I’ll admit, I don’t have as much experience with G.I. Joe as some might expect. I have seen some of the cartoons and my mom is a big fan, but other than watching the recent movies, I don’t have much history with the franchise. However, I saw G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout as an opportunity to change that and to connect with the roots of the franchise. Sadly, that did not go as I hoped.

G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is a Third-Person Shooter that puts you in the shoes of popular G.I. Joe characters, as well as characters from the villainous Cobra. Just like Sonic Adventure 2, you will ultimately wind up playing as both the good guys and the bad guys over the course of the campaign. In the story mode, Cobra has managed to take over the world using the Blackout Sphere, which knocked out all electrical equipment across the globe except for their own.

It is up to you to join the Joes to fight Cobra and try to save the world. At the same time, you will play various members of Cobra, trying to thwart the Joes and achieve their own ends. You can play the campaign either alone or in two-player co-op. If you are playing solo, the second character on your team in each level will be played by the AI.

Before each level, you choose your character, as well as any skin or weapon skin you’ve unlocked for them. Each character has a unique ultimate ability, as well as their own specific weapons. You can carry two weapons at once, but if you don’t like the one that your character starts with, you can pick up other weapons in each level. The weapons essentially play the same. There isn’t much difference to them beyond their ammo amount and fire rate. Granted, the true difference is in the stats of each character, which you can see before the level starts.

There is also a multiplayer mode, called Team Battle, in which four players can play locally (local multiplayer only in all modes) to compete in various styles of match. Personally, I don’t think the multiplayer will appeal to all that many players, but if you have young kids getting into shooters, it might be a good idea.

The campaign levels have various types of mechanics thrown in, as well as the usual third-person shooting. There are point capture areas where you kill waves of enemies defending an objective. There are also things like anti-aircraft minigames, where you shoot down planes, and tower defense levels. In truth, they’re all a bit of a mess, because the controls are a bit of a mess.

This is due to the fact that even though you can adjust the camera sensitivity, it isn’t refined enough to really make a difference. You’re usually either not sensitive enough or too sensitive at all times. Additionally, the environmental graphics are a disaster in some levels. Details may be blurry, things may not load in properly, and there are just so many issues.

That doesn’t even take into account that if you are playing by yourself, your AI partner is absolutely useless. Even on the easiest difficulty, I had a hard time succeeding, because my AI partner didn’t kill anything and maybe did a small amount of damage to a boss occasionally. Why they included an AI partner at all is beyond me.

The driving levels are also a disaster because, playing solo, you have to manage both shooting your vehicle’s weapon and driving. There are collectible G.I. Joe comics hidden in the levels, but I don’t see much incentive to collect them when the levels themselves are such a mess that it is barely tolerable to finish them.

The only saving grace to G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout, is the cutscenes. They are voiced well, designed in a comic-book style, and are generally enjoyable. For fans of the franchise and kids who want to lose themselves in the story, I could see it being a fun time. For the average gamer though I would not recommend G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout.

If I’m honest, it feels like a cash grab. I really wanted to like G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout, but it is hard when the game doesn’t give that many reasons to fall in love with it. Sometimes familiar characters and a beloved franchise aren’t enough. I’d love to see a developer really try to create a solid G.I. Joe adventure, but this one just fell short of the mark. However, as they say, knowing is half the battle.

A Nintendo Switch review copy of G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout was provided by GameMill Entertainment for this review.

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G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout

$39.99

4

Score

4.0/10

Pros

• Good for Kids
• Great Cutscenes Are Great
• Voice Acting is Well Done

Cons

• Graphical Issues Galore
• A.I. Does Nothing
• Camera Sensitivity Options Aren't Refined Enough