G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout Reviews
G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout's beautiful animated cutscenes can't make up for the poor gameplay and lack of online multiplayer.
G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is an exciting premise; you play as both the Joes and Cobra, helping to restore order and conquer the world at the same time. It’s a team-based game, where you can solo/co-op play through the campaign and duke it out with your buddy, split-screen locally of course, (not an option for this Covid era, however).
G.I. Joe fans haven't had much to celebrate over the last two decades, but G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is a solid step forward in the franchise's return to greatness. It's not an experience that's likely to excite those unfamiliar with the brand, but this is a game that was clearly made for those looking for a genuine, G.I. Joe experience. IguanaBee and Fair Play Labs put a lot of effort into getting all of the little details right, delivering an experience that's absolutely worth checking out for Joe fans. The game doesn't offer anything too revolutionary, but this is a licensed game that does right by its audience. Yo Joe!
Overall I think G.I. Joe Operation Blackout is decent but will quickly fall into obscurity with the abundance of better quality third-person shooters on modern consoles. In my opinion, the diehard genre fans won't give much thought to this without online gameplay. In truth, this game will mostly appeal to a limited niche, mainly GI-Joe fans.
If you're a sentimental fan of G.I. Joe, then you are the most likely to truly enjoy this game. G.I. Joe fans will enjoy the characters, the things to collect, the Saturday morning cartoon-ish visuals, as well as the campy cartoony storyline. For all others, this will just come across as a run-of-the-mill third-person shooter game that will require some patience to find a control scheme setting you can work with.
G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout is messy. The presentation is inconsistent, while the story is serviceable at best. The addition of local multiplayer outweighs the lack of online play, and the game is lengthy enough. However, the poor combat mechanics drag down the experience heavily, and on a platform that's absolutely bursting with more competent third-person shooters, this is one that you can easily pass on.
The tone is here, but the rest is mediocre.