Hardcore Gaming 101: Operation Darkness

Debunking the criticism

Considering the volume of criticism raised against Operation Darkness, the only logical option is to address as many points as possible, hopefully leaving you, the reader, with enough information to judge if it's worth the $20 usually asked for on the second-hand market. There's also a demo on the US XBL, so you can see for yourself.

The universally raised criticism is the awful camera. It's over-sensitive, refuses to pass through physical obstructions, and is generally unwieldy. There's no denying it, the camera is not good. But considering that this is basically a glorified version of Chess or Go, is that really a game breaker? Surely a turn-based strategy RPG, where you have unlimited time to perform an action, is the most deserving of forgiveness when it comes to camera problems? At the very least it can't be a deal breaker, because precise camera control isn't essential to success and with a little use you can get the hang of it. Besides which, the game makes things easy by giving you a mini-map/radar, displaying all characters and key obstructions, in addition to letting you cycle through enemies with LT/RT and your own characters with LB/RB. There's little need even to navigate the map since it's much quicker after choosing an attack, to cycle through the enemies in a few seconds and note the HIT% you have for each. Accusations of the game being unplayable due to the camera are storms in a teacup, because seriously, it's Chess with trigger shortcuts.

Another criticism, and one that's entirely unfounded, is the supposed difficulty. Overall it's an extremely easy strategy game if you're tactically inclined. Some places online and even the official guide have made a big commotion about how there is only a finite supply of items to buy from the in-game depot, which is only sometimes restocked during story missions. The implication being that every bullet missed is one you'll need come the end game, and that it's possible to end up in an unwinnable situation. This is nonsense - you can waste a tremendous amount. By the end of my 61 hour campaign, directly prior to the final mission, I tallied up the numbers for the remaining "reload" items in the depot, which come in x1 up to x10 varieties (which allow 10 reloads before running out). In total there were enough reload items to be able to reload a gun 9'484 times which, considering that guns allow between 5 and 8 shots, means you could fire at the enemy at least 50'000 times. There was a similarly high number of restoratives, with only the over-powered Black Crystals (full HP and MS recovery) being limited to 40 units total. It's common sense: only buy and equip what you need, being extremely generous but not silly with it.

Related to this are criticisms about the items themselves, and how many you can carry. Some weapons can't be bought from the depot unless you've played the online multiplayer mode - which is actually pointless, since all of them can be found in abundance by looting dead bodies. So don't worry about it, everything can be acquired playing offline. The looting of enemy bodies is actually an intrinsic part of the game, since not only can you find extra scraps of ammo or meds, but some nice equipment too. So it's sad to find that some reviewers bitched about being limited to carrying only 5 weapons and 5 support items, ignoring the fact that carrying too much weighs you down. A major component of strategy games is managing resources, and 5 items per character is ample. Some of the most exciting moments in Operation Darkness are when you run out of rockets or medkits, and scramble to a fallen enemy to make use of their own gear. The game is actually very generous with loot drops, and it encourages you to enter battle with the minimum and then wage a guerrilla war, stealing as you go, because if you wade in with a full pack you're going to lose turns. Personally, I clocked over 30 missions using around a hundred Stielhandgranate, all of which were looted. There's a fantastic trio of missions right before the final mission, where you can't resupply between them, meaning all you've got is what you carry in and everything else is OSP (On Site Procurement). Timid players might be frightened at reading this, but rest assured that if you've been playing intelligently up to this point you should be ready to handle it, and besides which, you're still able to save between missions, so it's thrilling yet painless.

