Renegade Ops Review

I've left a wake of devastation in my path, caused more explosions than there have been in the history of mankind, and driven over cliffs at ludicrous speeds. But between all the mindless, wanton destruction, twin-stick shooter Renegade Ops is reminding my brain of something it can't quite put its synaptic finger on. Exotic setting. Isometric viewpoint.

Renegade Ops Review. Written by Ben Griffin. Renegade Ops is therefore a little deeper than your average dual-stick shoot-em-up, but Avalanche Studio has focused on what makes the genre so grin. Oct 05, 2011  Renegade Ops Review Robert Zwetsloot / October 5, 2011 Avalanche Studios’ has taken a break from making ridiculous third-person action games to bring everyone a.

Crazy amounts of explosions. Stupid, stupid plot. It's coming to me slowly.

Something about 1993. “I know,” screams my brain. “This is just like Jungle Strike, but with cars instead of helicopters!”Within seconds of that thought, Renegade Ops thrillingly chucks me an armed-to-the-teeth chopper, and for a few minutes it's not just like Jungle Strike, it is Jungle Strike, and I fly off to obliterate a humongous warship. For those of you who are too young to remember the '90s (lucky buggers), Jungle Strike gave you a ludicrous chopper to deal death to hundreds of thick terrorists in a florally unkempt setting.Developer Avalanche Studios has already proved itself in the field of sandbox mayhem with its absurdly wonderful Just Cause series. Renegade Ops is built on the same engine, and even though the topdown view doesn't let you see the skies, you can be guaranteed that they're the same technicolor azure hue as Just Cause 2's.This isn't a Just Cause 2 spin-off in the same way as last year's Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, though. Some assets, like the water and trees, seem to have been nabbed wholesale from Just Cause 2, and it maintains a familiar air of general ludicrousness as you plough through buildings and blow up explosive barrel after explosive barrel. But despite the obvious similarities, it's very much its own game.Rather than just driving or shooting, you're doing both.

Mouse and keyboard give an obvious advantage to the shooting, but a disadvantage in the driving. I found the best way to play was to switch between good old mouse and keys when accuracy is required, and then to go back to an Xbox controller for the drivey bits.There's a limit to the format, though. After a while, spinning your beefy truck through the wilderness and executing anything that casts a shadow becomes a tad tiresome, in a way that it didn't in my 86 hours of doing exactly the same thing in Just Cause 2. Thank goodness for the co-op mode, then. It's here that just a little bit of RTS love has been thrown in. Each of the four characters (well, five, but wait a second. ) has a special ability, such as the ability to turn into a static cannon or unleash an EMP charge.That fifth playable character is, um, Gordon Freeman.

He's got an 'Antlion' special ability that can deal an inappropriate amount of damage to steel-based vehicles, but he just doesn't fit in. You can imagine him inside his knackered Half-Life 2 car. “Seriously, has that teleportation thing gone wrong again? Pangya golf.

Whatevs, Gabe.” At least he doesn't utter a word or show his face.Despite the tackiness and slightness of the game, it's still worth £9.99. It's an open world like Just Cause 2's – albeit from a dinkier perspective and with much less interaction. But it seems to have a different target audience in mind: during Renegade Ops' opening cutscene, the evil tyrant Inferno threatens the cities “where your children go to school”. The kids of 1993 are old enough to care about the fate of their sprogs now, and have fewer spare hours for lengthy timesinks. Fortunately, Renegade Ops' short-term sessions are still a complete blast.

Renegade Ops is a sexy new twin stick shooter from Avalanche Studios. This game features stunning visuals, four different upgradeable vehicles, four player online co-op, and two player couch co-op. You’ll play as one of the four Renegades, an elite team of do-gooders dedicated to thwarting evil and blowing stuff up in spectacular fashion.

Avalanche Studios are the same guys who made Just Cause 2, which itself is a very sharp looking retail game. Renegade Ops features truly impressive graphics for a downloadable title. The environments are bright and colorful, and the weapon effects and explosions are superb. The levels themselves give the illusion of being very large, but timed objectives hinder your chances to truly explore most areas.

The game wastes none of its graphical prowess on the story. This is not a bad thing. The plot plays out through a series of voice-overs and comic stills. The voice of the main hero is jarringly out of place, but it adds to the campy vibe of the game. I was expecting the main villain, Inferno, to bust out a “Co-Bra!” Alas, it never happened. Inferno is threatening to destroy mankind because he didn’t get sharks with frick’n laser beams attached to their heads, or something like that. Shoot stuff before it shoots you. Got it? Good.

She looks battle-hardened to me.

At the beginning of each level you can choose between one of four characters. Each one has their own specific vehicle with its own available upgrades. I usually choose the most tank-like vehicle, but I recently decided to alter my criteria, so I chose the girl who was showing the most skin. Roxy drives an armored dune buggy and has a bad-ass Air Strike special ability. That’ll work.

I soon realized the only real difference in the vehicles was their special attacks. Of the other three vehicles, Armand has a very Batmobile-esque shield, Diz has an EMP, and Gunnar has a - wait for it, Heavy Gun. Each vehicle has three upgrade towers. The first two towers focus on defense and offense, and are pretty much the same across all four vehicles. Defense adds armor or extra lives, while the offense tower does things like increase secondary weapon ammo or damage. The third tower is the tactical tower, and it applies to your special abilities. Choose your vehicle based on whichever special power compliments your play style. I like to fire and forget, and I like bare midriffs, so Roxie was a natural choice.

The online co-op portion of the game is pretty standard. Four players can connect via magic tubes and take on any one of the nine missions. You aren’t tethered to each other, so you can divide and conquer when secondary objectives occur in the heat of battle. Each player levels up by scoring points (killing bad guys). Every time you level up you’ll earn an upgrade point to spend on the particular vehicle you are currently using. If you run out of lives (yeah, it’s one of those games) before completing the level your game is over, but you get to keep all of your upgrade points. You can apply those to your vehicle and try again. Certain skills stack, so choose wisely!