New Eden Radio reviews: Operation Tango

Developer: Clever Plays

Publisher: Clever Plays

Release Date: 01JUN2021

Review Date: 30MAY2021

Platform: PC

Price at time of Review:  19.99 USD

Reviewed by: DJ Daggaroth

Operation Tango is a two-person co-op game that puts you and your partner in the role of secret agents in a high-tech future. One of you takes the role of the cunning Agent, while the other takes the role of the brilliant hacker. Together, the two of you will tackle challenges, solve puzzles, and defeat the baddies! 

During the bulk of my time playing this game for this review, I played the role of Hacker while our very own DJ Fantaz did the running around as Agent.   I would like to also mention that Operation Tango gets from me a gold star just for finally giving me the opportunity to fulfill a live long dream of being the “Person in the chair” running the cyber portion of the operation was fulfilling and I think you may be legally required to say out loud “I’m in” when breaching a computer system.  This alone is worth the price of admission for anyone who is like me who wanted to be that person in the chair.

Gameplay:

Score: 9/10

The game is broken up into several missions, each offering about 30 – 60 minutes long depending on how you go about tackling the challenges.  In each there are several puzzle-like challenges that require team work and cooperation in order to succeed.   At the heart of Operation Tango, this concept is core: Cooperation.    One example is of a puzzle challenge where you need to get a ball through a maze, however you can only control up and down and at the same time, your partner controls left and right.  Meanwhile the maze is slowly shifting or pulling in a certain direction and any touching of the walls of the maze mean starting over.  Sometimes the conversation got a little heated, but by in large, this was some of the most genuine fun that I’ve had in a good long while.  

I would also like to call attention briefly to the hint system. Each mission allowed up to 10 hints used during the mission, and while we got through the bulk of our play testing time without needing a hint, we still found occasion to need them in one particular difficult area.  One very neat thing I noted about Operation Tango’s hint system is that it requires both players to agree to display a hint before it is displayed.  Furthering that Cooperation and communication is what this game is all about.

My main complaint about the gameplay is there was not enough of it.   We were able to complete a full playthrough as our chosen characters in about 4 and a half hours without any replays.   Now don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of replayability.  The Experience had as the agent is completely different than the experience had while playing as the Hacker.  And so that 4 and a half hours of play can turn into 9 hours of content before you are doing the same tasks as the same character which I think puts the amount of content on release at a fair price.  I just hope there is more content in the future! I would happily pay for some DLC if it meant more content 😊

Audio:

Score: 10/10

The audio of Operation Tango was very well done, serving to compliment the activity at hand, which is what good game soundtrack should do while you are playing the game!   At no time did I think I feel the need to turn the audio down or felt like it was getting repetitive.   There was nothing wrong with it. 

Graphics:

Score: 9/10

Operation Tango’s art style is very cartoonish, but it works.  Even pre-launch, the game ran smoothly and the visuals were appealing without being overly busy.  Framerates stayed locked in at around 60 FPS while on maximum graphics settings and 2560 x 1440 resolution.    My Nvidia 2070S graphics card stay around 20 – 30% usage and my CPU laughed and then took a nap.  I am confident that this game will run easily on the average computer of today’s casual gamer.

Overall:

Score: 9/10

Final word: Operation Tango is fun.  It delivered exactly what it claimed to want to deliver and it did it in a fun and unique way.  I cannot recall another game that had similar mechanics or where I had the same kind of experience.   Operation Tango left me impressed and wanting more.   And with their generous friend pass, your steam friends won’t need to buy the game in order to play it with you.     Operation Tango gets my recommendation and I eagerly await new content so I can reprise my role of the hacker and get back into that chair!