Conflict: Denied Ops - Demo

The Conflict series has been around for quite a while now and it managed to provide gamers with a very realistic depiction of how military operations are actually conducted. Thus, by being in charge of a small team of highly-trained soldiers, you get to complete various objectives and missions across the world, in order to keep the peace and stop the terrorists from getting too much power.

In Conflict: Denied Ops, on the other hand, you only have one other team member, although the two soldiers are far more experienced and well trained than the ones you got to control in the previous episodes. Since they are both CIA operatives, their missions always have some sort of political objective at their core, or, obviously, the gathering of vital information.

In essence, the gameplay mechanics haven't changed that much, except when it comes to the size of the team. Hence, you are still allowed to switch between the two characters whenever you want, as well as give out orders to your comrade when you are not actively controlling him. However, it is rather difficult to see the point of having two soldiers instead of one, now that they are not very different when it comes to expertise and weapons.

Just like before, you can approach the missions in the desired fashion, whether you want to sneak through the levels and silently take out every enemy, or just start each fight with a well-placed grenade and see how things evolve from that point onwards. Naturally, stealth is easier to pull off in certain scenarios, while other missions basically force you to stand your ground against the enemy.

Visually, it must be mentioned that a lot of effort went into the actual environments and the level design, since there are many interesting buildings and locations to see throughout the campaign. On the other hand, the graphics themselves could have been refined a bit, since everything looks like it went too many times through a sepia filter. The physics engine is rather nice as well, especially since most of the environment is destructible and you are never truly safe from a stray bullet.

Unfortunately, Conflict: Denied Ops somehow managed to lose a bit of its potential in the process and make the levels more linear, which does not work great with a tactical shooter. However, the scenarios are pretty intense and you should be able to enjoy a playthrough, although there are few reasons to try it for a second time.