![]() Xbox Game Pass subscribers will be able to download Operation Catalyst for no extra charge starting February 10, 2022. ![]() Even if the campaigns were masterpieces of storytelling, it would still be hard to forgive just how frustrating, uninventive, and mind-numbingly dull the action is in nearly every single chapter.Smilegate Entertainment’s CrossfireX will be available for preload on Xbox platforms (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One) starting today, January 31 at 4pm PT.Īlso available will be some special pre-order packages, one of which includes both single player campaigns developed by Remedy Entertainment – Operation Catalyst and Operation Spectre. There are only four types of enemies throughout both campaigns: unarmored soldiers who die immediately, armored soldiers who take a few extra shots to kill, soldiers with shields who can just be shot in the legs, and drones who seem to mostly just hover around and wait to be killed. Aiming is sloppy no matter what settings you select, almost every weapon feels identical to the last, and there are very few interesting mechanics to break up any of that monotony. I've played a lot of shooters, but I've never experienced anything quite like this. The real issue is that both campaigns use a slight variation of the same atrocious gunplay and controls found in the multiplayer modes. Unfortunately, weak storytelling is only the beginning for CrossfireX’s single-player modes. In both cases I was left with the bitter taste of disappointment. There are moments in both weak stories that seemed to be flirting with the supernatural and gave me false hope that a redeeming twist that would take this by-the-numbers shooter and turn it into something more interesting was just around the corner. The highlight of Spectre is the final level when it finally starts introducing some new and interesting mechanics… just before the story ends with little fanfare a few minutes later. The weird, prophetic story here is vague, predictable, and feels crammed into another tiny campaign I completed in a single sitting. Instead it ends abruptly, and Operation Spectre sadly does away with the squad formula as it puts you in the shoes of a troubled thief who finds himself recruited by an organization known as Black List to become their ultimate weapon. It’s still utterly unclear to me why, which is disappointing given Remedy’s history of making bizarre characters on the edge of insanity work well. What follows is a bizarre mission to save one of your own squadmates while the main protagonist descends into madness for… reasons. The first, Operation Catalyst, has you working with a squad of some of the most generic soldiers in recent memory as they set out to kill a leader of their rival organization in the fictional country of Azkharzia. This pair of three-hour campaigns both feel like a hundred military shooters I’ve played over the years and immediately forgotten. As a single-player game, CrossfireX is very much a bomb. Both of CrossfireX’s campaigns are built around the pointless adventures of dull characters, never approach anything resembling a challenge due to enemy AI that’s as useful as a chocolate tea kettle, and feel incomplete and unsatisfying as they come to an abrupt end after only a few hours each. ![]() Not only do both modes suffer from the same issues involving gunplay and controls mostly, but the single-player campaign’s shallow stories told across two mini-episodes only add to the disappointment. If you were hoping that Remedy, the developer of Control and Alan Wake, could live up to its name and find a cure for CrossfireX’s dreadful multiplayer sandbox, I have some bad news.
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