Okay, I’ll admit it up front: I’m a sucker for shooters. Give me lots of ammo and bring on the bad guys and I’m one happy fella. The idea of being given permission to go postal and blast anything from terrorists to aliens without having to clean up the residual mess or pay for any damages is a delight. I guess it’s kind of like the old western movies that always featured a bar fight at Miss Kitty’s. Without the night’s stay in the hoosegow. You’ll notice in those movies that a lot of time was given to the choreographed fight scenes, then we cut directly to letting the guys out in the morning. None of them had to go to Doc’s either. And the bad guys in those fights that got killed? They fell and stayed dead. (Of course, the games where the dead bad guys get up and come after you again are interesting, too!)
Covert Ops: Nuclear Dawn is one of the best kinds of shooters. It has heart, action, and a (mostly) believable and intricate plot. There are even different story endings (that don’t involve you getting blown up or shot down by a variety of foes)— all available at no extra cost! A lot of thought went into the game play design as well as the story. Let’s face it, if you play a shooter that’s just a line–’em–up and knock–’em–down game, you’re not going to get very involved. That isn’t the case with Nuclear Dawn. You’re a top–notch adventure hero pitted against a vicious enemy with the odds stacked impossibly against you.
In the game, you play Second Lieutenant Jack Morton of the United States Air Force. Stationed at Freudenstadt, Germany, where you’ve been assigned to protect the French Ambassador, Pierre Simon, aboard the Blue Harvest (the code name for the train racing from Russia to France). The train is high–tech and sports plenty of security equipment, some of which later gets in your way. While you’re in the helicopter providing air cover for the train, a terrorist group called the Knights of the Apocalypse attacks.
That assault by the Knights of the Apocalypse is merciless and carefully planned, executed without hesitation. In seconds, your security team is wiped out and the train falls into terrorist hands. However, you manage to leap from your helicopter, a heartbeat before it gets blown to cinders, and latch onto the speeding train. (Yep, now this is a nice, heart–stopping graphic, but I’m thinking, in the real world a guy’s arms would probably be yanked from their sockets. But it takes place so quickly and so dramatically it just doesn’t matter — you’re willing to believe because that guy is you!) Inside the train, Boris Zugosky, the terrorist leader, takes Ambassador Pierre Simon, his wife and daughter hostage. Zugosky wants 20 billion dollars or he plans to kill his prisoners.
You have to board the train and conduct a car–by–car search, kill the bad guys, sort out friend from foe, save the Ambassador and his family, and stay alive. Along the way, you’re going to find security zone problems and puzzles, you’ll have to track down various terrorists to get the keycards they have, and figure out access codes and who is involved from cryptic notes and laptop computer entries.
The action game play is nice and tight. At first I’d expected to be attacked by a bevy of baddies at any given moment, to find them literally crawling out of the woodwork to get a piece of me. Oh, they do come after you, but in some of the scenarios, you actually get the drop on them. Of course, there were always more of them. Thankfully, being up to my armpits in terrorists wasn’t the case — most of the time. There are a few gunfights in the game where things get really tense, but generally you have to match your wits as well as your razor–sharp reflexes against the terrorists.
The plot line was well addressed, leaving lots of quest–type missions, puzzles, as well as foreshadowing about different characters. I admit that I was a little reluctant when I first started the keycard search, thinking it was going to slow the game play down. (After that great cinematic build–up of having to jump from an exploding helicopter onto a speeding train, my trigger finger was itchy and only one thought crescendoed through my head: the bad guys gotta pay, the bad guys gotta pay!) Once I started reading the notes I collected along the way, I became more intrigued. Sometimes I found mysterious doors first, and other times I came across notes or messages that I knew would lead to things I had yet to find. The puzzles were nice additions, pacing the overall gaming experience while maintaining the suspense.
While the game was very enjoyable, I did have a problem with the first–person view. Sometimes I entered a train car and wanted to see the wall in front of me. The first–person view didn’t always work, leaving me still in the dark as to what that wall in front of me looked like. Generally, not being able to see all the walls didn’t matter. If you couldn’t see the wall, it was a safe bet nothing was there that you needed. Still, I like the option of being able to totally looking around an environment. Call me stubborn, but call me cautious, too.
The whole game is incredibly cinematic. Nuclear Dawn could have been filmed as a movie with the action adventure hero of your choice in the lead. The cut–scenes were absolutely beautifully done. They added flavor and emotion to the story, stirring in generous dollops of tension and anxiety. The story was written so that you don’t know who is going to live or die until the last bullet is fired, and with multiple endings, even that changes.
Covert Ops: Nuclear Dawn was a great gaming experience. I hadn’t played the original game, but I’m out looking for it now. If you like an action shooter that’s not all about explosions and filling the air with as many bullets as you can, and actually has some characterization and plotting, this is a game you’ll enjoy. Get it and get cracking. Can you save the Ambassador and his family from the Knights of the Apocalypse before the Blue Harvest pulls into the station?
"A pundit, obviously lacking game combat experience, once stated that all shooters were akin to unbuttered white bread — all action and lacking a storyline. May I introduce Covert Ops: Nuclear Dawn, a title that author Mel Odom certainly believes could be your slice of buttered wheat toast?"
