Winback: Covert Operations

Written by Steve Graff  on June 22, 2000

Review: Konami...who needs them and there stupid Metal Gear. We have the other K company

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Winback was the title that was honored by being called a better game than Jet Force Gemini. This caused a dilemma for gamers wondering JFG or WinBack. Both games got good reviews, but some publications gave WinBack better scores. What makes WinBack so special? Well it uses the unique system of targeting and stealth like abilities that you see in most action shooter movies, and of course the game is fun.

The visuals are pretty slick. As I would look in the instruction manual, I would look at the cool artwork, and then turn back to the game and see almost every detail if not all details on the uniforms there in 3D. Sometimes the backgrounds are a little bland, but what do you expect for something that almost simulates a shooter movie. There aren't going to be any bright flashing colors. The weapons all look very nice, just like they are supposed to look. All of the characters have their own distinguishable faces that look real good. Explosions are nothing special, just about average looking but still always fun to pull off. Is it just me or is there some connection between Snake from Metal Gear, and Jake from WinBack?

The controls had me confused for a few minutes. After playing JFG so much i had grown accustomed to that control style. It has a kind of auto target system, and its especially easy to use with the red laser point. There is no jump feature as in JFG, but by now I should stop comparing the 2, because they are very different. WinBack is a stealth shooter game, and i don't think that real military special force soldiers hop around the place on an important mission. The controls are as follows... R is for aim, B is trigger and reloading (when not aiming), A is to back up against a wall, and open doors. That's the basics. Once i played into the game for a few tries, the controls started growing on me (the doctor said its a type of fungus). Good controls...

Winback's audio is good and bad. The voices of the bad guys if you're discovered frightened me the first time. You'd be scared too with the lights on in the afternoon and...Never mind, go ahead and laugh at me. They just shout out ,"OVER HERE!" real loud. The gun sounds and blasts are great too. Explosions are what you would expect to hear, and the sound of your enemy screaming b4 they die sounds dandy. I also did get up to a boss woman with big guns (no second meaning) that cackles when she blasts about the equivalent of a small army's ammo at you. The bad? Music. It's mediocre at best. I don't know if i was certain, but were they using the same song over and over again?

Was I satisfied? Overall I say that i was satisfied with renting it. It is probably worth a buy. The game is a good mixture of action like in action movies, and strategy. It's like a 3rd person Virtua Cop, and it's got a good story.

In Winback, the replay value is average. If you hadn't played too far into the game as to beat it, you will want to as soon as the game picked up pace, you just want to keep playing to find out what's going to happen. Like a good action flick, you'll want to see WinBack to the end and maybe more.