Race against time and terrorism as a member of the elite counter terrorist team in this all-out first person shooter. Your duty is to hunt down a terrorist overlord carrying a nuclear device before untold disaster is unleashed.
User reviews:
Overall:
Very Positive (84 reviews) - 84% of the 84 user reviews for this game are positive.
Release Date: Sep 17, 2004

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Reviews

“Shadow Ops begins roughly three-quarters of the way through the story and then works its way backwards after letting you witness a truly horrific moment. The story itself is pretty much standard Hollywood fluff, so expect betrayals and some stiff banter in the cut-scenes. Shadow Ops makes use of standard first-person shooting techniques, but offers a very helpful lean function that actually is something other developers should rip off. Yes, lean has been used before, but it's very effective and even vital in ShOps.”
7/10 – IGN

“General movement is easy enough, and thankfully the standard control layout you would expect in a first person shooter is here. The action is fast paced, and you will have to keep on your heels to succeed in completing the missions, so a simplified control scheme is a godsend.”
7/10 – GamesHell

“If you’re looking for a decent shooter you’ve come to the right place. All of the sounds are superb and the audio separation comes through very clearly. To complement the gunfire and chaos is a heart thumping soundtrack that helps convey the situation. It goes for a sort of middle eastern chant that was prevalent all throughout movies like Black Hawk Down and Gladiator and it works really well here.”
6.4/10 – Gaming Nexus

About This Game

Race against time and terrorism as a member of the elite counter terrorist team in this all-out first person shooter. From the hostile streets of the middle-east, where danger can come from any direction, to the landmarks of a major European city. Your duty is to hunt down a terrorist overlord carrying a nuclear device before untold disaster is unleashed. Mix all-out assault with stealth infiltration in your mission to prevent disaster.

System Requirements

    Minimum:
    • OS: Windows XP or higher
    • Processor: Pentium III or AMD Athlon 1 GHz
    • Memory: 256 MB RAM
    • Graphics: 64 MB Windows XP compatible,
    • DirectX: Version 9.0
    • Storage: 4 GB available space
    • Sound Card: Windows X-compatible
Customer reviews
Customer Review system updated Sept. 2016! Learn more
Overall:
Very Positive (84 reviews)
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57 reviews match the filters above ( Very Positive)
Most Helpful Reviews  Overall
45 of 54 people (83%) found this review helpful
6 people found this review funny
Recommended
1.7 hrs on record
Posted: April 6, 2015
Really fun old school military FPS! Recommended if you played and enjoyed any of the following games:

-Red Faction
-Red Faction II
-Half-Life ('98)
-Killzone ('04)
-Halo CE
-GoldenEye (N64)
-Early Clancy Games (Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon)
-Gen. 6 Bond Games (Agent Under Fire, Nightfire, etc)
-Gen. 6 Medal of Honor Games (Frontline, Rising Sun, Allied Assault, European Assault, etc)
-Early Call of Duty Games (Finest Hour, Big Red One, United Offensive, etc)
-Old DOS Shooters

Will probably appeal to my generation (I'm 30) more than today's gamer, because this game embodies the type of shooters that we grew up with and includes none of today's modern conveniences/handicaps: There's no automatic health regeneration, no automatic ammo refill, and , as far as I can tell, no quicksaving. Instead, you'll have to pick up health packs, scavange dropped ammo from enemies, and complete missions to save your game and progress. Some of the missions can be somewhat challenging, and you never know if there'll be a mob of enemies, a tank, or an RPG around the next corner. The story is okay (so far), and it's complete with decent voice acting and fully animated cutscenes in between each misison.

Kids, if you want to know the kind of game we frittered away hours with before Modern Warfare, then buy this game! Fellas, if you want a trip down memory lane, then you owe it to yourself to buy this game!
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40 of 50 people (80%) found this review helpful
4 people found this review funny
Recommended
0.8 hrs on record
Posted: July 2, 2014
LOVED this game when it came out. Good gunplay, the ability to lean while aimed down the sights, good difficulty, cool story about nukes... it all plays like a really intense episode of 24.

And the sound design: spectacular. Seriously, if you have a decent setup it will blow you away. Guns and explosions are deafening.

