WinBack: Covert Operations

"An Awful Metal Gear Solid Clone"

Not once have I ever seen a game that blatantly rips off two games in one. Winback does that without question. Winback tries to have a gripping story like Metal Gear Solid, but it just doesn’t carry it out since it is unoriginal, and the characters are lame. I never once cared about any of the characters, since all they say is dull, pointless stuff, and the action itself is just plain bad.

Winback's story is a total rip off of both Goldeneye's and Metal Gear Solid's. In Winback, you play as Jean-Luc, who must sneak in behind enemy lines to stop a group of terrorists from firing a high tec weapons satellite. Where did they get that from? It makes you stop and think...

Sound and Music is almost non-existent. Winback lacks any voice acting, so you read text. As for music, you hear a bunch of stupid sounds that get somewhat faster when you get shot.

The action is just lame. First, you must aim to fire, which is a total pain in the butt. When you fight enemies every 5 seconds, you need to shoot fast. In Winback however, you must constantly aim. For example, say 3 guys are attacking you, you hold down R to aim and target your shot to fire at the first guy. Sound fine? now listen, Each guy takes about 4 shots to kill, by the time you are ready to aim at the next guy, they are already right next to you, shooting you, and you are now dead.

The bosses are pathetic! First of all, they look really stupid and strike no fear inside of you whatsoever, and second, they have much more firepower than you do and you must constantly hide from them. Sound like fun?

Now the level design, each level looks the exactly the same as the one you played before it. There aren't any puzzles, you just run through each level, shoot tons of guys, and find an exit. No objectives, No parameters, No real challenge.

Now, the multiplayer. There is no radar, you just basically run around and shoot your friends. Also, you can barely see anything around you, since the screens are so small.

Winback is a terrible action game that wishes it had the stealth of Metal Gear Solid, and the action of Goldeneye. It would probably be much more fun to play Goldeneye or Perfect Dark again, than to sit through this miserable game.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 12/30/00, Updated 12/30/00