G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout Review

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G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout

Developer: Iguanabee & Fair Play Labs
Publisher: GameMill Entertainment & Maximum Games
Website: G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout
Genre: Third Person Shooter
Platform: Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows
Age Rating: PEGI 12
Release Date: 13/10/2020
Price: £34.99

A code was provided for review purposes.

G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is an exciting premise; you play as both the Joes and Cobra, helping to restore order and conquer the world at the same time. It’s a team-based game, where you can solo/co-op play through the campaign and duke it out with your buddy, split-screen locally of course, (not an option for this Covid era, however).

If you’re thinking G.I. Joe the films with Channing Tatum and Sienna Miller or the ridiculous sequel (how’d it get a sequel?) with the Rock and Bruce Willis were terrible, then I’m sorry but don’t play this games, it’s much worse.

We’re Soldiers. Our Mission Is To Do The Impossible, And Make It Look Easy.

G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout‘s campaign is a bland and boring blaster game. After a brief cartoon strip introduction to the narrative, we’re straight into the campaign. Instantly the controls are woeful, the movement of the dual-shock controller is clunky, as is the aiming system. It’s like trying to score a basketball hoop at a carnival, blindfolded, from the other end of the park.

The auto-aim system is strange; if you manage to lock onto the enemy, then they move, it stays stuck to its original position. It doesn’t sway slightly left or right with enemy movement, it remains fixed to the area, not the enemy. I found I had to stand right in front of an enemy to shoot them, hip fire style, because aiming down sight was so frustrating. In addition, switching auto-aim off doesn’t help either, so don’t bother. Also reloading, why add in a mini-game for reloading? Timing the square button as a marker moves through an inverted half circle, means you reload maybe a microsecond faster, but right in the middle of a firefight when you’re missing half your shots, it’s super annoying.

Even worse, when attacking an enemy, their dodge mechanic is so good (especially the mini-bosses at the end of the levels) they’d make great dodgeball athletes. I found that even on normal difficulty enemies were always landing shots, even as I rolled away or jumped behind objects.

Dead Guys Don’t Break Dance

Character control and movement, whether in a vehicle or on a gun turret, are also janky and frustrating. Therefore resulting in a game that’s brand new feels like a game from ten years ago. The gameplay of G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout reminded me of Command and Conquer Renegade, with the art style of Borderlands, both of which where much better games and Renegade came out in 2002!

The level design isn’t bad (it’s not great), there are collectables scattered about forcing you to explore, but these aren’t game-changing some skins and art covers. The lack of environment cover-based objects also means you’re getting shot wherever you are, even on normal difficulty, whilst fulfilling mission parameters like go there, shoot that, activate this.

Knowing Is Half The Battle

The main-story is driven via cut-scenes that play like comic book strips, this I liked, the artwork was excellent, and the voice acting and audio was well done, very comic book cheese! I also do like the story narrative, playing as both bad and good is a nice change.
Yet these in-between moments really can’t elevate what is poor gameplay! G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is a shooter game that lacks any firepower. A machine-gun without ammo.

Rapid Reviews Rating

G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is available for purchase on the PlayStation Store here.