The million dollar question though, does it hold up after ten years? I sure as ♥♥♥♥ think so! I played a little bit of it and was worried that I might be looking through rose-tinted glasses, but I was proven wrong. This game is solid all the way around.

Downsides:
-Graphics, but c'mon, cut some slack.
-The FMV cutscenes are potato quality, like a Youtube video on a Comcast connection. Still does the job story-wise though.
-No real widescreen support out of the box. Check out this page for a fix: http://www.wsgf.org/dr/shadow-ops-red-mercury

In the end, for such a low price, you can't go wrong. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!


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16 of 17 people (94%) found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
Recommended
2.7 hrs on record
Posted: August 2, 2015
Overall a solid FPS game from 2004. Feels like an early COD modern warfare. It has some grand set pieces and stylistic cut scenes with not bad graphics for the time, feels like an action movie. The story is similar to battlefrield 3, you basically have to stop a rogue agent with a nuke (red Mercury). gameplay wise the guns feel heavy and combat is fast paced and fun. this game uses med packs instead of regenerating health. Also there are no checkpoints! each mission is broken down into a few levels, some are short, some aren't and if you die you restart the level. for the dirt cheap price it's worth a playthrough if you're a FPS fan.
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24 of 34 people (71%) found this review helpful
Recommended
9.1 hrs on record
Posted: July 3, 2014
A metactritic underrated game for sure. While it only got a 6.1 from the professional (payed) reviewers, the user score of this game is a solid 8.0.

Even after 10 years the gameplay in this game is pretty good. Obviously the mechanics are bit dated, but even today it is a whole lot of fun playing through the levels and more entertaining and challenging then the big budget CoD's from nowadays.

Graphics (after tweaking in Nvidia control panel) can still look pretty decent (for a 2004 game).

It's only to bad that it now has been released on Steam without any new changes (effort) to the game. They at least could have made it 16:9 compatible, unfortunately 1280x1024 is still the highest resolution you will get.

75/100
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10 of 10 people (100%) found this review helpful
Recommended
7.6 hrs on record
Posted: October 30, 2015
A very tough tough game. Ai are really good. You can find medkits/ammo literally every corner. The biggiest downfall i have with the game is that you cant aim and move at the sametime. When you aim you can lean left or right. Other than that i enjoyed the game.

Pros
Challlenging game
3 weapons
story-good
Team actually kill enemys

Cons
Cant aim and move
cant pick up AI weapons
No checkpoints
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12 of 15 people (80%) found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
Recommended
2.3 hrs on record
Posted: July 5, 2015
A tough, old-school shooter. The graphics are basic, but the firefights are intense. Runs really smooth, none of the horrible graphics lag you get with many modern games where eye candy has taken over from speedy gameplay.
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8 of 9 people (89%) found this review helpful
Recommended
6.8 hrs on record
Posted: April 6
you know hwt they say "old but gold" buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut it didnt age well :3

-graphicly you will be laughing at it , low texture resolution ; pixelated cinematics (300x300 or something like that lol ), rigid and limited animation, (even on ultra kinda look like the early games on ps 2 and xbox 1 ) but you cant blame it i mean the game is 11 year old
- the plot is really well done here , just like early COD games ,cinematic style
- great voice acting , perfect sound effects and enjoyable game music
- basic fps gameplay , but really hard to master, unlike COD there is no auto health regeneration and the enemies are quick deadly and sharphoter on medium and hard difficulty , if you die you will restart the level ( no checkpoints but good hing that the lvls are short) + there is some cheat codes to help
-Dead multi, empty servers all the time ( can't blame people for that, why play this game online when you can play cs go and cod ?!!)
-no bugs or glitches
- no cards and achievements
i recommend this game for people that want nostalgia and remember the good old days and i find the price reasonable but you can always get it on sales
7/10
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9 of 11 people (82%) found this review helpful
Recommended
7.3 hrs on record
Posted: December 8, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOBH8tJxq2g

http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Shadow_Ops:_Red_Mercury - check here for fixing the FOV and to run the game on widscreen monitor

When the gaming world was still on a WW2 wave, one developer saw opportunity to take the action in modern days and Shadow Ops: Red Mercury was born. Well, this is what I think happen.

