08.jpg
[Hide] (257.5KB, 1280x720) Reverse 17.jpg
[Hide] (226.3KB, 1280x720) Reverse 63.jpg
[Hide] (202.4KB, 1280x720) Reverse 81.jpg
[Hide] (134KB, 1280x720) Reverse 91.jpg
[Hide] (119.2KB, 1280x720) Reverse I just finished Operation: Darkness, a relatively unknown little Xbox 360 exclusive. I talked about it for about a month or so, here is my review for anyone who never heard of it(so most people):
>What is it?
Tactical console RPG similar to X-COM and Valkyrie Chronicles, but it also personally reminds me of Yugioh: Capsule Monsters Colosseum, if anybody played that gem. It is very similar to Valkyrie Chronicles, in fact you could consider this the Xbox 360 equivalent of that game, where as VC was a PS3 exclusive(until later). The major difference is that the setting is WW2 Europe, the game doesn't dance around it by setting itself in "Europa" or anything like that, in fact many real major battles and people are found in this game. The only problem is that swastikas and certain other symbols(most bafflingly the red cross on the medic's armband) are censored or removed, altho this is hardly unique to this game, sadly, and it doesn't ruin the experience. It is very much a launch era title 360 game, there is a lot of jank and weirdness and the game isn't optimized that well, in fact you could almost excuse it for a late 6th gen era game and that's because it was originally being worked on as such until Microsoft offered Success a deal to make it a console exclusive for their new hardware.
>How is the gameplay?
The game is a grid, turn based role playing title. Each turn, every unit can either use their spell or move and/or use and item. When they get close to a corpse, they can loot it at any point in time. There is a 5 slot inventory for both weapons and aid items, 10 total, while there isn't a weight limit(you can carry 5 HMGs if you want) the actual weight statistic is VERY important and I will be getting to it. Almost every single mission involves killing every single enemy or doing so under a time limit. There is three main characters that can never die, sometimes there is additional ones as well(not all of them controllable by player). You get a selection of both more mundane weapons like guns, rocket launchers and grenades, all era appropriate, as well as swords and magic spells. It is a good idea to specialize each unit into a certain playstyle, equipping every unit with an LMG to maximize their firepower is a TERRIBLE idea and I will get into why that is. Point is that there is a ton of customization as far as your squad goes, there is named characters that each have their own roles to play(that includes unique dialogue during missions) and have access to magic spells, and there is generic units that have weaker stats and no access to magic spells. There is a limit of 16 units on your roster, but you can never take more than 13 at any one time(each mission has a different limit), generally if you recruit every available named character you have space for 5 generic soldiers so you should never recruit more than that unless you're doing some niche "generic soldiers only" run. Each unit has stats, which determine their attack/defense as well as their turn rate, how far they are able to move and how likely they are to hit enemy units. Each weapon has it's own maximum range and damage radius(grenades have a very short range and can be thrown over obstacles, however they have a 3x3 damage radius with an additionally ring of splash damage that hits targets for 1/2 health, meanwhile a sniper rifle has dozens of grids worth of range but can only hit one grid per shot without special abilities). There is a very rudimentary cover and destructible environment system, but it doesn't play a large role, most often you will be in an open field and you only have other units and trees that can block your shots. The game has a large variety of enemies, there is soldiers and tanks but there is also supernatural enemies as well as bosses. I won't spoil them, but it is worth going thru the game at least once just to see what it will throw at you. There is also three different "Cover" modes, one for having several units moving all at once in unison when a tagged unit moves(used with slow units tagging a very fast unit), one which attacks any enemy before they have a chance to, potentially killing them(but overwatch mode shots are only a fraction as powerful as your normal shots, so this mode is useless) and ambush mode which simply has your unit acting as a turret and firing at any enemy that enters it's range(the only mode I used during my playthru). All Cover modes stop when the unit has either ran out of ammo or gets hit by an enemy once, when their turn comes up the player has a choice to end the Cover mode as well and get a normal turn instead. There is a very rudimentary shop which mostly stocks Western/Allied weapons, there is an age old problem of having