Operation Gamma 41 Review
Operation Gamma 41 ReviewFree to play MMORTS Publisher: Just A Game |
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Operation Gamma 41 is an MMORTS set in an alternative World War II. All your leaders are killed and you’re left with the responsibility of restoring order to your failing ranks. To do this, you’re going to need to rebuild your city, retrain the troops and battle for supremacy. If this sounds at all interesting, and I admit that it does, you’ve probably never played an MMORTS and you don’t know that the clever translation of all of the above usually means “you’re going to be sitting and waiting for hours while hardly anything happens.” I went into Operation Gamma 41 expecting exactly the same game I’d played countless times before in Godfather: Five Families, 8Realms, Uprising Empires and every other MMORTS I’ve played over the past few months. Did Operation Gamma 41 manage to impress, or does it fall flat on its face like so many other examples of the genre?
Teaser Tutorial
Have you ever gone into a situation expecting one thing and then instantly seeing another? I had an experience close to that situation during the opening minutes of Operation Gamma 41. Apparently someone on the development team didn’t think this was annoying enough to warrant changing, but I absolutely promise that it is.
Some of the first words spoken to you when you start the game itself (after several nicely drawn, if long-winded “cut scenes”) ask you if you’d like to take the short tutorial to help you learn about the different features of the game. I can’t tell you how nice it is to find an MMORTS with a short tutorial and, at first; it looked like the promise was going to be seen through. Buildings were described, the buttons on-screen were explained and within minutes I’d been told to progress through the game as I saw fit.
Hand-holding
But then the quests begin and you realize that the idea of being able to enjoy the game sans-developer interference seems unlikely. The quick tutorial ends and within seconds you’re wishing it would return. The opening quests undo everything the tutorial did so well: “you’re an adult,” the tutorial would say if it could, “and we’re going to presume you have some level of intelligence and we’re going to try and get you into enjoying the game as quickly as possible.” And then the tutorial supposedly ends and you’re met with a large arrow over everything, clearly pointing out which buttons you should press to do things like accept quests or collect rewards. You go from feeling you’re playing a game from developers who expect you to be able to make decisions of your own to feeling like you might break something if you press the wrong button.
Breaking the System
Annoyed with large arrows, I took a twenty minute break from the game (it’s E3 week and I haven’t slept in days, no doubt more on that in next week’s article) and was logged out. A lot of games have this auto-sign out feature, I imagine so that valuable places on their server aren’t full of people who just don’t turn off their game. It’s not an unusual thing. Less typical is that the game wouldn’t let me back in. I’d get a string of error code, a loading screen and then nothing but black. More than once during my time playing Operation Gamma 41 was interrupted with an error message or a pop-up telling me there was some problem connecting to the server. They’re minor problems, but frequent and can really bother you when playing – especially since, as with any game in the MMORTS genre, you’ll spend an awful lot of time sitting around and waiting for production to finish on a building or on a certain action.
When I returned the large arrow had gone and I was left to continue on my own. I’m not complaining but it’s inconsistent, if they’re so worried that people can’t cope without the arrow, it should be left on for a period of time. I can only imagine the fear of somebody who relied on the arrow, returning to their game and being left, scared and alone. That’s what I think the developers thought when they implemented the bloody thing and taking it away randomly seems like an odd move.
Your Own Personal War
When the game works, you’ll sometimes wish it didn’t. It’s not that it’s a bad game, it’s not, but it’s very methodical. “Recruit 25 riflemen and arm them,” one quest demands, and you’ll find there are exactly 25 riflemen to hire. Another quest has you recruiting so many civilians to work in your factories and if you don’t use precisely the right amount at each production house, you won’t have enough people to fulfil to requirements of the quest and you’ll be unable to progress. This is obviously in the early hours of the game and I can’t speak for the level of choice that comes to more experienced players, but setting a foot wrong at the beginning is impossible and, if you find a way to do it, probably costly.
Storming the Battlefield
Your first view of battle looks like something out of Advance Wars, allowing you to strategically do battle with the enemy. To a certain extent this remains true. Think of Romance of the Three Kingdoms or the aforementioned Advance Wars but without the massive skills which can turn the tide of battle to you advantage. Instead, things are completely down to the numbers as far as I can see and winning (or losing) is entirely dependent on how many troops you’re willing to risk sending into battle. Still, there’s one major thing going for it. Most MMORTS games will offer you a timer and a pop-up message explaining how the battle went. Operation Gamma feels a little more hands-on and it definitely works to its advantage.
Conclusion
Operation Gamma 41 review
Operation Gamma 41 isn’t the sort of game a core MMO gamer will enjoy playing. It has a great deal of waiting, the writing isn’t always especially well done (and god forbid you get an error message or do something the game doesn’t like, working it out will cost more time and energy than this game deserves) and you’ll probably struggle to find an ounce of excitement in the opening hours. And yet, despite my better judgements, I like that the developers have tried to fix things somewhat. You don’t have a blank slate when you join the game, but a pre-built city that you need to populate, waiting for things to happen is still there, yes, but in less of a role than in other MMORTS and the battle system is clunky but a nice addition.
It’s an above average game, but I think that says more about the average in this genre than about Gamma 41.
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