Operation Darkness for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

I wish the made more games like this. I loved Vandal Hearts and Brigandine. I loved Operation Darkness almost as much. Though I would have changed a few things.

Number 1 the camera controls and angles are the worst I have seen in any game ever! I beared it because the game is worth bearing it for, but it frustrated me throughout.

Another thing (and this is just me) I hate the fact that I had to move my team in a pre determined order. I liked the way Vandal Hearts was, I move and attack with my people in any order I choose then the AI does the same. Moving the team in a predetermined order used to be a deal breaker for me in a SRPG, But This one wasn't as bad as the others I have played like that. I actually got used to it.

Now as with most 'anime' style RPG's the graphics are last gen. The voice acting is bad, and I'm the kind of person who could give a hoot about the story. But the gameplay is great.

I have a couple of friends who love strategy games. They have watched me play the Assassins Creed games, Gears of War, Skyrim and Fable 3, they were unimpressed. When they saw me playing this they ran out and bought 360's and a copy of it.

Operation Darkness gives you turn-based combat on a huge, tiled battlefield. Not entirely unlike the old Front Mission games or Final Fantasy Tactics, you'll assemble a group, build them up through leveling up and equipping weapons and items, and send them into battle.

There are some great, original ideas at play here, like some characters' ability to turn into a werewolf, and the alternate reality WWII setting. But there are a lot of flaws that make enjoying it all hard.

There is A LOT of dialogue that you can't skip outright; even mashing (A) to get through conversations can be timeconsuming. The large battles and turn based combat mean that missions can play out for a very long time.

Unfortunately, there's no way to loot enemies and revive comrades once combat ends. So long battles become longer as you run around scavenging dead bodies for weapons or health items, and reviving any fallen teammates - otherwise they are gone for good once the last enemy is killed.

Enemies also spawn out of nowhere. This isn't too problematic when you're dealing with infantry, but having one or two tanks show up and immediately kill some of your squadmates is needlessly frustrating, and feels incredibly cheap compared to the emphasis on strategy the game normally brings.