a ton of money and nothing to buy, so you will likely only come here to get more healing supplies and more ammo/grenades as weapon upgrades are relatively rare, most of the weapons you want to use are found out in the field. There is side missions, but they are "one and done", the only way to grind out levels is to repeat the same side mission over and over again as when you move away from that mission to play a main story mission, you can never go back to the side mission again(greyed out). The only exception to this is Eagle's Nest endgame dungeon, but that is only available as a side objective before the final mission AND requires players to collect all 12 Valhalla Report pages(one per mission) towards the end of the game, something I am positive nobody will do without a guide. I will say right now, the game's meta is HEAVILY geared towards magic rather than using any sort of weapons, so don't expect this to play like your typical tactical war game. I will talk more about this in the Cons sections. While units are generally pre-made for you, there is a slight factor in control as to how you build them by choosing skills for them, things like raising certain stats/doing more damage with certain kinds of weapons/being able to resist certain kinds of attacks/unlocking special abilities, like doing more critical damage, and more. There is 5 skill slots, but one will always be taken up by "auto-restore" since otherwise, your unit dies if it gets it's health depleted(with the skill, it will auto-heal if it has a healing item, essentially giving it an extra health bar), there is no real way to play the game without it and some characters will cause a game over if they die anyways, making this one skill essential(it is unlocked at mission 2, so the game knows this too).
>Story
The story is very predictable, it is a JRPG so there is some tropes, such as bad voice acting and weird character interactions you can expect. However, what sets Operation Darkness apart is it's historical setting, the game starts out in North Africa and follows a spec ops unit as it fights thru Europe up until the raid on Berlin, as well as one final mission(and Eagle's Nest optional dungeon) as an epilogue. You will meet real historical characters, as well as play out various real battles, of course with a heavy dose of fiction added to it. The other reason that this setting is so unique is that there is an emphasis on fantasy, meaning that there is a lot of paranormal monsters to fight, there exists magic in this world that many characters(mostly enemies) are able to wield, literary characters like the Frankenstein's Monster and Herbert West as well as Count Dracula and others just exist in this world and they are all involved in World War 2 to some extent. This creates a unique experience that despite somewhat one note characters and forgettable dialogue makes you want to play further to see how it all ends up. The game's events MOSTLY follow real historical events and how they played out in the real world, however there is some that happened differently and I will leave it at that. What I will say is that the villains are very weak and story twists predictable, Hitler is who I would consider the main antagonist but there is someone else whom you will deal with during most of the game and he feels more like a cartoon character than anything else, treating your squad in the same way Dick Dastardly treats the pigeon or Wily E Coyote treats the Road Runner and just like both he always gets outwitted by your characters. His assistant is a much better character since someone told her VA that she is actually supposed to be playing someone intimidating, that's why it's best to treat Operation Darkness more as a historical game with a paranormal subplot since if we were to judge the story by itself, as you would with other RPGs, it would fall flat. The setpieces and unique twists this setting has on what would be otherwise normal operations and battles are the best part and that's what should keep the players engaged. The ending is really weak and there is no satisfying conclusion since the devs were baiting a sequel for a Cold War game in this setting that never came due to poor reception, so you should consider the penultimate series of mission in Berlin as the game's real climax and treat the actual final mission as an epilogue that only exists to kill the last remaining antagonist. Oh, and that guy isn't even the real final boss since he summons a Neon Evangelion Genesis Mass Produced Eva Model at the last minute as the real-real final boss, not even kidding and it is exactly as disappointing as it sounds since up until this point, the game was rather grounded. Overall, I would say the setting is above average and the story/characters/writing are just average, enjoy the early game because that's when the game's story is the most engaging and starts losing steam as it goes on.
