Phantom: Covert Ops - game review

Summary

From the creators of Shooty Fruity, The Assembly, Perfect Beach and Bloody Zombies - nDreams brings you ‘Phantom: Covert Ops’. Phantom: Covert Ops is a first person shooter that combines action and stealth. The game will be available on the Oculus Rift, Rift S and Quest VR headsets. The game fully supports handheld VR controllers. The game is rated for players aged 16+.

Game Modes: Single User

Supported Languages: English, English (US), French (France), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish (Spain)

Gameplay duration: Expect about 5 - 6 hours of gameplay.

Phantom: Covert Ops

The evolution of stealth!

You're part of a deadly and elite covert operation as a Phantom and have one night to prevent a war from happening.

You’ve been dispatched to remote wetlands - you’re in a tactical kayak with an arsenal of military-grade equipment and weapons to neutralise the threat from your enemies and evade capture.

You make your way through the game without ever getting onto dry land, which makes this game interesting, to say the least!

This gritty stealth-action war game is like nothing you’ve seen before. You’re in an intense VR campaign, infiltrating without being seen, lethally engaging your targets – you execute your way through an authentic war arena.

Watch the gameplay

Deadly on the water

Your military kayak means you traverse freely through flooded environments, experiencing tactile and innovative Virtual Reality gameplay as you use the paddle to steer and move stealthily through hostile and remote locations.

Being a Phantom

In Phantom: Covert Ops, you experience the thrill and the accompanying tension of being a lethal asset in virtual reality. Everything happens through body awareness and 1:1 player movement, whether you’re aiming with your rifle scope or paddling through the water. It’s gameplay immersion on a whole new level.

Stealth gameplay

It is your choice how you consider and execute each encounter and mission. You can sneak through the reeds under walkways used by your enemy, ambush your enemies, and move silently through the water in your kayak.

Game space

This is an enjoyable VR game, even for those gamers with limited space as it’s a game that is played seated. In addition to this, movement is powered with motion controls that propel your canoe so motion sickness shouldn’t be much of an issue for newbies to VR.

Most VR action games can be quite intense when it comes to visual stimuli and motion, so Phantom is a welcome change. Even newcomers should find this comfortable! As of yet, there has been no rating released, but Phantom’s gameplay is much more adult-oriented in comparison to VR experiences that are usually for beginners.

As to whether it’s a better experience on the Quest or the Rift, demos have shown that the Rift copes better with the game but that both offer a great experience.

Weapons 

As expected with a stealth game, most of the weapons focus on stealth. The main weapon of choice is likely to be the silenced sniper rifle, which snaps to your eye as soon as you aim. This means you can scan the area while in the shadows and formulate your attack.

In your canoe, you also have a silenced pistol on your chest, bombs for environmental obstructions, magazines for the guns and, for when things get completely out of hand, a sub-machine gun is holstered on your back. You also have explosives that you can throw about and detonate remotely at a safe distance. All of these combined, as well as the different routes you can take, there should be the potential for playing through this game multiple times. 

Final thoughts

Phantom: Covert Ops is set to be a satisfying game that gives a different experience on a theme that is an old favourite. The gameplay seems satisfying and the shooting fun, despite having to learn how to manoeuver a canoe virtually! The game is responsive as well as fun and, soon enough, paddling a canoe and using weapons and replacing them becomes second nature.

If you’re into stealth games, you may be interested in Espire1.

What are your expectations of the game Phantom: Covert Ops? Will it be like anything like Espire1? - Share your thoughts with me using the comment box below.