A further criticism, related to equipment, is that like Valkyria Chronicles you don't know what you're up against until you're in the field, which can make preparation a matter of guesswork, or restarting a mission. There is merit in this argument, but it's also something that happens with many other, highly praised strategy titles. Almost every story mission in Valkyria Chronicles featured something unpredictable. In fact something championed in many games is the element of surprise, when you're required to adapt to a changing situation. Besides, werewolves with rockets, rifles for the snipers and a few weaponless magicians is usually a good bet regardless. Furthermore the argument is ultimately redundant, because even if it bluntly described what you'd initially encounter, almost all missions in Operation Darkness feature waves of reinforcements after a set number of enemies are dispatched. Some of the most exhilarating moments are when you encounter a third wave of skeletons or tanks with no ammo in your guns and no meds in your backpack, forcing you into a climactic rush to loot a few spare Panzerfaust rockets and Morphine before the enemy's turn comes round. As mentioned earlier the loot drops, though random, are rather generous, so scavenging among the dead has an empowering feel to it. Inevitably though there are those who dislike unpredictability in their games, in which case they should just use a guide. With knowledge of where enemies will appear it's possible to set-up Ambush and Attack before they even arrive, making the game obscenely easy and slightly pointless.

Another heavily-documented criticism, raised by quite a few reviewers and worried forumites, is permanent character death. In a strategy RPGs perma-death is always a good thing, since it adds tension, encourages careful planning, and makes victory all the sweeter. The sad thing is that for all the criticism, perma-death in Operation Darkness is laughably easy to avoid, so why did so many mark it down due to difficulty? Every character can be equipped with skills which can be levelled up, such as Detect Weakness which increases the damage% of gun attacks; or Guard, which allows you to reduce damage by half; or a variety of MS based skills which increase total MS, increase MS strength in addition to cost, or another which reduces overall cost. The #1 essential skill is Auto Recovery, which fundamentally changes how Operation Darkness is played, and in itself is a revolutionary idea for the genre. If a character is attacked and their HP drops below 20% they automatically use a restorative, starting with the weakest. Basically this gives you additional health bars, up to 5 if you so choose, and allows you to take massive damage repeatedly, even a tank round in the face, without dying. The game is designed around exploiting this.

However, in the event that you send a weak character into enemy territory while short on restoratives and they get killed, you can revive them using Herbert. His range is pretty good so you don't have to get too close, and it's quite cheap so you can do it a few times before needing an MS restorative. It's also much more lenient than Valkyria Chronicles, where if a character goes down they will permanently die if an enemy touches their fallen body, or three turns pass. In Operation Darkness you have until the end of a mission to deal with it, regardless of how long it takes or how many enemies run over your comrade. Even then, people have complained online: what if Herbert dies? Well, if you're dumb enough to send your only reanimator into the enemy's clutches, without sufficient restoratives, then he might get killed and you will be screwed - but if that's the case then perhaps strategy games aren't for you, and why would you even play so badly in the first place? Just keep Herbert safe. Some have suggested there should be items to revive fallen comrades, but this would neuter what is actually an exciting system. Herbert is the guy you always give the best items to and you protect, because he's the only one who can sort things out when it goes awry. Good strategy games feature perma-death.

Having said that, there is one legitimate criticism regarding character deaths, and that's the fact Gallant, Cordelia and Edward are all essential story characters who aren't allowed to die, not even a little bit. If they fall it's instant Game Over. They're unlikely to die as a result of getting attacked, as long as you equip enough medkits, but any character touched by a vehicle dies instantly. This can make levels with tanks a bit tricky. It makes sense if you complete the mission and a story character is dead - then you should be forced to restart. But it's a bit unfair to have Gallant run over by a tank and not be given the chance to let Herbert revive him, especially if his turn is up next. One solution would have been to put the game into "danger mode", where a klaxon sounds and you're instructed to revive them before the mission ends. As it stands, be sure to keep these three away from vehicles. Everyone else can die and be resurrected by Herbert without worry, though.

Relating to the difficulty (or lack thereof) is the fact you can't save mid-mission, unlike with Valkyria Chronicles. A lot have complained about this, but it's actually a good thing. The problem with Sega's classic is that everyone abused the save function, reloading if they made the tiniest or errors. Many guides and FAQs revolved around this exploit, suggesting you save before every more and reload if it doesn't go according to plan. This is not strategy, this is trial and error. Well done to developer Success for having the courage to limit saving only to the map screen. Admittedly with battles lasting around 45 minutes each, and some towards the end topping the one hour mark, it would be nice to have a sleep function - perhaps a temporary save that deletes itself after you load it, similar to how Shenmue did it. If you live a lifestyle where you can't guarantee at least one full hour of game time per session, then this probably isn't the game for you.