First I want to move out the obvious – graphics. They are bad. There isn't enough video options, but those that are present can't make the game look good. It doesn't matter if you set them on the highest available setting, it's still not a great looker. And the pop in is so obvious at some levels, it's so annoying. This maybe because it's a console port.

In the audio section you can find 4 different sliders. Music, effects, dialogs and voices. For some reason music is off by default, so crank that music to the max, because it's awesome. Also you can rebind keys and customize the HUD, which is a nice surprise.

You are Frank Hayden, an elite Delta Force operative, who is tasked sometimes with his team, sometimes alone, to recover a briefcase nuclear bomb from Vladimir Styanovich a.k.a. Vlady the Vicious, a terrorist mercenery. You will travel around the globe trying to stop him. The story is cheesy, cliché and you can see the twist from a long distance. But the action, music and great variety of places you visit are what can keep you interested.

Shadow Ops: Red Mercury is military FPS. It was made in 2003, before COD: MW. The game is not realistic, it have arcade feel, but make no mistake, this is not Quake. If you try to run and gun, death will come quickly. This game is tough, but fair to a certain degree. This is because of the AI. It is highly accurate. Sometimes enemies are cheaply placed and this annoyed me a lot. There is not enough time to react. You can take quite a few shots (even a rocket), but they may come so quickly and before you know it, you're dead. Because of the AI, there are a lot of tense firefights in and outdoor. You, as one man army will have to kill waves of enemies and it feels so good, when you beat a level, you overcome the odds. The game grabs you for the neck right from the first level. You are pin down by enemies and you have to get out of there fast. There is two more things that will keep the tension. The health is not regenerating, you have to find med packs and ammo is running fast. Enemies can sometimes drop both of them and they also can be found around the levels, but still you have to be careful and accurate in your shots. Some maybe frustraded by that and I was at some point. I had low health, ammo and only a pistol, but I manage to get through this and it was great feeling. Some of the frustration comes from the lack of checkpoints. The levels are not long, but combine with the all things I mentioned above, thing can get annoying. In the end who will pull the trigger first is what matters.

What was suprising to me is the AI of your fellow soldiers. When you are on a mission with them, they can actually kill enemies. But don't expect them to make more kills than you.

Weapons are pretty standard – pisols, sniper rifles, uzi, shotgun, machine gun, granade launcher and so on. They all have recoil and feel good. They kick, so shooting in short burst is recommended . Headshots, of course, are most effective.

Level design is nice. You will visit the jungles in Congo full with shacks and wooden watchtowers, hightech facility in Kazakhstan, streets in ruins in Syria, harbor in Chechnya, ride a train and so on. They are really diverce, but there is nothing suprising. This is not a open world, it's a corridor shooter, but still be on a lookout for hidden ammo or health packs. Sometimes it will the difference between restarting the level and beating it.

What keeps everything together is the soundtrack. It is phenomenal!!! It contribute for the atmosphere a lot. All levels have different theme and fits incredibly well with the pacing and the action on screen. In a snowy level, where is advise to use stealth, the music is calm, but if enemy see you, right at that moment the music picks up seamlessly and so on.

As a whole the sound design is nicely done. Effects are okay. Every gun sound what it supose to, explosion are bombastic, but granades are weak. The voice acting on the other hand is hit and miss. Hayden have gruff voice. It overdone, but it's still pleasant for the ears. But Vladimir Styanovich, if you can hear him, it's just bad. Other voice actor are just okay. They are doing their best with the cheesy writting

I have two more small problems with the game. The cutscene are rendered with the engine, but why they look worse than the in-game graphics is a mystery to me. The other is you can't use aim and move and this makes you easy target. It took me awhile to get use to it.

