Renegade Ops surprised me a lot. To an extent that I just keep on recommending the game to everyone. What makes it so good? Yes, let’s forget about everything else and I’m going to tell you the conclusion in the first Para itself. The game is phenomenal and one of the best arcade games to have been released this gen. Oh and it’s made by Avalanche studios, you know the guys who made Just Cause 2. The game is everything you could ask in a twin-stick, top-down shooter. Considering the fact that there have been many games which have the same gameplay mechanics, Renegade Ops is the one that does it right.

The moment you start playing it, there will be a smile on your face. Why? Because it’s a lot of fun to play. That’s all you want from videogames, right? The game attracts you in an unique way with crisp graphics, generic and clichéd but interesting story and the exhilarating gameplay. If you like explosions, this is the game you need to buy. You are a part of a 4 man team called the Renegades, whose mission is to stop a madman from, well, destroying stuff. As I said, it’s generic as it can get, but the comic styled cutscenes with impressive voice overs usually makes it bearable.

There are 9 missions in the game ranging taking you through wonderfully designed levels with pleasant visuals and with an exciting soundtrack to boot. There is a lot of trial and error at the beginning which makes it a bit difficult if you’re playing on the normal difficulty. You will hate the rockets once you finish the game, that’s the one thing I’m totally sure of. The missions themselves are quite long but don’t feel too long or are filled with filler material. They’re just right, and it ends at the right time as the enemies start getting on your nerves. You can destroy a lot of things with your trusted right stick; it’s like Superstardust HD, which most of the PSN folks should be familiar with.

You can choose one character and finish the entire game with him/her; leveling up in the process and getting enough unlock points to get some valuable abilities. Each character is unique with a special secondary fire and vehicle but ultimately it’s your skill that counts here. Most of the enemies can be destroyed pretty easily, but things usually go wrong when you’re surrounded by a bunch of tanks and some rocket launcher wielding vehicles. Unless you play smart here you will lose a life. You have 5 lives in the normal difficult and can also find some extra pickups hidden in the map to increase the life count. The thing I love the most about this game are the dialogues. Incredibly clichéd dialogues but hilarious when you listen to them with an open mind.

The boss fights aren’t that challenging as well, as you will usually fight the same guy in many missions. But it’s about blowing stuff up and that’s what makes the game fun. The visuals, sound effects and the gameplay come together to give you an extraordinary audio-visual experience and considering it’s an arcade game, that’s quite a feat. It took me 5 hours to beat the game on the normal difficulty, with some unnecessary difficulty spike near the end that caused me to restart the last mission plenty of times… it definitely is frustrating but also satisfying once you do clear the mission.

The handling of the vehicles is a bit of a letdown. Sure, you can use unlimited boost and zoom through the road, but when it comes to precise turns, your vehicle will most probably end up upside down or getting blown apart by a tank… ouch, it truly is one of the most frustrating moments if you do encounter it. Apart from that, the gameplay is solid and what makes the game so fun. It’s been an enjoyable 5 hours for me with Renegade Ops and the game is definitely something you should buy if you need a solid arcade title to play. Avalanche has created a fun arcade game with addictive gameplay mechanics and this is a perfect example of a twin-stick shooter done right. What are you waiting for? If you read the review till here, it’s a game you must buy.

Note: The 360 version has a little audio freezes but nothing major and the game supports co-op as well.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.