A lot has also been said about the graphics and animation. One reviewer claimed the graphics are two generations behind. That would be the PS1 era - and anyone who thinks these screens look like a PS1 game is an idiot, or possibly on the wildest hallucinogenic drugs known to man. If you look at the screens around this page and feel that they are so ugly they make it impossible to play, then don't play it. Simple as that. Everything has its own distinct, stylised look. It's not water-colours like Valkyria Chronicles, and it's not anime like Disgaea, but it's got an unusual flavour. It's the same with the camera problems: this is a turn-based strategy game, and there's little need for dynamic lighting, detailed textures, or delicately crafted polygon models. They're functional with a distinct look, and that's fine. The colours can be a little drab at times, and an injection of intensity could have made it look better, but the visuals are not a game breaker. Personal pronouns are frowned upon, but I like the art style and graphics - it's original and different.

Legitimate problems

Having said all of the above, there are some genuine criticisms to raise against Operation Darkness. One is the Valhalla Reports, which considering seemingly no reviewer even mentioned, proves that none of them played up to the halfway mark. From Mission 13 onwards a random member of a specific enemy type on each map carries 1 of 12 Valhalla Reports; the enemy type is always the same, but which specific enemy is randomised, and there is no hint who carries it. If you collect all 12 reports by looting the appointed soldier, you unlock 20 bonus missions called The Eagle's Nest, accessible after completing Mission 26. Devoid of scenery or story, they're all about pure tactics and are a great place to level up. These stages comprise roughly 1/3 of the game's overall content: in addition to 27 Story Missions and 15 Armed Recon missions, which are basically there to earn EXP and some bonus skills. So the Eagle's Nest is pretty substantial in terms of quantity, and yet it can easily be missed. And you can't replay story missions, so if you miss one page that's it.

The problem with this scenario is that between Missions 13 and 24 you're always scrambling from one corpse to another hoping to stumble on it. Most of the time you end up wiping out all enemies but one, and then have to run around Benny Hill style while the sole survivor gives chase. You also have to make sure to cancel all Ambush and Attackers, because otherwise when he moves he could get killed and end the mission before finding it. The whole concept sucks, since it cripples the strategy by forcing you to divert your attention. It would have been better if they'd given you a clue as to who carried it, or made the Eagle's Nest unlockable via some other means. For those struggling, THESE are the enemy types in each level carrying it. For secret characters like Max it's no so bad, since if you miss him it's just a small percentage of gameplay, but 20 missions is a bit excessive to lose out on.

Another problem, which Valkyria Chronicles rather elegantly solved, is balanced levelling for characters. Sega opted to grant universal EXP after mission completion which could be spent on character classes at the training camp - meaning, for example, every sniper could be levelled up as a whole. With Operation Darkness you have to level each of the 11 main characters individually by using them. This is a terrible system for casual strategy players who rely on strong characters, since it leaves weaker ones like Herbert under-levelled and unused. There is a concession though, in that simply attacking with a character will grant EXP, regardless of if they kill the enemy. It's quite possible to have a low-level character with a bazooka do only a fraction of damage to a tank, but shoot up three levels in doing so. The advice here is be smart when managing characters: if a strong and a weaker character both have a turn coming up, have the strong guy loot bodies or something, while the weaker one pulls off the kill shot and the big EXP. If you can't manage that, just grind your weaker guys in the Armed Recon missions. Oh, and don't bother with the generic recruits, except for a single female to act as Ambush spotter and looter, since if the generics do any heavy lifting you're just wasting the EXP.

Further niggles include the music, which is generic, tuneless and utterly forgettable. Then there's the fact there's an Achievement which encourages you to rush through in 35 hours, when really you're looking at around 60 hours for an enjoyable play through. Please ignore this and just enjoy the game at your own pace - rushing for a fictional medal will only ruin the experience. Finally, there's no post-game content, unlike Valkyria Chronicles, though you can still mess around in the Armed Recon and Eagle's Nest missions.