The game feels like it was inspired from of 90's summer blockbuster movies – tons of action, one man army, tense moments, the main character do imposible things and gets the girl in the end, even the cinematography of the cutscene (they are great) scream 90's. And don't think of the plot too much. If you do, you will find a tons of plot holes. The game is janky, rough around the edges, but the great firefights, amazing sountdrack, nice variety of levels and tension are worth overlooking the pop in, dated graphics, cheaply placed enemies, no checkpoints and the cliché story, although the plot in my opinion is working in favor of the game. And I think the price I right. The campaign will take you b 6-7 hours to beat it. The multyplayer is dead, so keep that in mind. The game have one small, but unique feature – except throwing granades, you can roll them. Despite the flaws, I recommend it.
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10 of 13 people (77%) found this review helpful
Recommended
0.7 hrs on record
Posted: July 29, 2015
If you played Delta Force Black Hawk Down and loved that, then you should play this, it's really good.
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14 of 21 people (67%) found this review helpful
Recommended
2.5 hrs on record
Posted: July 3, 2014
The score that metacritic, and Ign said about this game is not right what so ever. The game is about you, Captain Frank Hayden and your squad of Delta force elites to stop terrorists from getting their hands on WMD's. The graphics aren't the greatest but keep in mind this was for the Xbox one (old one not the new one) and we know what great games came from that console. The Campaing lets you battle the terrorist groups from the dusty streets of the Middle east, to the wet and compact jungles of the Congo. It reminds me of half life a little bit because every part of a level you beat makes you download another part of it. The weapons of the game are very unique because some of the weapons in the game you don't see in many modern shooters today. The beginning level of the campaing reminds me of the ending of COD4 a little bit. Multiplayer is amazing supporting up to 32 players. Overall this is a hidden gem of xbox games. I really hope that a company can make this again but add more campaing levels, update the graphics, and add some physics. 9/10
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Recently Posted
Chesumasuta
24.3 hrs
Posted: September 3
This is a lo-fi junkie's wet dream. I discovered this in my own library after seeing some 007AUF-esque screenshots and immediately became hooked by the fast-paced gunplay and lo-res textures. With pixelated carnage awaiting you around every potato-quality corner, this game captures the post-golden age zeitgeist of FPS's wih pride, honor, and vivid block pixels. Would 420p again.
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(Gone)
3.3 hrs
Posted: August 23
Product received for free
Ever seen one of those typical cliche action movies?
This game is like that kind of movie... but in game form.
Typical cliche action story? Check
Hollywood styled scenes? Check
Bad Russian guys? Check
Betrayals? Check
Nukes? Check
ETC.
You get the point.
But you know what? Even with all of these things this game is actually good!
Sure, the game is from 2004, graphics are old, and the multiplayer may be dead, but it's still great.
You should probably check this game out if you like these kind of action games.
For now I reccomend getting the game during sales.
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fps gamesfan
4.1 hrs
Posted: August 15
one of the best fps games ever lots of action and killing good weapons and levels every fps genre fan should own this game this is a MUST HAVE GAME
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beefy100
1.0 hrs
Posted: June 27
Shadow Ops: Red Mercury feels like a Modern Warfare prototype and it actually plays out very well. It's an old game but it still fun to play and it has that charm found in games released in the early to mid 2000's.

The plot is simple, a Special Forces operative needs to recover a nuke that has been stolen by terroist. You have access to a good arsnel while having to fight waves of enemies with your squad. The combat and gameplay are very simple but this is an old game from the 2000's. There are a few annoying glitchs but nothing to series.

Overall if you liked Modern Warfare or just want a dumb military shooter, then Shadow Ops: Red Mercury is the perfect game.
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Kyrii
7.5 hrs
Posted: June 20
Well, ain't this a blast from the past?

I remember renting this on the Xbox in 2004 after being bombarded by an avalanche of adds for the game on every gameplay video I watched on gamespot (everyone complains about the media player nowadays but the video player back in the day was like a brief glimpse of hell) and to be honest, the premise was quite enticing. Most FPS's back in the day fell into either the Sci-Fi or WW2 categories and most contemporary shooters were TPS's or tactical shooters like Rainbow Six, SOCOM, Counter-Strike, Delta Force or Ghost Recon. All of them were very realistic in terms of difficulty and pacing and were quite hard to get into because of that, so Shadow Op's was interesting as it took the more arcade-like approach to it's combat.

I had a lot of fun with it back in the day so obviously I decided to pick it up many years later only to buy it again once more on Steam.

So, obviously, considering I rented the game multiple times and bought it twice, my review is leaning on the biased side, but I digress. It's a nice blast to the past.

