A few months ago the demo for Operation Darkness, one of the first Xbox 360 titles from famed Japanese publisher Atlus, hit the Far East Live Marketplace; last night the same demo has made its way Stateside for Western gamers to take it for a spin.Featuring 4-player online co-op, the strategy RPG is set in an alternate World War II universe where you must do battle with mystical creatures and the many minions of Hitler. That's right, no sugar coating this final boss. Strategy RPG fans tired of their lack of options on the Xbox 360, unless you're an XBLA fiend, should check this one out.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-24-2008 @ 10:39AM
Tony said...
I just saw this. Looking forward to it.
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4-24-2008 @ 10:45AM
itsburnsie said...
I'm intrigued, Altus has put out some good games, and it's great to see them coming to the 360.
I'll have to download it as soon as my Elite comes back from Microsoft... it seems I have finally been struck by the RRoD. (My first console, a pro which I sold to a co-worker is still running fine though, what're the odds.)
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4-24-2008 @ 10:51AM
ManicBomber said...
Beware the fanboys on this one folks. The game is an obvious downgrade (Xbox 360 exclusive, cause they wouldn't subject the Japanese market to this). It's a walking advertisement for Japanese consoles and the Atlus fanboys (the weaboos that they are) are going to defend the crap out of this game. It's technically flawed, graphically horrible (and a vast departure from the over stylized look of all of Atlus other games), and has some real issues for a $60 game.
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4-24-2008 @ 11:13AM
dunnypop said...
I'm not an RPG fan, but a co-op RPG and battling Hitler is always a good selling point. I'll try this out.
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4-24-2008 @ 11:17AM
Terry said...
@itsburnsie Your elite red-ringed? this does not bode well for my Decision of which gtaiv to get..id like to get the 360 version..(we know the reasons)..but if i buy it and my elite red rings during play..PISSED..i will be!
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4-24-2008 @ 12:33PM
itsburnsie said...
Yup, my elite that I "upgraded to" last summer. I thought they were red-ring resistant, but alas I was wrong.
I just wish Microsoft would come out and state in plain language what causes the RRoD, which consoles are more likely to be affected, and what exactly they've done to fix it. That's the only way they'll restore consumer confidence, at this point.
4-24-2008 @ 12:52PM
andyface said...
I assume it's something to do with the hardware overheating (assuming the towel method of inducing a rrod works) and then either melting or just generally being dead. It being a permanent break, not just a temporary crash. What mildly baffles me is that it's still able to produce a red ring and not just plain stop working altogether. There is also the possibility it is not simply one issue but a collection of problems that results in the red ring. Anyway that may all be relatively obvious, but thought you may enjoy my musings, I could easily be wrong.
4-24-2008 @ 1:23PM
itsburnsie said...
@andyface
I always enjoy good musings :-)
But again, that's my point, we know a few things about the RRoD and it's likely causes... but Microsoft keeps us in the dark about the important things.
Things like how they've supposedly dealt with the defect, which consoles have the improvements in them, what they failure rate of the new and improved hardware is... etc.
Way off topic on this article, and for that I apologize. Just miffed I have to miss GTA IV for a while because my console finally croaked.
4-25-2008 @ 5:15AM
Boff said...
Itsburnie: There was an article on her some time ago about identifying models with the Falcon chipset. You need to check the PSU (125w instead of the 'old' 250w) and also the manufacturing date/code.
4-24-2008 @ 11:20AM
Big Filth said...
I downloaded this last night. I was excited. I played it for about 5 minutes, laughed out loud. Stared at the screen in amazement for another 5 minutes then deleted it as fast as possible.
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4-24-2008 @ 1:54PM
ManicBomber said...
I wish I could have laughed, but I was too busy feeling a sense of loss at how far removed this is from the genius that was Ogre Battle.
Way to not even be able to provide the same stellar experience you did like 15 years ago Atlus.
4-24-2008 @ 11:27AM
Mr.ESC said...
Umm I've always considered games that mock WWII or spin offs of WWII tasteless.
I'm downloading Universe at war demo instead.
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4-24-2008 @ 12:55PM
gundamxzero said...
Oh are you kidding me? Return to castle wolfenstein is an awesome game, and enemy territory(the multi expansion on PC) was incredible.
4-24-2008 @ 11:29AM
Tony said...
The SMT games definitely have a similar style, but they're actually developed by Atlus's internal teams.
Atlus didn't develop this. They just localized it. In this case there's no real style for them to depart from.
I just finished downloading it. I already knew it wasn't the prettiest game ever, but who knows. Neither was EDF and that game's awesome.
If it sucks I think it's unlikely any Atlus fanboy is going to defend it. The people on the Atlus forums, probably the most diehard Atlus fans there are for obvious reasons, love to bitch about things. Half the threads on this game have been negative before it even came out due to the price tag.
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4-24-2008 @ 11:59AM
Tony said...
Game's kind of a C... average. As far as strategy titles go I've played worse and there does seem to be room for some interesting senarios; however, the demo doesn't give you much of an idea of what there might be in the future, really.
It's definitely not pretty. Some of the animation is stiff and the camera pans are really jerky (looks like frames are skipping, but I don't think that's the actual issue).
I would consider picking it up eventually if it was like $30 or so... but $60? No.
4-24-2008 @ 11:39AM
ccc said...
@Tony
I will give this game a try to see if it is as bad as they say but I am surprised to see you mention EDF.
EDF is an amazing game that would own if it were online.
Did you get a 1000 out of it?
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4-24-2008 @ 11:57AM
Tony said...
Hah, no way. I can't even finish the first couple of levels in Inferno.
4-24-2008 @ 1:14PM
ccc said...
I only have a few inferno levels left.
Armor farm alot and get a friend to play with, it helps.
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4-24-2008 @ 2:40PM
Jonman said...
This sounds a bizarre videogaming spin on Godwin's Law.
I'll check it out this evening, if I can seperate the wife from her pinatas.
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4-24-2008 @ 4:09PM
Beck said...
I'm kind of disappointed with this demo. It's a decent game from what I played... but it's actually fairly hard. I mean, if one of your three of eight - or was it 12? - characters die... game over. And it becomes way too unfair when the enemy can pull a rocket launcher out of his @$$ and blast you away. Anyway, it's kind of slow. I mean, I'm a S-RPG fan - Disgaea, Final Fantasy Tactics, Front Mission, all my favorite games - but this is even slower than I thought possible. I mean, when you have to go 5 turns before you can engage the enemy... you know something is wrong. In any case... this should really not be a full priced game. I'll buy it if I find it for $20 MAYBE $30.
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