Conclusion

Operation Darkness is by no means perfect, but it's definitely a very good strategy game, maybe even skirting the boundaries of excellence, though let down by some odd and annoying design choices. It deserved to do better than it did, and languishing in obscurity with 21 negative reviews, many filled with inaccuracies and telling signs of a rushed deadline, is not fair on the creative visions of those responsible for it. We'll never see a sequel, which is a pity, because by God if they corrected some of the flaws and jazzed up one or two areas we would have a genuine GOTY contender. If you can deal with the flaws, then give it a shot. It's about $20 on eBay, or can be downloaded on the Games-on-Demand service for $20, weighing in at 4.3GB. At least, if you own an American 360, since the game is region locked.

It never received a PAL release, so Europeans are out of luck unless they import an NTSC-U system. Given the scorn poured on it by the press, it's little surprise no one wanted to release it in Europe. The Japanese release meanwhile, for those with Japanese 360s, apparently has English subtitles for the Japanese dialogue, if your system's internal language is set to English (according to feedback comments on Play-Asia). Keep in mind this text was not translated by Atlus, so will differ from the US release.

Detailed interview with the developer: Success

In conjunction with Atlus an official guide was released. It contains detailed maps, information tables, tips and walkthroughs. Not all the strategy recommendations are useful, since there are some far more lethal plans of attack than the ones described, but for those worried about the dificulty it's a nice hand holder. The best thing about it though is an examination of literary influences at the back, and an interview with the developer, Success, and localiser, Atlus. We're reposting the text here, for your enjoyment. All credit for this goes to DoubleJump Books. The questions were asked by readers on the DoubleJump forums, and the HardcoreGamer forums (the magazine, which is unrelated to our own site). The answers are below. They make for sad reading, since clearly Ogura-san and his team invested a lot of sincere energy in the project, and for whatever reason, despite crafting an enjoyable game of merit, it was universally panned by critics who just didn't get it.

What's especially interesting about the interview are the detailed descriptions of plans for two follow up games (which will now never be made), and the large amount of content which had to be cut from Operation Darkness prior to completion.

Q: Shinogu - How the heck did the premise for this game come to fruition? It must have been nigh impossible to pitch even the concept to the bosses!

Answer: (Ken Ogura, Producer of Operation Darkness, SUCCESS Corporation)
I was the Lead Designer and Project Lead on the game, so the concept came from my idea. Since I'm a big fan of 19th and 20th century adventure, war, and horror novels, I incorporated elements from various books and movies as motifs into the game concept.

The first draft of the game development plan was completed around April of 2003. At the time, we were originally planning the platform to be PlayStation2, and the premise wasn't as wild as it is now. We did have the release of a US version in our sights, but the original idea was more of a serious drama with an ensemble cast, say for example, a mix of HBO's "Band of Brothers" mini-series and a touch of gothica from F. Paul Wilson's horror novel The Keep.

From there we went through a couple of twists and turns to get a GO for the project, and our development team was organized in March 2004. Compared to other companies, SUCCESS has relatively more flexibility when it comes to approving projects, and there is a tendency for more unique projects in getting the final GO. I think that's why the game came to be, and it's also possible that it wouldn't have been approved by a larger game company.

Q: TOON SNAKE - Given that this game's genre is mostly popular in Japan, why was the game made for the Xbox 360, which is by far the least popular console in that country?

Answer: (Ken Ogura)
As mentioned in the previous question, back in 2003 the game was planned to be for the PlayStation2. However, right around that time, Microsoft presented us with details on their new Xbox 360 system, and that changed the whole story. Around the same time, there were rumors about Sony and Nintendo (PS3 and Wii) planning their next-gen consoles, so taking that into account, we predicted that by the time we would be finished with the development of this game, all three major consoles would be out on the market. Especially in Japan, there's a precedence of next-gen consoles being rapidly accepted and creating a whole new market. We thought that putting the game on the PlayStation2 would be somewhat harder to market, so we shifted our strategy and aimed for a next-gen console. So now it came down to choosing which of the three next-gen platforms to go with.

I. At the time, only Microsoft's Xbox 360 had development environments and specs ready.
II. Microsoft had failed with the original Xbox, but we assumed they would do better with the new platform.
III. Xbox 360 has strong networking features, full support, and a good development environment.
IV. It is a U.S.-made hardware, and by having strong brands such as the Halo series, we believed it would be a successful hardware in the North American market.

