SpecOps

There seems to be an interesting trend in videogames recently. Up until late last year, most PC action games seemed to center around a pure action theme. Now however, there is an increase in real life tactical combat games. There is Rainbow Six , Delta Force, Spec Ops, and the upcoming Shadow Company and Tribes. Its a nice change of pace really. Spec Ops puts the player in the role of an Army Ranger, and your job is to kick the crap out of anything that opposes the good ol' U.S. of A. Sadly, its no where near as fun as it sounds.

Since this is a PC game there are two modes: Software and Hardware mode. Software mood is ugly, sluggish and nearly unplayable on my P2 400MHz. Hardware mode supports the Glide API and as a result, you need a 3dfx accelerator. If you have a Vodoo 2 card, the game uses all of the graphics card's power to....give you bland ugly graphics. The graphics in Delta Force are much better, and it doesn't even support 3d acceleration. In Spec Ops,the enemies are blocky, explosions are anemic, and the backgrounds are dull. The game suffers from graphical mediocrity in the strongest form.

Well, the sound is no great shakes either. The noises and music in Rainbow Six are much much better than this. Again, this are is mediocre.

The truly sad thing here is the gameplay. This title had the chance to be a true classic, as many of the missions are truly inventive, tense and exciting. However, the poor graphics, dull sound, and evil control ruin the gameplay. And many nagging features ruin the realism, like the inclusion of health packs. And the enemy and teamate AI just bites. Trust me, if you want a good game in this vein, buy Rainbow 6 or Delta Force, and leave this clunker alone!

GRAPHICS 5/10

SOUND 5/10

CONTROL 3/10

GAMEPLAY 6/10

OVERALL 5/10

-MADGRADUATE