Multiplayer modes provide challenging dimension

By JOHN GAUDIOSI
SPECIAL TO WASHINGTON POST
New video game "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury" is a first-person shooter, more Hollywood blockbuster than Tom Clancy novel, that puts you in charge of a special-forces team that must track down a suitcase-size nuclear device that could level a city. The 25 missions in "Red Mercury" hopscotch among such locales as Congolese jungles, Parisian subways and Syrian deserts. As you might guess from this title's publisher and developer, this isn't a hard-core military simulation like "Full Spectrum Warrior"; for the most part, it's a run-and-gun arcade game with only a loose grounding in real-world tactics.
This does not, however, make "Red Mercury" all that easy. With too few save points, it sometimes forces you to replay an entire level, a frustrating and boring waste of time. The game's multiplayer modes on Xbox Live, including a split-screen cooperative mode and the standard death match and capture-the-flag modes for up to eight players, provide a better balance of challenge and replay value. The game's sharp graphics and six-channel surround sound also help make up for some of its shortfalls.
X"Shadow Ops: Red Mercury," by Atari/Zombie, is for Xbox systems.