For the reasons above, we chose to go with the Xbox 360. When you take the North American market into account, number IV becomes a major factor. The previous Xbox console did not get good reception in Japan, but with a very attractive game lineup coming to the Xbox 360, I was speculating that the Xbox 360 would sell about one million units during the time span of the December 2005 launch through the second quarter of 2007. That forecast was based on previous hardware lifetime sales data from various Japanese consoles, but the outcome fell far shorter than expectations. I would've never imagined that it be so low in Japan. [bitter laugh]

Q: Noccy - Given that Adolf Hitler himself rarely makes an appearance in games set during WWII, what made you decide to include him as a character in your game?

Answer: (Ken Ogura)
There are a number of games based on WWII, and I believe this is because the Nazis were a clear villain and therefore easier to incorporate as a game idea. However, although most of these games use the Nazis as the villain, their leader often does not make an appearance. If this were a novel or a movie, Hitler would've naturally made a showing. I've always had a question as to the way games treated Hitler almost as a taboo. He is a prominent war criminal of the 20th century, but to make it a taboo or act as if he never existed seems unnecessary. What we did was not in any way to idealize him, but to introduce the historical fact that Hitler was one of the leaders that drew the world into war. In the process, we judged that mixing some level of fiction with history would not be a problem.

This is sort of off topic, but Jack Higgins' novel The Eagle Has Landed was a story about German airborne troops infiltrating mainland England during the time of war to assassinate Churchill. Also in Frederick Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal, there is an assassin who tries to kill Charles de Gaulle (the French President). There is a thrill factor in these sorts of fiction novels that introduce the suspense of using real historical people. One of the aims for using Hitler was to incorporate this suspense into the game.

In my original idea, Operation Darkness was set to be a trilogy, using WWII as the starting point. The first game was to be WWII, the second game the proxy war between East and West during the 1960s to 1970s Cold War era, and the third game to be the modern day war against terrorism. The gist is that after the introduction of a clear and dominant evil, and to continue on to show the absence of the clear villain and the chaos that flows after it, it was necessary to place Hitler in Operation Darkness as a symbol of the true evil.

Q:KulturTerror - Does the game feature Hitler's obsession with the occult, such as the Aryans and the Lost Land or the Spear of Longinus, or are the Nazis just a template for a zany fantasy game?

Answer: (Ken Ogura)
When we decided to use the WWII setting and use the Nazis and Hitler as the main evil of the game, we incorporated Hitler's obsession with occultism into the story. Some arguments state that Hitler had some connections with the Thule Society and had been searching for the Spear of Longinus. These facts probably gave inspiration to writers of future generations as a topic of interest. For instance, the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" show clear influences of this.

In actual history, Hitler's obsession with occultism had no major influence on the outcome of the war, but in Operation Darkness, we included the concept of "What if Hitler's occultism really came to fruition?" There are several movies and novels writing about the "what if" factors of WWII (such as "What if Germany won?" and "What if Germany's secret weapon were completed?"), but in Operation Darkness, we tried to balance the historical basis and the occult elements.

Q: Riverking - What do you think is the hardest part of making a next-gen game, for smaller developers?

Answer: (Ken Ogura)
The main concern is the inflation of development costs. Especially with next-gen consoles, the number of people involved with the project increases, and it takes longer to develop. So the overall development cost becomes the biggest problem. We assume that compared to the average cost of other companies' next-gen titles, Operation Darkness's development cost is about a little under half, but funding that amount was substantially harder for us as a medium-sized company. To handle this problem, developers must create a new business model to somehow streamline development and reduce excess costs. Otherwise, smaller developers will eventually be driven out of competition.

Q: snowstorm52 - What was the reason behind creating the story, characters, and world that this game takes place in?

Answer: (Ken Ogura)
I've already addressed a lot of this in earlier questions, but there's more to the story. Back in 2003 when we first started, about 80% of the plot was already created, with the basic setting based in WWII, starting from the Western Front and ending in Berlin, right before the end of the war. Then, we researched various resources on the history of the war and battle logs, and then we weaved together real events with fiction.

