It's a cover-based shooter that...ah...it's got achievements you know...24 of them.
Graphics: 7 (overall good however the character models need a lot of improvement)
Sounds: 5 (reasonable musical scores and ambience sounds however extremely poor voice acting)
Value: 4 (no way I would be paying $30 – lucky for me I got it for $10 however it should be around the $7 mark. Also it's got achievements…)
Tilt: 6 (not a bad experience overall)
Global Ops: Commando Libya – let alone the title should send warning signals to those who wish to play the game. Well, not for me as I was looking for a quick fix. Actually I never heard of this game before and during those Steam sales, a good friend of mine mentioned this game briefly. Again, I didn't take any notice until he said 'It's got achievements…' – then I was sold. Bought it for $10 (I think), downloaded it and booted it up. What to expect – I don't know actually but it's got achievements and that's all that matters for the moment.
After those splash screens (and thankfully there weren't many), I went straight to the configurations. And guess what…an achievement popped up – 'customisation'! You wouldn't believe it in a million years aye! And guess what else…no, not another achievement however there's no key bindings to be found. Totally amazed I looked at their forums as most likely I was blind and stupid. Actually, it turned out that the developers was blind and stupid as they mentioned they 'forgot' to add this and their solution was to adjust the config file.
Thankfully, the default keys are decent enough as frankly, there's not much to learn. Akin to Gears of War where there's no jumping and plenty of cover with auto heal, it's a matter of learning three keys: the space bar (for jumping, taking cover), left mouse button to shoot and right to aim. There are various of other rubbish like 'g' for grenade and 'e' to use items / open doors however the overall controls are not difficult to master. That said I went straight to 'hard' mode (as there's an achievement to complete the game on hard difficulty).
Watching the opening cut scene where a B-52G bomber crashes into the Arctic Ocean in Jan of 68 where its main cargo was an atomic bomb. Lost deep in the frozen Artic, in present day, a Russian trawler picks up this bomb aiming to sell it to some Libyan ruler. Yep, pretty much stock standard stuff however that wasn't my concern – I want to shoot stuff and gain achievements. And after this cut scene with the introduction of the heroes being 'Pope' (you), your CIA pal Jason West and some communications chick for which I forgot her name (as she plays a minor role in the game), guess what happened after this cut scene…another achievement! This one is called 'Fearless!' as I watched the intro on the hardest difficulty. Yes, I am that tough.
So I already scored two achievements in a space of five minutes, I'm on a roll here and there's no stopping this cannon ball. So straight from the get-go, my pal West states only shoot when necessary to gain surprise. Screw that I'll say as considering my default gun is the M249 and scanning through the achievements, I can score the 'Arnie' badge (meaning getting fifty kills with this baby) and 'Dumbass' (died from my own grenade), it doesn't take a rocket scientist what I'm going to do next. I wish I can tell West that I make up the rules and not him.
Whilst I making the rules on the fly (regardless of what West says), West showed me that he cannot die – period; and his kill ratio is one in every ten minutes. Man, this guy can run into a hail of bullets and simply stand there taking all the hits. I, on the other hand, tried this as well and I died. And before you go on, there's no achievement for this. And what gets me is that West sometimes asks me to flank say a stationary gunner whose rate of fire is around six hundred rounds a second. Seriously West, you cannot die and you ask me to flank this gunner? Then I understand his logic as West cannot kill anyone until his ten minutes is up. For me, I don't have that much time to live so I have no choice but to listen to West when he orders me to shoot that chopper out of the sky…five times.
And if you think for a moment that aiming is for the weak, think again. Shooting from the hip is like asking a mole rat to paint an impressionist portrait of himself. You're not going to go anywhere very fast. So when shooting, aim, or like West you will miss a lot (save for his uncanny ability to never die). Yeah, probability will kick in and you will score a hit or two however, like I said before, I don't have that much time to kill as I have better things to do than wash dishes.
The game's pacing is quite decent – it moves rather quickly as you will be under barrage for the vast majority of the time. It's actually quite good as it keeps the game flowing well. Yet, there is one very small part you need to sneak past some guards (otherwise the game ends as you have been 'spotted') yet that part ends quickly and it's back pressing the trigger. Also, you get to man stationary weapons and drive a tank. In addition, the controls are all responsive and very easy to master; considering there's not much to learn however it compliments well with the pace.
Considering the game uses the Unreal 3 engine, visually it's quite decent. Nothing ground breaking however decent enough to appreciate. Yet, the character models are a joke. Bland faces, weird movements (as I keep seeing the terrorists looking sideways and yet shooting at you directly – maybe that's their game plan to fool the enemy) and their unnatural speed all add the more reasons for me to pull the trigger.
Soundwise are the same. Poor voice acting yet the musical scores do have that 'heroic' feel and I will give credit for the entire ambience sounds as I remember that when the hero runs past loose rocks or through oil barrels (yes, he is that tough), the sounds arriving from them are quite convincing – and no I am not drawing straws either.
With twenty four achievements to unlock, three modes of difficulty (well for me I went straight to hard) and nine action-packed chapters, I knocked this off in around ten hours. There are also three multiplayer options however I couldn't tell you what they are because no one was there when I searched for a server to connect. So basically ignore this mode altogether. Yet I think coop would be a cool option but this will make the game even easier.
Granted that Global Ops: Commando Libya is a low budget game. Yet I'm not sure if the retail price of $30 USD is low budget however paying $10 for ten hours of shooting stuff is not all that bad. And because of the fluent controls and decent pace, I did enjoy this romp considering. Yet, I was hoping for a little more varied landscape as the first two missions were on ice and the rest desert, it would be refreshing to see like mountainous ranges for example, as after all it is using the Unreal 3 engine. And to top things off, did I mention it got twenty four achievements?