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Preview:

17th April 2004:
Shadow Ops: Red Mercury
We take a look at this eagerly-awaited, gritty, real-world first-person shooter from Atari.
Posted by John Grothier - Xbox,PC - UK and Europe

This June will see the release of Shadow Ops: Red Mercury on the Xbox and PC. Set in the near future, Shadow Ops: Red Mercury is a gritty, real-world first-person shooter (FPS) in which players are invited to become an elite Delta Force operative. Shadow Ops: Red Mercury uses the latest version of the Unreal Technology from Epic Games, and developers Zombie Games are creating an ultra-realistic game world for the player. This FPS will take players from Middle Eastern cities and towns to the secret military bases in the frozen backcountry of Russia to other global hotspots in the Philippines, Bosnia and Western Europe.

The story in Shadow Ops: Red Mercury centres around a female Russian double-agent who discovers some vital information on 'Red Mercury' - a secret substance that can be used as a nuclear accelerant. The National Security Agency (NSA) has handpicked you to pursue the Red Mercury before it can be used to build backpack nuclear devices and sold to terrorist organizations.

Shadow Ops will feature a variety of single player gameplay challenges, such as hostage rescue, demolition and body guard. Players will also get the chance to fight alongside international special forces from the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France and Germany - and as the story progresses players may also have to fight against these deadly special forces. Powered by the Unreal engine, the 20 single-player levels will span the globe, with indoor and outdoor locations with highly detailed textures based on actual on-location photo shoots.

Shadow Ops: Red Mercury will include a huge arsenal of weapons for the player to utilize, with more than 20 authentic general military and special forces weapons available. Atari promise that Red Mercury will have the most intense and detailed graphics on any system, as well as unparalleled multiplayer gaming for PC and Xbox - via Xbox Live. The multiplayer aspect of Shadow Ops: Red Mercury will feature several different game modes, including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Plant the Bomb, Capture the Flag and Escort. The Xbox version will support a whopping 16 players on Xbox Live for some fast and furious fragging action.

The graphics in Red Mercury look absolutely gorgeous, and the developers have spent a lot of time with the character models in the game - photorealistic characters with facial animation and motion captured body animations performed by real members of elite special forces teams. The sound is also impressive, with sound effects provided by Soundelux, a Hollywood sound effects studio that has worked on recent blockbusters like Black Hawk Down, Charlie's Angels 2 and Kill Bill. The game will also be prsented in Dolby 5.1 surround sound.

With Halo 2 still a long way off, we are really looking forward to getting our hands on Shadow Ops: Red Mercury when it's released on 25th June. Until then we have some breathtaking new screenshots for you.

John Grothier

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Shadow Ops: Red Mercury
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