I have to admit, this looks pretty deadly. I think Ill be checking it out for sure.
Heres the links for your viewing pleasure.
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I played the Demo yestaday, and I liked it quite a bit. I plays a lot like a classic strategy RPG, but the environmental elements are a big part of the play mechanics. The demo dropped my unit in a small town where I had to capture an operative, with the objective of killing all the enemies except for him. It actually takes a while, because they drop you at the beginning of town with your objective all the way on the other side. That said, it does give you time to not only get all of your team there, but in good positions. You can use houses, cars, benches, fountains, just about anything as cover from enemy fire, though keep in mind that these things keep you from getting clear shots at them as well. The battle system is pretty simple, giving you the usual list of commands to choose from with a few extra [like two of your members being able to change into werewolves, making them faster and stronger, though only so long as you have enough action points left to stay in that form. Everything you do lowers those points and when they are gone, you revert to human form again.]

Each person also has a MS move, that only they can do, though you have to do it before you move, as the option will be gone if you move first. Your weapons are WWII military weapons, though I think some of them are pumped up for the sake of a fun game. You can carry up to six weapons [at least in the demo] and up to six carry items [healing items, and ammo]. Your weapons can run out of ammo, but you can keep reserves handy. Another fun thing I found in the game is that you can loot the enemy dead soldiers. So if your running low, position your character next to a fallen enemy and choose [pick up] and you can take as much from the fallen soldiers as you can carry. And from what I played, they have far better weapons than you start off with, which you'll need by the end of the demo. Once you get your unit into position to start taking out the enemy, they'll call reinforcments....all the way back on the other side of the map. So I just took out all the initial soldiers except for the objective, left one guy on that side of the map and took every one else to the otherside to take out the reinforcements, looting fallen enemies along the way. Once you get across and engage them, they bring in the big guns with two tanks, of course all the way back on the other side of the map. So, I take out the reinforcements, stock up on looted weapons and health packs and start my way back to the other side to take out the tanks. Don't loot anything small because it won't hurt the tanke. Have it so that all your units have only the heavy duty stuff like grenades and rocket launchers. It's always good to spread them out because the tanks hit a wide area, as well as destroy houses and things you may hide behind.

All in all I had fun and can't wait to play the full game now. You also have skills you can equipt your characters before going to the level. They all get the same five, but they come in handy, allowing them to automatically reload ammo and use health items when low on either.

I wonder how this game compares to Valkyria Chronicles.

I think Valkria Chronicles is more action oriented since you actually aim your guns. Operation Darkness is more of a traditional tactical RPG. Both games should rock.

The only issue I saw in the demo was that the camera sometimes had issues, but it was still fun (damn tank took out one of the main characters so I lost). The story also looks like it's going to be pretty out there and should be quite entertaining (werewolves, zombies, skeletons, vampires and Hitler ftw).

I was doing good until I positioned my character too close to the tank and it just squashed my character when it turned and moved lol. I also wish there was a better way to test the range of your weapons, as you can't take back your characters movments once you move them like you can in other TRPG's.

well i actually just now saw this thread and saw the pre-order on ebay. This def. looks like a pretty good game, love most of the stuff that atlus does.

The outlook doesn't look too good for this game

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http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/...tion%20darkness

I thought the demo was kinda fun, but man those are some grim scores.

can u say ouch?

Well damn, I had some high hopes for this one. It's been a long time since I've played a Strat RPG i thought was good, and hoped this would be it. But it looks like reviewers are hating on it. =(

I still may pick it up, and give it a whirl though. I haven't trusted reviewers scores in a while (unless a game gets ridiculously high scores), so who knows. I may just wait for people here to pick it up, and give their impressions on it. I'm still seriously on the fence though, lol. It totally depends on how much money I get this paycheck.

Unfortunately Atlus are only publishing this game it's developed by Success.




Yeah, EGM are almost fashionably harsh and Games Radar have a habit of underscoring RPGs. I at least thought OXM would have scored it better with it being an exclusive though so that's a little worrying. I'll probably pick it up when it rapidly drops in price unless the scores are THAT bad then I'll avoid wasting any money on it. That will be third big personal disappointment on both consoles in close proximity for me, Haze, Prize Fighter and now this

ah i did not know..

Neither did I until yesterday

A better review of 3.5/5 from Hardcore gamer:

Review



I think that one line might have sold me on the game. I actually enjoyed the demo and think that the story will be so cheesy that it will be great. The graphics were last gen and the camera was buggy as hell (took some getting used to), but those are not the reasons I want to play the game. Still on the fence about this game, but I know I'll probably end up getting it sooner or later.

IGN Review below..major ouch



http://n4g.com/xbox360/News-160821.aspx

That review was brutal, although I didn't like how it was written it felt like the reviewer was trying too hard to be b!tchy and it doesn't really tell us anything about the game at all, it was just a couple of paragraphs long which says to me he/she didn't spend any time with it - although there's no escaping a 2.5/10 and the other bad scores.

This came out as a surprise, guess I should cross this game's name. I must say that most of the reviews were pretty sharp and unforgiving with scoring and it's hard to believe that all their bitching about the game is true.

I was sorta hooked on this game simply from the demo. Reviews are giving it a pounding though eh? I expected bad reviews for this game, but holy balls. The game is fundamentally flawed, but if you're a SRPG nut like me, it looks to be an enjoyable experience. A game doesn't always have to be revolutionary, or even great, to be enjoyable.