The world's most inexpensive game for Playstation, Spec Ops a three year old PC game has finally arrived to the PS. After being announced by Take Two last year, Spec Ops took awhile to get here. While there may be not be any background info on the game, in my book this is the first strategy shooter, then Tom Clancy released his awesome Rainbow Six series. Without a doubt R6 is the dominant title in every category. Spec Ops which debuted at a low budget price of $9.99 and is now in stores, wait read my review first, can't leave home without it.

      Oh come on, is this the oldest and outdated game engine ever or what. Next to Urban Choas, Spec Ops has a weak game engine. Pixely trees, horrendous pop-up and blocky graphics. The pop-up is extremely noticeable, the areas are quite large, although I think RuneCraft should have taken some queue from 989 Studios. Character detail is pretty blocky, and its need a lot more work. But, the presentation is great. The menus and selection screens are all sleek and look great. What I forgot to mention is that there are no spectacular effects, grenade explosions almost don't happen, all you'll see is a patch of smoke and that is it. Spec Ops could have been more but not enough attention was paid to the game.

      Gameplay is slightly on an advantage. What's pretty cool is that you can switch from a first person to a third person view. Though SO's biggest disadvantage is it's extreme difficulty. Even when playing on the Easy level, the game is still hard. So if the game is hard then that means the game has smart AI, right? Wrong, they are dumb idiots. When I would throw a grenade around them they would just stay in one place like nothing is going on and then BOOM! What's hard about Spec Ops is that the enemies are too hard to find (thankfully the compass is there). You can also play a co-op mode with two players or go lonewolf. You get a ranger to back you up on your mission, you can command your trooper by telling him to hold, follow, move up, or fire. You've got many weapons and accessories to choose from, MedKits, Grenades, Smoker Grenades, Shotguns, Machine guns, Sniper rifles and loads more. The realistic thing about Spec Ops is that you have a weight limit of objects that you can carry around. The more weapons you stock up on the more weight you gain. The gameplay is more of a plus than a minus, I would have scored the gameplay an eight but the difficulty is too hard and makes it boring.

      The sound is pretty good for an average game. Most of the tunes are army beats but sound fine. There is a little speech but is only during combat when an order is given out. Gunshots sound good, but explosions not only suck visually but they sound very hollow.

      Getting used to the controls is a big task, there are many commands to remember. I can't explain all of them but the instruction booklet gives the skinny on everything. Dual Shock and analog are used, but the analog is used weakly. You have abilities such as crouching down, lying on the floor for cover, sniping' and other stealthy things.

      Spec Ops isn't an awful game, and it is worth a rental. But you will be pulling hairs out due to the games difficulty. Spec Ops is the first budget game released by Take Two and developed by RuneCraft, the game retails for $9.99 and should be available at all retailers nationwide. For those who are in the world of piracy (bootlegging) and are thinking of buying a illegitimate copy of Spec Ops, you are the cheapest human being I know!

05/09/00  SolidSnake

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Graphics: 4.5
Gameplay: 6.5
Sound: 7.2
Control: 6.3
Replay Value: 5.9

Rating: 5.9