Thank you Microids for sending us a review code!

Operation Wolf was originally released in 1987 as an on rails shooter. The arcade version used a light gun which is pretty nostalgic for those who have owned one with the NES. It was later ported over to personal computers and brought over to the Xbox and PS2 consoles. Operation Wolf Returns: First Mission features updated visuals and is available in VR and standard versions. Naturally, I opted to play this game in VR.

In total, there are six missions that can take you a couple of hours or less to complete. Each mission drops you into enemy territory where you have to neutralize enemy soldiers, tanks, and helicopters while freeing hostages. Aside from hostages there are also random civilians that you have to avoid harming as well. Your ultimate goal is to take down the enemy leader, Viper.

When shooting down enemies, guns, ammo, and armor power-ups may appear as dropped loot. You have to shoot them in order to collect them. Med kits are dropped when you release hostages. In the event that you die, you can continue. Back in the 80s, respawning would cost you a quarter! At the end of a mission, you’ll be scored on how many enemies you took out and hostages you saved. Credits (retries) and med kit uses will affect your score negatively.

Enemies will run and gun at you from all directions. Be on the lookout for snipers in high vantage points. Many of the enemies will shoot at you from armored vehicles, tanks, helicopters, jets and more.

At the end of each stage, you’ll encounter an intimidating boss. Sometimes bullets alone will take them down, but in other cases, you’ll have to use the environment to damage them. The regular soldiers will vary on how many bullets it takes to bring them down.

Not surprisingly, there’s violence in this title. I don’t recall seeing any blood. There is some mild language (d*mn).

I ran into some game slowdowns, but that could be my laptop acting up. There were some moments where you get to control a mounted gun, but as fun as these instances are, they are marred with poor controls. Despite those inconveniences, I still enjoyed playing Operation Wolf Returns: First Mission.

Though I don’t recall playing the original Operation Wolf game, I enjoyed this remake. I can’t vouch for how accurate it is, but I can verify that it’s fun. The asking price of $24.99 is a little steep for a two-hour game, but I have seen it on sale for 50% off. It’s definitely worth picking up on sale. If you’re into collecting Steam achievements, there are eighteen of them in this game.