Hazard Ops

Game overview

Hazard Ops is a third person shooter MMO developed by Yingpei Games and released by Infernum. A spiritual successor to the highly popular Mercenary Ops (and actually called Mercenary Ops 2 in some markets), it is a well-made title chock full of content and variety for the shooter fan.

Choose between PvP or PvE to play in teams either against other players or against waves of mercenaries, zombies and pretty much any enemy imaginable – Hazard Ops has them all. Battles themselves are fast paced and thrilling, arenas where every second and move count. The maps are truly impressive and can be combined with the range of different play modes expected from any decent shooter nowadays.

While the weapons and gear you get by playing the game will get you through the beginner stages and PvE, those looking to compete seriously in the PvP ranks will likely have to pay real money.

Full review

After customizing your character’s gender and appearance, you’ll find yourself immediately choosing between PvP or PvE mode – the two play realms of the game. PvP has you fighting various death matches against other players in teams, while PvE pits you against the Hazard Ops’ hordes of militants, zombies and deranged or mutated (or both) animals.

Tutorial good, notifications bad.

Whichever you choose, you’re immediately faced with a flurry of notification menus – everything from available missions to daily bonuses to the beginner gear you’re given warranted its own notification, which seemed like overkill for a first login. After clicking through about 500 of these things, you’re directed to the first tutorial, and things go uphill from there. There are several tutorial missions to complete, each focusing on a different aspect of the gameplay, from learning basic controls to surviving your first horde and working in a team. Thanks to these well designed and easy to follow training missions and the game’s fairly simple controls, Hazard Ops is easy to pick up and dive right into.

It’s worth noting that though the game uses most of the familiar controls shooter fans have come to know as second nature, the space bar seemed a little overstretched – you use it to run, take cover and roll/dodge, which can result in you suddenly taking cover behind a wall when you were actually trying to run past it; and getting slaughtered by whoever you were trying to run away from. The game is still in open beta, so hopefully an improvement to this or options to customize controls will be given later.

Excellent maps and plenty to do on them

Whether you choose PvP or PvE, Hazard Ops has a ton of content to keep you happy. The game has over 60 maps for you to unlock, explore and kill things in, from an enormous abandoned dam to the ominously named Skull Island, and all of them are well designed and rendered. Particularly striking and a testament to the excellent graphics of this title is a map set on a moving train that ploughs through foggy landscape and frequent tunnels, which suddenly plunge the entire map into near-darkness and add an interesting challenge to gameplay. Adding to the replay value is the fact that every map has randomly generated areas, creating variations that make the map different each time. Certain maps also have destroyable scenery, allowing players to bring down bridges and walls to improve their position – or just revel in the destruction.

On top of the maps, there is a wide range of play modes to choose from, which will be familiar to fans of the genre. Fight continuous hordes in Survival, or dispose of enemy team members one by one in Extermination. The battles themselves are fast paced and thrilling. As you make kills you unlock bonuses and weapons, but pause too long to enjoy it and someone else could easily take you down. Reloading takes an especially long time and timing it just right is part of the strategy of the game.

The variety in the game continues with the enemies. Hazard Ops almost feels like a library of all the enemies ever to appear in games. You’ll fight other mercenaries but also zombies, deranged dogs, robots and all manner of weird mutated horrors. The story mode in the PvE experience offers a loose explanation for this – scientists have opened portals to other realities! – and allows you to uncover the story with other players by your side. While the story isn’t very original, it is intense and fairly challenging, and also offers huge level bosses that will test your team’s cooperative play to bring down.

Features and cash shop

The War Room shows all the games currently being played with other players, and you can dive right in or create a game of your own. These games are classed by difficulty and player experience, to give newbies a chance and the more experienced a challenge. Missions show daily events and quests to play, either just to rack up gold and experience by killing a certain number of foes or surviving a certain period of time, or to challenge your own personal best with timed tasks. And of course, as you level up you’ll be able to customize your character’s weapons and gear in the Locker, buying new ones as you go or just upgrading with modifications like a Silencer for a rifle.

Hazard Ops uses a time-rent system for the weapons you use – guns can be used for a certain number of days or hours before they have to be “renewed” with in-game currency. Better gear and weapons can of course be purchased using real money, as can Revive Tokens that give you a second chance in battle, and while the weapons you get otherwise will serve you just fine at the early difficulties or in the PvE arenas, you won’t stand much of a chance against paying players in the PvP games, where every second and stat count.

Conclusion

Hazard Ops is a well-made game to make any shooter fan happy. With plenty of maps, modes and enemies to unlock and master, this is a great free-to-play title, though it is purely and unashamedly a fast-paced shooter – if you don’t like the genre, you won’t find much else to do here. Fans who want to stay competitive in the rankings against other players will also likely have to pay for an advantage.

Review summary

1. Tutorial good, notifications bad.
2. Excellent maps and plenty to do on them
3. Features and cash shop
4. Conclusion