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Tango, go yawn

Despite the varied locations, all the missions in Raven Shield start to feel the same after a while. You enter a heavily guarded facility from the outside, picking off whatever evolutionary rejects drew the short straws to stand guard. After that, it’s an end run through the go codes, clearing rooms and claustrophobic hallways while watching the status of other teams to make sure that at least one of them is alive to make sure all the codes are cleared. If an entire team is wiped out, it becomes a chore to find their route and run through it to clear the map, so it’s best to reload and try again in that case.

Fragged

Hot sexy

The TV didn't survive

There’s really no sense in planning your own routes through the map either. Just load up the standard choice, and keep trying until you succeed. Planning routes personally increases the odds of making a mistake and leaving a terrorist or two unaccounted for. Since the terrorists all lie along the stock routes, the only point in creating your own is for personal satisfaction.

What really confounds us is why the missions in Raven Shield end up being so much more generic than the rather imaginative bunch in Rogue Spear. Differences between missions are negligible. I remember the locations they occurred in more due to the briefings than any memorable level design.

This is Bravo, incoming enemies!

The AI, as with any other AI that tries to emulate human behavior, alternately dazzles and falls flat on its face. Observing a door being breached or hostages being led by AI teammates is as impressive as seeing entire teams being wiped out without reacting is disappointing.

Bullets are so lethal

Mission complete!

Micro-Uzi? HAhahaha

There are fewer problems with the opponents. They’re far less likely to not notice the player – only once did a terrorist freeze without shooting, so we’re willing to chalk it up to yellow-bellied cowardice in the vein of Oppum from Saving Private Ryan. On the other hand, they’re damn good shots. One would think that they’re not really human, judging how they rarely miss and always go straight for the head *cough*.

To even the playing field with the lasersniperbots, the player too has access to auto-aim. Different settings change the radius of engagement, and if set to maximum one can practically never move his mouse in combat and get headshots galore. Hardly realistic. Yes, real combat is a lot faster and more lethal than in the movies. No, we seriously doubt that terrorists and counter-terrorists are able to open a door and go 6 for 6 headshots. It’s also worth noting that the player never manages to be pinned down, even by a sniper facing his direction. The AI reaction time is always miraculously slow enough to sneak in a shot.

Tango with partners

Fortunately the majority of these problems disappear in multiplayer. The AI and aim are no longer factors, the level designs are much more suited to search-and-destroy tactics and the variety of weapons and equipment have meaning when auto-aim can’t be turned on and body parts other than the head are hit.