Renegade Ops was one of the most pleasant surprises from Sega this year: A fast paced twin stick shooter with lots of charisma, humor and non-stop action. It certainly was able to surpass the expectations of many who weren’t too interested by the somewhat forgettable title of the game. While it was relatively short, it also had amazing co-op, several characters to play with and a scoring system that makes you keep coming back. The recently released Coldstrike DLC certainly harmonizes with the original game, but is it worth purchasing and playing? Find out after the jump!
Coldstrike’s story sets in shortly after the main game’s story and manages to tie up some loose ends. You definitely should have played the main campaign before this add-on, since the new villain, Coldstrike, is a character from the original game. The story is cheesy and partially self-referential but it certainly fits the bill and doesn’t take too much from the spotlight. Gameplay is king in Renegade Ops and it certainly shows here. It’s still a rather robust twin stick shooter with a solid scoring mechanism at it’s core. There’s always something to shoot and the explosions give the weapons a certain feel of power and destruction.
While the gameplay in itself hasn’t changed at all, the missions have become a bit more diverse. Yes, you still have to save villagers, destroy mortar positions and the like, but the pace has changed and there are several objectives with each mission. The add-on provides a new, snowy setting and introduces new enemies, like drone or automatic sentries that drop from the sky. Huge tanks that bring more drones with them are great enemies and a lot of fun to fight while the boss battle of the DLC campaign beats anything seen in the main game. This is pretty much the one area the DLC pack improves upon and it’s certainly welcome.
There are only three new missions and their length is comparable to what you have played in the main title. The quality certainly justifies the price and if you have the two new downloadable characters, then the new missions are a great place to try them out. The new setting and enemies make the add-on worthwhile, but there could have been one mission more.
Final Score: A-.