>Presentation
Operation: Darkness has an anime aesthetic, which is a little jarring when you see cartoon representation of nazis, Adolf Hitler and other characters. Fantasy characters have a similar art style, but look rather more generic, the most interesting are the fantasy designs which look like they belong in WW2, such as SS-Waffen Vampires or your squad members. As I said, swastikas are censored so get ready to see a lot of iron crosses, that includes one prominently seen on Adolf Hitler's armband. Voice acting is bad, as should be expected from a JRPG in the same way you wouldn't want to watch an anime with dubs, and re-use of the same voice actors to voice different characters(friendly and enemy alike) is common and easily noticeable. Think of the game as an obscure, budget anime that has been localized by a small team, that's about what you should expect. Music is good, but most tracks are forgettable and many are generic JRPG-esque tracks, not a lot of them make you think you're fighting nazis in the trenches or in town ruins. The best tracks are, thankfully, available during missions, the more forgettable ones are found during cutscenes. I didn't notice any problems with the sound, but the camera in this game is godawful. Thankfully, the game is turn based so you have time to correct it and doesn't really ruin the experience, as much as it annoys you. Graphics are ugly and look more like a 6th gen game, which I already covered why, optimization is also pretty spotty at parts, get ready for frame drops when actions gets too intense.
>Cons & Quirks
The major quirk of this game is it's balance. I have started playing this game in 2008, when it came out, and I only finished it now. I gave up on it shortly after playing it first as a certain mission was a roadblock for me, I didn't pass it until much later and only made serious progress when I played the game in 2017. Even then, I met a similar roadblock later, I only finished the game now in 2026 when I sat down and seriously dedicated myself to finishing the game and even then I met yet another roadblock right at the end in the Berlin chapter. You might think I just suck, but I will tell you the common factor each of these instances which gave me trouble shared: your units are too slow. The game only has a handful of tricks up it's sleeve when it comes to raising it's challenge, and it's favorite one, by far, is turning the turn rate of enemies up at a certain point of the game so that they literally run circles around your squad and you get to move 2-3 times after the enemy, if not more. Each time I had to stop playing was when a major instance of this happened, when my usual loadout and strategy simply didn't work and the enemy flat out stomped me with dozens of individual turns more than my guys had, there was no chance of fighting back. There is a way to beat these missions, of course, but that requires one to engage with game mechanics, and that's the first major flaw with this game: there is a surprisingly in-depth focus on builds for your units but it is NEVER EXPLAINED to you how this works. You want to keep your soldiers as light as possible, the less the better(with end game usually having no weapons or only knives/grenades equipped on your units and depending almost entirely on spells), however the game does not start with the paranormal elements and so the first few missions you play Operation Darkness as you would your average tactical game: by using guns and explosives. Naturally, this incentivizes you to keep a well balanced squad: a sniper, a heavy gunner, bazooka units ect. except this is a TRAP and the game never tells you this. When the faster units show up, it feels like the game pulls a rug from under you as now the computer gets several cheap shots on your unit before you even get one, and you never know why. Once you learn that you need to keep your units light, it is actually very simple(and enjoyable) to build up your own squad, however that is never tutorialized to you and that's why I had to keep restarting the game years apart: I played for a little bit, enjoyed myself, got to the bullshit parts, got frustrated and quit since I didn't know what I was doing wrong, until I brute-forced progress in 2017 and learned a little bit about how it works then. Suffice it to say, in the process of finishing the game fully, I learned even more and I did so progressively as I played, even at the very end I found out my squad had inefficiencies I had to stamp out if I had any hope of finishing the game. This is a fun title if you're a min-maxing build autist, but you will need a guide to tell you what to do or simply guess thru trial and error what works and what doesn't, Operation Darkness can be an enjoyable experience but it will SUCK if you play it casually without understanding it's mechanics properly. Since optimal builds are vital for having fun with the game, I will actually post mine in a follow up reply to this post, if you plan on picking up this game don't make the mistake I did treating it like any other WW2 Turn Based Tactics game and instead follow my guide as a base, as you progress thru the game and learn how it works, you will be able to make adjustments based on what you want to see. There is other flaws, but this was the main one that I think will ruin the entire experience for many people, the more minor flaws include:
*Many elements are underutilized, they appear at the start and then maybe a few more times at random later. There is little variety, a lot of the missions will just have the same hordes of enemies with increasing difficulty and power level.