No one ever saw an FPS like this, especially one that was trying super hard to play out like a big dumb summer thriller. While nowadays everyone is so sick of Contemporary shooters we are now gasping for joy at the prospekt of a WW2 shooter like the good ol' days, Shadow Op's is still quite astounding. The sound and production values were pretty crazy for an Xbox game in 2004. The audio itself was pretty damn impressive, with reverb in gunfire and outdoor environs giving your guns a more distant crackle with every pull of the trigger.

Story wise, the plot is pretty forgettable but ironically, is saved by corny cliches that make otherwise crap dialogue unintentionally humorous in hindsight. This, coupled with the ridiculous ragdolls and giggle-inducing death squeals of fallen enemies gives the game an unintentional humorous edge. Which to me isn't a bad thing.

Gameplay wise, the shooting mechanics are tight and the controls are responsive. The player is capable of leaning while using ironsights (an unseen concept back then) but I found crouching had to much of a delay in most firefights.

Speaking of firefights, the game is chock-full of them. While boasting 25 levels you progress through them fairly quickly even on harder settings. On hard, enemies take more of a beating and can knock your health down if you are not as quick on the draw while on easier settings they go down like chumps and tend to spill ammo like blood. Regardless of the settings, I've noticed that their reflexes are still very high. However, there is no quicksaving or checkpoint saving whatsover. You have to get to the end of the level to continue, but if you die inches from the exit door, tough ♥♥♥♥! You have to do the entire level all over again! Offputting, but it's not as crushing as other games, due to the relatively short lengh of most levels and an overabundence of medkits.

All in all, I had a lot of fun with this game back in the day and I still do now. It hasn't aged the best, Unreal 2 was showing its age in 2004 and while its used to good effect here, it's not exactly eyecandy, not to mention the Modern-Military edge may detter modern players due to an overstauration in the market, but I can't deny the fun I had playing this. It's big, it's loud, it's dumb and just like the conspiracy theory it is based off of, the story doesn't hold much water, but screw it. Shadow Op's is a nice relic that tried to be different in a market over-staurated with Sci-Fi and WW2 themes. So I guess I can tip my beercap in Shadow Ops' general direction.

Give it a go :)
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jacob200x
6.1 hrs
Posted: May 30
its a cod single player game for a dollar, I'd say give it a go if you want a really dumb shooter
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PvtHudson
3.1 hrs
Posted: May 20
I still own my original Xbox copy of this game. I didn't like it when I played it back in the day and I sure as hell don't like it now. The PC version is better than the Xbox one in every shape and form however the Xbox one has 10 levels designed for split-screen co-op.

Shadow Ops is a cheesy generic linear modern first person shooter where you play as a generic American voiced by Steve Blum who travels around the world fighting terrorists. The level design consists of nothing more than walking down a set path with scripted ambushes thrown everywhere. Turn a corner? There's 5 enemies there in cover waiting for you. Open an elevator door? 3 enemies there in cover waiting for you. All the enemies have perfect accuracy and there's no mid-mission saves. This type of cheap enemy placement results in damage that is unpreventable.

Dying has you restart the game all over again. Shadow Ops is a game of memorization. Memorize the placements of cheap scripted enemy ambushes and you win the game. If I wanted to play a game of memorization, I'd play Contra.

Also, since this was designed for console first, the game lacks sprint, blood, and all the FMVs are low-res and compressed.

Full review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVTfdyzOI3M
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Shadow Ops
4.4 hrs
Posted: May 20
Shadow Ops: Red Mercury
fast game with modern day graphics with easy controls that moves from location A to B to C and so on,
good amount of action and special effects

good game.
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I039_gaming
8.6 hrs
Posted: May 2
This game strangely reminds me of Black Hawk down for the first mission. then it gets weirder as you progress. I don't even know what is going on in the level i am playing.
7\10
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Sage2001
9.1 hrs
Posted: April 27
This game is pretty good, especially for the $1.74 I paid for it. The story is a dumb blockbuster plot that is pretty simple. Gameplay is pretty simple: Move, shoot and plant SLAMS.

Also I should note this game runs butter smooth on my ♥♥♥♥♥♥ desktop, at a steady 60+fps. There isn't widescreen support but I think you can edit the .ini or some ♥♥♥♥.
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