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Operation Warcade is the classic arcade run-and-gun shoot-em-up Operation Wolf (with a gun sited on the unit, itself) but with two arcade machines – Immersive Edition and Classic 3D edition.
It’s a side-scrolling shooter from left to right, as per the arcade game, and both versions presented here are similar, but different. With the former, you feel a bit closer to the action, as if you’re looking through a window at what’s going on rather than, with the latter, looking at the arcade machine itself.
Occasionally, you’ll shoot an option which takes you into an actual right-up-close section as if you’re in the right in the field of battle, and this feels great, but… it’s very unforgiving. Take one or two shots from baddies (and there are LOADS) and you’ll die and go back to the usual way of playing. The amount of time you get to play in the field of battle? About 10-15 seconds. Yes. That’s all. Even if you don’t get bumped off! That’s really disappointing. Give us more!
Outside of the game, you can hop around an arcade (in the same way I initially experienced on Doom VFR before I found the option for normal movement – which wasn’t available on PC for that game, BTW), and see people cheering you on, but you can’t indulge in any of the other machines which is a shame. An entire arcade of games would’ve been cool.
I’d say this would be fun for around £8-10, but at full price, it’s £15.99. Yes, VR games cost more to develop based on their returns, but after about 30 mins I’d got the most out of it. Perhaps, if you’re with friends and can take it in turns to egg each other on, it’s a lot more fun, but the arcade original’s out there somewhere, and how many people will be looking for this game other than guys who remember it in their teens in the arcade?
Originally, I was giving this 5/10 overall, but playing it a bit more, it has grown on me a little. However, there’s still the issue of those right-up-close sections being way too damn brief.
You can see both versions of the gameplay in the video below, and a fair bit of the Immersive Edition above.
Score: 6/10
Subtitles: English, German, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, French, Spanish
Operation Warcade is out now on PS4 PSVR from the Playstation Store, and is also on PC/Steam for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Important info:
- Developer: Ivanovich Games
- Publisher: Ivanovich Games
- Players: single-player
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.