John Campbell, a renowned science-fiction writer, has called this method of intertwining fiction and non-fiction as "extrapolation." In doing so, I had a very hard time trying to incorporate scenes and situations without conflicting with history. And in this process, I (a) created the main character and his antagonist, (b) show their inner struggles, (c) introduced a narrator-type character, the leader of the Wolf Pack, (d) created additional friendlies, (e) wrote plot turning points, and (f) addressed issues of death and sacrifice. I believe this is closer to how Hollywood script writers construct their plots.

Q: snowstorm52 - What are some of the things that didn't quite make the cut to be in the game, whether it be due to time or budget constraints? Was there anything you particularly are upset about that didn't get included?

Answer: (Ken Ogura)
Due to cost and development time, about twenty stages, characters, and weapons had to be cut. Also, in our original plan, the main story campaign was to incorporate Co-op, which would then seamlessly span across single player and Co-op missions and then merge into a wide frontline offensive that would run concurrently. The idea was great, but again, it had to be cut due to cost, time, and technical difficulties.

Our biggest regret is that we couldn't fully incorporate the wide use of shaders and lighting effects that the Xbox 360 was capable of (they call the Xbox 360 the "Shader Monster"). Cost, time, and technical difficulties are the direct reasons for this, but it was also my error in judgement. If I have a chance at creating a sequel, I would definitely like to address this.

Q: lobitoh - Since the game is based on strategy, I figured it out that most weapons are from world wars. Are there any bonus weapons that are maybe futuristic?

Answer: (Sammy Matsushima, Project Lead, Atlus U.S.A.)
To fit within the setting of WWII, most of the weaponry in the game are actual weapons used during that time period. However, although not futuristic, there are special weapons, items, and abilities that are based on legend and classic fantasy.

Q: LastEpoch - When translating the game from Japanese to English, were there any sort of cultural sensitivities you had to observe, or vice versa, or were you more free to say things in English that would not be allowed in Japan?

Answer: (Jason Ruper, Editor, Atlus U.S.A.)
I remember watching "Band of Brothers" with my girlfriend for reference before working on the project. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of watching the concentration camp episode, and I should mention that my girlfriend was Jewish, with relatives who had been held in those camps. She didn't handle the visuals very well, to say the least.

In the game, the developers were sensitive enough to take these sentiments into account. Although the Holocaust is a significant and important piece of history, it was not specifically necessary to our heroes' storylines or the development of their characters. Therefore, it is not explicitly referenced in the game, and we on the localization team decided their judgement was very sound. We took it one step further and removed all references to "concentration camps" altogether, just to be safe.

We agree that, artistically, making people feel uncomfortable can have its merits, especially when trying to make a bold statement. However, we're happy to report that in both the Japanese and the American versions, all parties are in agreement that the Holocaust is just not appropriate subject matter for this particular game.

Other than that, there were no boundaries. There are incidents of torture, depictions of blood, and of course the requisite anti-German and anti-English slang words!

Q: LastEpoch - What kind of media (i.e. books, movies, other games, etc.) had the most influence on the story of Operation Darkness?

Answer: (Ken Ogura)
I received inspiration from various movies and books. The influence from war films such as "Band of Brothers," Saving Private Ryan, and Black Hawk Down, as well as a number of horror novels are particularly prominent.

During development, we took a look at various other war games such as Call of Duty, Gears of War, and GRAW Advance War Fighters as reference.

Q: LastEpoch - What inspired the team to make a strategy game about werewolves in World War II?

Answer: (Ken Ogura)
As stated above, since the game was planned to be a trilogy, we needed a storyteller that could span across all three eras. To do this, we introduced werewolves which have long lives, almost to the point of being immortal. This idea is heavily influenced from Robert R. McCammon's book The Wolf Hour.

Also, in order to battle head on with the Nazis' occult forces, the vampires and other undead, and the tanks and armored vehicles, we needed a strong character with superhuman powers. Werewolves became the ideal motif. However, even though the werewolves and vampires in this game have super-human powers, they are depicted as not being fully able to withstand the power of modern weaponry. This is an important aspect to keep in mind.