Our base is under siege. The enemy is smashing wave after wave of their superior numbers against our ever-weakening defenses. All that's left is to stand our ground, put a bullet in as many as we can, and hope we can last long enough for help to arrive. This is Storm Ops 4, a military first-person defense shooter by 3KG Games, developers of the popular Dead Zed 2. The first couple of levels offer a steep learning curve, but shooter fans in the mood for a more realistic edge will find it worth sticking to. The gameplay has you stationed on a hill, overlooking the path leading into your army's camp. From the left will come soldiers of various kinds, besieging the base to the right, hoping to reduce its defenses from 100% to 0%. Use the mouse to aim and fire, hitting [R] to reload, [Q] to swap weapons, the [spacebar] to change your choice of scope and so forth. Each successful kill and headshot grants you money to purchase upgrades, new weapons, support and repairs for your base.
The mechanics should feel familiar to many, and truthfully, the first couple of levels, before you have made much cash and are saddled with the worst weapons, don't exactly give the best impression. But keep playing: once you started lining up headshots with your sniper rifle, spraying an AK-47 into a clustered group, or sending a rain of mortars down on that gun-truck that's been bedeviling you, the appeal of a game based around careful aiming and resource management. If you're starting to whiff a couple levels, it may be worth it to concentrate on earning cash for new weapons, rather than just repairing your base. No doubt Storm Ops 4 is a game that makes you earn your fun, for good or for bad. However, shooter fans who enjoy a bit more of a realistic edge in their browser fun will enjoy getting this one walking into their sights.
So I'm just sitting there, all the enemy soldiers are dead, and every few seconds a missile comes streaking at my base. There's no helicopter to be seen, so I can't do anything. I've tried shooting the missiles, but I haven't done it and am not sure it can be done. A glitch?
In this type of games you can easily find the rhytm of killing enough - use the reward on upgrades - killing more effectively with the upgraded weapons - upgrading even more etc. In this game I was totally unable to do it. I could never haul enough points to upgrade my weaponry. All my money had to go towards constant damage control of the base. I could never move from those two handguns to more powerful weaponry. I never had any problem with these games - but this one seems to be way too mean on points.
I want this game to be awesome, but man, shooting is brutal. :(
OK - gotta give this one a little time and trial. Shooting second time out was significantly better than the first. Cool game.
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