Operation Darkness
Operation Darkness is a tactical role-playing game for the Xbox 360 developed and published by Japanese studio Success on October 11, 2007 in Japan. A North American version was released on June 24, 2008 by Atlus. The game is a fantasy conception of World War II, featuring weaponry and events from that time period, but with fantasy elements such as dragons and vampires mixed in. Synopsis. "Operation Darkness" follows a squad of British SAS soldiers fighting the Nazis across the European Theater. The story covers much of the real history of the European war, including the battles  for North Africa and the liberation of mainland Europe. French resistance fighters, American soldiers, and others appear as non-player characters. The game diverges significantly from real history in that zombies of deceased Nazi soldiers appear as adversaries, and two of the player characters can transform into werewolves. Other fantasy elements include the appearance of supernatural foes such as vampires, as well as allowing the use of magic spells. Gameplay. Gameplay consists of a series of tactical battles; between battles, the player may resupply the characters, purchase new items, and select which characters will participate in the following mission. Battles  play out in standard tactical role-playing game (RPG) fashion, with turn order based on characters' speed statistics. During a turn, characters can move, attack, use items, pick up items from dead soldiers, and cast spells. The battle system also includes factors like cover and decreased accuracy from movement. Differing from the great majority of games of this genre, long-range attacks tend to be far more frequent than close-range attacks, and many characters can hit targets with high accuracy from a distance of more than half of the battlefield. Much like games such as "Fire Emblem", characters killed  in battle remain dead permanently (unless revived by one specific player character before the end of the stage). Generic soldiers can be recruited to replace fallen ones; however, the death of a story character results in a game over. Characters possess the following attributes: HP, MS (martial spirit), Attack, Defense, Speed, Hit, Luck, Weight, and Move. Each character also has specific weapon-related abilities and other skills, predisposing them to particular weapon types. In addition, characters can carry up to five weapons and five items. Each weapon and item has a weight value as well, and characters who are overburdened  receive penalties to movement. Two player characters can transform into werewolves, which massively increases their speed and attack. However, maintaining the werewolf form costs MS every turn, limiting its use to short durations. Characters. "Operation Darkness" contains several story-essential playable characters, who participate in battles as well as in event scenes between battles. The official website for the title lists the following: Reception. "Operation Darkness" received "generally unfavorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. "IGN" said, "Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong." In Japan, "Famitsu" gave it a score of three sixes and one  five for a total of 23 out of 40.