If it Moves, Blow it Up
Avalanche Studios, the Swedish developers who brought players the Just Cause games, keep the explosions, uh, exploding with Renegade Ops, a dual-joystick vehicle shooter for the Xbox Live Arcade. Before you even get into a car, Renegade Ops wastes no time setting a tone that’s like an uncensored episode of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, and I mean that in the best way possible. Campy dialogue, responsive, yet appropriately loose controls, and a wanton nature make this a game for just about anyone who likes blowing stuff up with guns.
Renegade Ops uses the barest amount of story needed to connect its nine missions together. You play as one of four elite soldiers who follow the orders of General Bryant, a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy. When a terrorist named Inferno attacks, Bryant decides to circumvent the UN’s peacekeeping tactics and bring the fight to the enemy via armored vehicles with guns and rockets mounted on top. It is clear from the beginning that there is no way to take this story seriously, especially as Bryant shouts, “Haul ass, Renegades,” while a dozen rockets fly past your car. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
This ridiculous tone augments the fantastic controls and physics that make up the meat of Renegade Ops. From the isometric viewpoint—read: bird’s eye view—it is simple to whip your APV around in a tight drift. This game was made with the Just Cause 2 engine, so cutting donuts, hitting big ass ramps, and weaving through enemy vehicles is simple and feels great. Inferno’s fortifications also blow apart in spectacular fashion, and blasting through the side of a building is a totally acceptable way of taking dudes out. Or you could just use heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, flamethrowers, and rail guns, which all have nice punch and mess things up quickly. Your car fills hardly any screen space, instead letting fiery debris and all sorts of particle effects overwhelm your eyeballs. Renegade Ops also has quite an extensive color palette, making it one of the best-looking Live Arcade games to date.
There are four selectable Renegades, and though each controls identically and has the same basic machine gun and secondary weapon choices, exclusive special weapons make your choice of driver crucial. Will you take Roxy and use her devastating air strike? Or maybe Armand’s temporary invulnerability sounds like your style. These choices start to become even more important as you level up and gain upgrade points to sink into things like special weapon cool down reduction or extra armor defense. While some of these upgrades show up for all four characters, some are specific, and experience doesn’t share between drivers or difficulty levels.
The single player mode of Renegade Ops isn’t very long, but you can play with two-players via splitscreen or four players over Xbox Live to get some replay value. Since the amount of bullets flying around can potentially quadruple, things obviously get a little more hectic, causing some really bad framerate issues. Also, the dynamic screen split option, which merges the splitscreen players’ screens when in close proximity and divides it again when distanced, made my eyes feel like they were crossing. Maybe that’s just me, but be aware that it could be an issue for you as well.
Like Red Faction: Guerrilla, Renegade Ops keys in on the deep-rooted joy of blowing things up, and never gets boring doing so. $15 dollars is a steal for such a polished experience.
