randomly spraying the environment? Either you will love it or hate it…Barking Dog Studios has incorporated a cash reward system into the weapons selection process. Each weapon costs a certain number of dollars. As you choose a weapon, the cost is deducted from your cash on hand. Each modification, armor improvement, and equipment extra costs as well. Fortunately, the developers have limited the starting cash available to each player class so that no single player will enter a level with anything more than the most humble of available firearms. How then does one raise money for the really cool stuff? Well, I’m glad you asked. Each player has a personal account, and the only way to add money to this account is to kill opposing players. As the kills rack up, so does the cash. However, to penalize those players who sometimes forget to aim when in the thick of battle, the system will also deduct cash for killing friendly players. So, quite literally, it PAYS to be careful.
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| Cha-Ching! |
The equipment features have received due attention as well. Each level is smothered in security cameras, as well as each player carrying a shoulder or helmet mounted camera of their own and each camera system uplinks data to a new breed of player, the intelligence officer. While I admit that I did not get a chance to sample this position, the concept is beyond amazing. A non-combatant player sits safely within the confines of an intelligence bunker and receives intel from the field in the form of visual, map-based, and recon data. The intel officer may then coordinate the efforts of the players under his control, assigning missions and waypoints with the click of a mouse. The updated information then appears on the player HUD for execution. While certainly not the role for every player, this new position will soon prove invaluable in the success or failure of team activities; mark my words!
Beauty Is Only Skin Deep
Again, I mentioned the skins available. It is unclear at this time how much modification will become available to the player community, but right off the bat, the EA, Crave, and Barking Dog teams have gone above and beyond conventional development when it comes to the skins and animations in this game. Lets just start with some simple arithmetic (sorry to all those who hate math!) The game has thirteen levels in the single player mode. Each level features two teams each. That brings a total of twenty-six teams into the game, each from different nations and states, and each with a unique look, both for the operators and the terrorists. Then break it down further. Each team may consist of up to six separate player types, each with its own distinct skin and characteristics. So, twenty-six teams by six player models per team equals 156 separate models. Impressive in its own right.
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| Specialties to fit every player style. |
Each player type has its advantages and its weakness on this new battleground. The current combat classes include a demolitions expert, typically armed with a grenade launcher and a host of explosive devices; the heavy machine gunner, slower and bulkier, but with ungodly firepower to bear; the commando, swift and powerful, armed to the teeth, and perhaps the best balanced of all player models; the recon expert, by far the fastest and with the lightest armor protection with sophisticated gadgetry to track and isolate his targets; the medic, the hero of the battleground, rushing to revive injured and dying players and thus keep the pressure on the enemy; and the sniper, lethal from extreme ranges and a fine scout in his own right.
Character animations are smooth and entertaining. Ponderous machine gunners lumber about with their heavy gear while agile recon scouts dash about nimbly. While the motion of healthy combatants is excellent, it is the injured and dying that bring the real substance to the game. This game walks the fine line between gore and realism, with just enough red matter to be visually exciting while keeping those who need to see giblets spraying all about wanting for more. Shoot a bad guy in the head, and his whole body jerks back violently with the momentum of the shell and he quickly disappears, back to the respawn point. Shoot the next bad guy in the groin, and he will fall pathetically to his knees, protectively grasping the wound and hoping for the best! Strafe the belly of an opponent and he will linger on the ground moaning and writhing. I found that the best tactic against the AI, especially on missions where the objective was to protect or isolate a point, is to shoot low and avoid vital organs. The AI will not spawn out until fully dead, and it can take a while to completely bleed out. Thus, on these timed missions with limited personnel, the more bodies that can be contained on the floor in front of you, the better off you are in the long run. Your mileage, however, may vary.
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| And my day was going so well too! |
A Hands-on Opinion
The controls are nothing new or especially burdening to the experienced FPS player. Simply run, strafe, and use, just like in Half-Life and Counter-Strike. Each individual will have preferences, but to remap the keys takes little extra effort. Visual controls and sound levels are presented for simple adjustment and tweaking. With some minimum of sacrifice, some performance gains can be had by reducing detail levels, but even on a PIII-733MHz system with 256MB RAM and a GeForce 2 32MB AGP card, the game ran quickly, smoothly and sharply.
Denouement
In short, I think that those veterans of many a Counter-Strike battle will be pleased as punch with this fetching title. The action is quick, but never chaotic, while the game play retains so much of the strategy and teamwork that was so vital to the birth of the Counter-Strike fan base. The title retains enough originality and power to be a wonderful stand-alone game. Teamwork is the key, while still allowing some action for action’s sake. I don’t think there is enough strategy here to lure in hard core Ghost Recon types, nor enough havoc to lure in the Unreal Tournament types, but for all those seeking balance, this title might just be for you.
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