Conflict: Denied Ops

Conflict: Denied Ops - (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Developer: Pivotal Games
Format: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Genre: Arcade

In war, two's the magic number

War shooters have had a burst recently so you might approach Conflict: Denied Ops with caution. Fear not, it's a decent buddy war machine with some impressive and explosive tricks. Lang and Graves are battling it out in Artic wastelands and taking to African guerilla tactics in Rwanda, as a sniper-gunner two-man team.

You get to switch between the two because one has access to the short-range weapons and the other to the long-range ordinance. Neither of you can swap round your armaments though but there is a secondary fire option on each; the sniper rifle can double as shotgun, the machine-gun has the grenade launcher. While not exactly military-spec in real life, it gives you options depending on choice of character. The AI kicks in well throughout as you'll be always in this two-man squad. Tapping the left shoulder button will send your teammate over to investigate and cover for you, tapping to bring him back again.

Elsewhere they've even thrown in a fair amount of vehicles to hoof round the war-torn landscapes as a dynamic duo. Conflict won't win any awards for plot, gameplay or realistic warfare - it's a 'blow everything up in order to get the mission completed' set-up and this is where it stands out. Eidos's much lauded 'Puncture-tech' means that almost all of the scenery and objects can be left war-torn.

Multiplayer (aside form the usual deathmatch and team match options) works very well in co-op mode as one buddy becomes sniper, the other an ordinance man. There's a lot of fun yomping through the scenarios, as the two-man team and careful use of each other's abilities and strengths will ensure a firefight to remember. A worthy dose of war for those already finished with COD4.

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