Renegade Ops

Renegade Ops feels like the model of a fantastic downloadable game designed to the strengths of digital distribution. It's big, loud, sort of dumb, and a ton of fun because it focuses on one thing, and does that one thing exceedingly well. For $15, what more do you want?

If you're looking for some explosive fun on Xbox Live, it is hard to go wrong with Renegade Ops. The gameplay is tight, the experience polished, and the game plays out like a 80s action movie.

Avalanche knocked this out of the park. Renegade Ops is a brilliant game and easily one of the best of 2011, downloadable or otherwise, and it's not to be missed.

It's the kind of game that ends with someone punching a woman in the face. The kind of game where good guys don't look at explosions. The kind of game that results in an absolute, amazing sense of chaos when it can get all 4 players in and, despite a few flaws, it's the kind of game that reminds you that games don't have to be high art, philosophical ideals, branching paths and morality systems.

It's surprising but I haven't felt such a fresh breeze in a long time. Renedage Ops is a classic game in a new, shiny package. A great, outstanding and captivating product, a true gem among games sold through digital distribution. It doesn't do anything new but it's homework is done perfectly. It is a gamer's bible written in binary code. Pure awesomeness!

If you love games about simply blowing up things in a stunning fashion Renegade Ops is unsurpassed. It's only made even better with local co-op for two players, or four players online, where it stands on its own two feet as a modern master class of the genre.

Renegade Ops uses simple but effective gameplay mechanics, which will be liked for those looking for an spiritual succesor of Jackal, and also shoot'em up lovers. The game is short in duration, but its cooperative modes compensate for it.

Renegade Ops came out of nowhere. It's one of the most stress-free, funny and downright playable titles of the year.

As all of us I would like games to be ambitious, unconventional, surprising and thought inspiring. But sometimes I just want to blow stuff up and this intense, good looking traditional twin stick shooter satisfies this need perfectly. [November 2011, p.82]

An extremely polished twin-stick shooter, Renegade Ops offers up expansive levels, lush visuals and just the right amount of challenge.

It is incredibly well made and boasts enough content and fun to warrant the price sticker. If you enjoy straight-up action and plenty of explosions, then this game is for you.

Renegade Ops is an excellent old-fashioned action game.

Reminds us a video game doesn't need much to be fun. Give us a war machine and stuff to blow up and we'll soon be enjoying ourselves. This operation looks great and provides lots of amusing, '80s action movie thrills.

If you're looking for some good, old-fashioned devastation, you could do a lot worse spending time as a renegade.

A smart mix of retro twin-stick shooter and current tech, and a glorious throwback to arcade blasters of olden times. [Christmas 2011, p.111]

If you like your dual stick games and don't mind shelling out 1200 Microsoft Points, this game is a must buy. Hopefully we will see the freezing issues sorted soon because if it wasn't for this, Renegade Ops would most certainly sit up there with the best of them.

It's always refreshing to see new franchises succeed, and Renegade Ops does just that. [Issue#115, p.104]

An addictive, impressive-looking and fun shooter. [Issue#78, p.102]

Renegade Ops combines a B-movie story with a narrative influenced by comic books, where different characters with different abilities and some rpg elements give the arcade-like experience more depth. It's fun as a singleplayer game, but the co-op mode is where the game really shines.

Renegade Ops is, without doubt, a fantastic amalgamation of the tongue-in-cheek comic world and the high score shooter, reminiscent of arcade classics such as Desert Strike. A bullet-fuelled adventure in which battles are vicious, bosses are silly and a great deal of fun can be had by all.

Renegade Ops doesn't aim to push any boundaries or blow our minds in any substantial way; its sole purpose is to give gamers an incredibly fun game they can share with their friends. It might not be something you remember a year from now but this is definitely an experience you should check out, if only because there isn't anything out there with this level of polish or a personality this nutty and consistently fun.

As a rather small and downloadable game, Renegade Ops excels in being a fast-paced, intensive and compelling analogue shooter. Its narrative and story components may not be much, but as a fast in-fast out action game with or without friends, it´s a blast.

Incredibly fun and worthy of a multiple playthroughs, Avalanche's latest will hopefully spur other developers to construct similar love letters to arcade gaming's glory days, whether they have a triple-A engine at their disposal or not.

Are you looking for an arcade title where you can blow up buildings and kill countless of enemies in a campaign mode that will take around six hours to complete? Do you love screen filling explosions? If the answer is yes to both questions, then look no further, because Renegade Ops is just the right game for you.

Enjoyable like an old arcade but with visuals suitable to our times, Renegade Ops is one of the best downloadable games we've seen these last months.

It may be a simple old-school arcade twin-stick shooter but the huge maps, secondary objectives, and fun things to discover like being able to collapse buildings by driving through them elevate Renegade Ops to must-play territory.

Explosive combat and terrific controls make Renegade Ops a great vehicular dual-stick shooter.

But for a reasonably priced downloadable game where you're driving/flying around in tiny vehicles, Renegade Ops certainly doesn't feel small. In fact, it's genuinely one of the most entertaining and polished action titles I've played on a digital platform.

In an age where self-consciously clever design can become an end in itself, there's something reassuring about a game that opts to be so deliciously old-fashioned, yet offers a deceptive amount of depth via well balanced upgrades and a robust scoring system.

Great value co-op-orientated dual stick shooter that revels in its shallowness and makes a virtue of its one note, but superbly tuned, gameplay.

Okay, so it's short and a bit repetitive, but you do get to blow a hell of a lot of stuff up.

IT has the kind of funny, light gameplay you'd expect from this kind of production. Beware of the bugs though, that we hope can be soon fixed.

Renegade Ops sees Avalanche successfully putting a thoroughly modern spin - and more than a few spin-outs - on well-worn mechanics. If you're reading, EA, we know just the team for that Strike reboot.

A brief hit of retro goodness that loses its enchantment all too soon. If you're looking for a demanding blast from the past, Renegade Ops will sort you out for a week or two; just don't expect to be playing it for much longer than that.