*As I mentioned, the game balance favors magic heavily over guns, making a lot of the loot useless and some end game guns straight up never used unless you really want to double down on inferior infantry units like I did.
*No randomized generic recruit unit stats, there is three kinds of generic recruits(two male and one female) and each kind has the exact same stats, the only thing about them that changes are their names. It would help if you had a pool of recruits that each had different sets of stats for different builds/playstyles, moreover they should scale up to whatever the current power level is. Since you will always get the very same lv1 recruits no matter how far you are in the game, you can easily just hire 3-5 of them at the start and keep them for the rest of the game(even if they die they can be revived during the mission) or ignore them entirely, they are a very underutilized mechanic. There is no way to customize their portraits or how they look on the battlefield either, meaning that if you have several generic soldiers of the same kind in battle, you will never know who is coming up next in the turn order and it might mess up your strategy. Lastly, the generic recruits can never use spells(despite there being generic mage soldiers for the Axis) and only the females can use sniper rifles, meaning that at best, you can use these grunts as additional Bazookas as infantry(especially heavy gunners) are useless.
*While auto-restore works, there is no way to auto-restore status conditions if you have an item that heals it, meaning that this item is useless, as are most aid items. You never, ever want to walk into a mission without 5 health items(you can reserve 1 spot for ammo/mana restoring items and 1-2 for bazooka rounds if applicable). It doesn't help that a lot of the later missions start out as an ambush that will end up with your units taking unavoidable damage, sometimes losing all their health before they get a single turn, so have fun if you don't have at least 3 healing items and auto-restore skill. This ruins a lot of build variety, it is simply not viable to, say, run a stimulant that increases turn rate and damage since this is a slot that could be used for an extra health bar and speed can simply be gained by lowering your weight(guns are useless, so just drop those).
*Speaking of auto-restore, for some baffling reason new recruits that join you mid-mission do not have the skill, meaning they will die if their health reaches zero. Some of these cannot die either so the mission fails if that happens, hope you keep your medic around in every mission as the unofficial fourth main party member that cannot die as there is no other unit that can resurrect other units!
*Game likes to give you faulty hints and straight up lies to you, for example by telling you to "take cover behind rocks"(enemies can still hit you as nothing short of a truck or a wall blocks shots) or "use grenades against tanks"(they are useless and are a pure anti-infantry weapon, you will need rockets or later on, spells to take down tanks at any point in the game).
*You cannot skip cutscenes, so have fun skipping dialogue in missions you have to restart if there is a long one before mission start.
*General low budget feeling, it could be a lot more than the current sum of it's parts.
>Is it worth it?(TLDR)
Yes, if you like JRPGs or turn based tactics games, this is a pretty decent one. The game is flawed and you will absolutely need some sort of a guide to get the most out of it, but once you figure out how the game wants you to play, it is an enjoyable experience. In fact, the game is probably better the second time around, when you know how the mechanics work and what builds to make and what to expect from various missions, as there is quite a bit of build variety and I can see myself trying out different kinds on replay. As a one-and-done, it is an alright experience provided you're not the kind to quit games easily. Operation Darkness didn't sell, in fact it sold a paltry 5000 copies in Japan and is the sixth rarest title in the West for the Xbox 360, and I can see why that is. Expect a flawed, oddball experience, but if you can find a copy for the 360 or a ROM for Xenia I do recommend it, if for no other reason than to be able to say you played it. Suffice it to say, there is a lot of missed potential and I hope someone takes a crack at a game like this in the future. I will try out Valkyrie Chronicles in the future, see if I like it as well.