G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout Review – Half the Battle

As I inch closer and closer to that ripe old age of 40, I seem to grow increasingly fond of everything that made up my childhood. Masters of the Universe, ThunderCats, G.I. Joe – these were the things that kept my eyes glued to the TV set every Saturday morning and filled my free time with making my own crossover adventures with their respective toy lines. Throughout the years, I’ve always gotten a little excited when I would hear about a new video game from any of these franchises, just to be let down with each new release plagued by the curse of the licensed game. G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is the newest attempt to bring the successful toy line and cartoon series to modern consoles, with mixed results.

If we’re being honest here, this game could have released on either of the past two generations of hardware, and I think it would’ve legitimately changed the course of children’s entertainment as we know it. Maybe in some alternate universe it resulted in many of the plagues of 2020 never happening, thwarting COVID-19 before it could bring the world to a halt. In this alternate universe, there isn’t a Paw Patrol, the kids know how to take a punch or insult without crawling into a safe space, people still smoke everywhere, and they don’t need to social distance, meaning they can go to each other’s house and game freely without feeling like a horrible person. This would be the absolute best place to play G.I.: Joe Operation Blackout because it offers not only two-player co-op play, but four-player PVP modes, with absolutely no online features. That’s right, here in the real version of Earth, we are less than a month from the launch of the next console generation, and there are still games released without online play. Since I am the only 35-year-old man living in my home, I was not able to sample any of these modes, but I do know they are a thing and offer the normal modes you would be accustomed to in the days before Xbox Live or the PSN.

This didn’t completely ruin the experience for me, because if you can’t find someone willing to accept cash payment in exchange for playing through this with you (my kid refused cold hard cash to help me with this), the AI will fill in at about the same level of cooperation you can expect from the typical action game – they walk in front of you, they block your shots, and really, the only benefit to having them around is to occasionally get the enemy to shoot in another direction for a few seconds so you can catch your breath. Not that you really have much to put up a fight against, as this is a pretty mindless third-person shooter that is perfect for a lazy afternoon, but that’s kind of what I expected.

The game takes place over approximately 15 missions that bounce back and forth between the Joes and the nefarious Cobra, switching up the available characters each level. There’s a focus on an original narrative in which Cobra has won the battle, forcing the Joes into hiding while they search for the remaining stragglers. It’s an over the top cheese-fest that is a tribute to the ‘80s. It’s not going to take you to Morrowind, but if you’re reading this, you probably don’t care either. Each playable character does its best to feel new and fresh, typically having their own signature style weapon and rechargeable special ability, as well as thankfully being able to pick up a range of secondary weapons that at times felt more effective in terms of damage output or range than some of the main options.

The game’s main focus is combat, which plays like a weird arcade-style mash-up of the spongey enemies from Halo, with the active reload mechanic from Gears of War, with a G.I. Joe themed paint job. It’s nothing revolutionary, and at times feels kind of dated, but it kept me entertained for the day and a half it took me to complete the narrative. From a technical standpoint, the game runs really well with minimal bugs – when they were present, they were the typical AI issues where characters would side strafe into a wall, and the occasional aiming snafu where the completely optional auto-aim would pull further to the right beyond where the closest target was currently standing.

The overall packaging is just as colorful and flashy as the cardboard and plastic that houses the toys from my childhood. The crisp cel-shaded animations really make this feel like an extension of the long-running cartoon series. It sounded like a few of the voice actors were a bit bored in their delivery, and there is a complete lack of lip-synching, leaving everyone with a static face that lacks emotion, but these issues were really minor and never prevented me from enjoying myself. Still, I feel like this would’ve been better if I had the option of playing in an online environment with a friend.

Make no mistakes, G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout isn’t the biggest, the deepest, or the most innovative shooter. This isn’t going to replace Gears of War as your favorite shooter, but it’s here for a good time, and delivers just that – a game that caters to its audience as it rides on the nostalgia train and provides just enough of a challenge to keep you engaged as you follow the over the top story from start to finish. If that sounds like you, I would encourage you to pick this up; just remember that like batteries, player two is not included.

7 out of 10

Pros

  • Over-the-Top Story That Feels At Home
  • Slick Cel-Shaded Visuals
  • Decent Cast of Playable Characters

Cons

  • No Online Play
  • Some Minor Aiming and AI Issues
  • Static Facial Animations

G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout was developed by IguanaBee in conjunction with Fair Play Labs and published by GameMill Entertainment. It is available on NS, PS4, and X1 and will arrive on PC at a later date. The game was provided to us for review on X1. If you’d like to see more of G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout, check out the official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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