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Shadow Ops: Red Mercury Hands-On Impressions

We take the PC version of Zombie's cinematic first-person shooter for a spin. Check out our thoughts on the game, in addition to some details on improvements that are being made to it.

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Zombie's Bill Wright discusses the PC version of Shadow Ops. Double-click on the video window for a full-screen view.

Earlier this year, Zombie Studios released Shadow Ops: Red Mercury for the Xbox as a departure from the normally realistic military action games, such as Spec Ops, that the developer has become known for. While such games emphasize real-world tactics, Shadow Ops plays more like an action movie and encourages run-and-gun gameplay, even when you've got a dozen enemies firing at your position. The Xbox version has been out for a couple of months now, and we recently got to check out the upcoming PC version of the game to see how it's shaping up on a different platform. Additionally, we got to find out what kind of improvements Zombie is making to the game.

The single-player campaign in Shadow Ops: Red Mercury won't be undergoing any major changes in its transition from the Xbox to the PC. In fact, it really won't be changed at all. You'll still play Captain Frank Hayden through roughly 25 missions, where you'll attempt to both track down the mysterious nuclear substance red mercury and stop the bad guys from using it to reach their nefarious ends. The graphics have been given a minor upgrade, because the textures in the PC version are twice the resolution of those found on the Xbox. And since Shadow Ops uses the Unreal Tournament 2003 engine to begin with, the game should run very well on even a modestly equipped PC. We played through several missions with the standard WASD configuration and found the gameplay to be easy to pick up. In fact, it was probably easier to play Shadow Ops with a standard keyboard-and-mouse setup than with a controller.

The Xbox version of Shadow Ops contained a split-screen cooperative mode that used a number of original maps that were made specifically for that mode. Unfortunately, both the co-op mode and, consequently, those maps are missing from the PC version of the game. But Zombie is more than making up for this fact by seriously enhancing the game's online multiplayer offering, which is at the heart of any long-lived PC first-person shooter. The Xbox version of the game shipped with about 15 multiplayer maps, but the PC game will have twice as many, for a total of 30. These maps will take better advantage of superior PC hardware, too, because they're both more varied and more expansive than those found on the console. The same game types--deathmatch, capture the flag, and VIP escort--will be seen in the PC game, but the inclusion of these extra maps will hopefully breathe additional life into Shadow Ops' multiplayer mode when it ships this October.

A few other enhancements and changes were detailed for us as well. For one, the multiplayer mode will have a new damage model that focuses a bit more on location-based damage, which should make the multiplayer a little bit more tactical to play. This new model won't be present in the single-player game, however, so that campaign should play closer to the Xbox version. Though the original game is based on the UT2K3 engine (with plenty of modifications made by Zombie, of course), the PC version will be using the network and voice communication code from UT2K4, so online players can expect the same smooth play from the game.

Overall, it looks like Zombie is doing a good job of enhancing Shadow Ops to fit in with similar offerings on the PC. The addition of the new multiplayer maps will make it more appealing to gamers who like playing online--which, in the PC world, is just about all of them--and the simple addition of mouse-and-keyboard controls will likely make the single-player game all the more playable as well. Shadow Ops: Red Mercury is slated to hit the PC in October, so look for more on it soon.

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