You know, if an entire country can collapse from one guy setting off an EMP, I think your society might just be a lost cause.

Co-op gaming has been going interesting places lately. On the one hand, you have It Takes Two surpassing all odds to take Game of the Year 2021. On the other, you have Halo Infinite going out of its way to utterly fail to live up to previous entries by launching without co-op, and abandoning all plans for split-screen. Chances are, if there's a big co-op game that launches these days, it's a horde shooter. Operation Tango seeks to veer more towards the adventure-style gameplay seen in games like It Takes Two (as well as its Friend Pass system), but arguably veers closer to the We Were Here series. But what sets it apart from the rest is the asymmetrical gameplay that both players sit through.

One player picks the role of agent, while the other fills the role of the hacker. Agents do all the field work, while the hacker supports them from elsewhere. Both players have to communicate constantly to relay each others information to each other, as well as collaborate in several minigames. It's a really great foundation, and the early missions do a great job at introducing the concept before the later missions get really creative. Certain sections do feel a fair bit derivative of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, but the story elements that run alongside it keep the pace going strong.

Graphics are stylised to a degree, but it's certainly not a strong draw for the game by any means. It's cartoony, but not strikingly cel-shaded or anything along those lines. Music felt very much in-the-background and didn't grab me at any point, but it's acceptable, cliche espionage music, riffing off of the classic Bond vibes.

Sadly, Tango drops the ball in many places - though I think the games strengths outweigh the flaws, it's by a narrow margin. The final mission is just pure ass, opening with a mediocre stealth sequence that is incredibly brief, before going to a large, uninteresting environment with poorly explained mechanics that led to a lot of frustration for both me and the hacker guiding me. This then led to another, disastorous stealth sequence. Control-wise, you can only walk or run - no crouching or jumping. They're hardly necessary, but when confronted with instant fail stealth sequences the stiff controls become very noticeable.

Additionally, the game's just really short. Doing all the main story missions left it at just under 4 hours, and from what I understand the puzzle solutions either don't change or have very little variance, so there's zero replay value. There are post-game challenges, and I might amend the review if and when I check them out, but I just want a damn break after that last mission.

Most baffling to me was the performance. I'm not sure if this is just a me thing given I've seen no other complaints, but - this is one of the worst PC ports I've ever seen. There are no graphic options, like, legitimately none other than resolution and "low graphics mode". Despite this, the game inexplicably turns my PC up to 90 degrees Celsius (and based on my limited knowledge of Fahrenheit, that's about 520,000 degrees or something) and runs like utter shit. Doom 2016 is less demanding than this game.

Altogether, this game is in a weird spot for me. It has style and charm, but being so short and unreplayable leaves it feeling low-value. I almost definitely wouldn't have bought the game were it not for being in a Humble Bundle, and while the Friend Pass is a nice and welcome inclusion, there are a LOT of things that hold this game back. I wish the developers all the best if they choose to make a follow up - hopefully the first thing they tackle is basic PC optimisation.

It's... not as good as I wanted it to be.

After playing through entire We Were Here series, this feels a little incompetent. Yeah, there are some interesting puzzles, but nothing I actually will remember. Except, probably, the moment my partner killed someone with a roomba.

I feel like the concept was not explored enough. The agent and hacker both feel exactly the same, slowly progressing mass. I think if there would be more actual gameplay weaved into puzzle-solving, like agent has to actually be fast on reflexes while running/hiding and hacker at the same time tries to disable drones coming out to get his partner to actually give players some tension, the game would be much better.

For now it's just inferior and less fun iteration of We Were Here. And the last puzzle is literally Keep Taking but shit.

I'll wait for their next game in hopes of all that getting better.

Asymmetrical co-op games are at least a little cool by default.

I would say the easiest way to describe the mission and puzzle quality is hit or miss. And even then some of the puzzles that are hitting a bit better are just Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes or Spaceteam.

The game is also very short, so the misses end up being a pretty big portion. That said, I had a good time overall.

Friend Pass is appreciated, and on that note this game probably gains some rating since I played it with a friend until late into the night.

My friend and I sat on this game for a LONG time. We talked about playing it and we weren’t sure if it was going to be fun (since we both preferred more action-based coop).

BOY WERE WE WRONG. WE HAD A BLAST.

If you really don’t mind puzzle games and laughing over crappy directions that your friends gave you, you two will have a lot of fun. The game encourages you to not play while looking at each other’s screen and rather, communicate verbally instead. I think it’s the best advice to enjoy this game. We had so many hearty laughs over what we had to do to solve them or how we messed up trying to get to the solution.

However, there is one mission that kinda tore our hair apart bc it was so long and there were so much multi-tasking mini games. The puzzles can get very difficult, too, but that’s the nature of the game. I’m also surprised at how buggy it can be? We had to do a hard reset two times. It wasn’t too bad but one of those time happened during the frustrating mission so yeah, not pleasant. 😭

Buuuut I recommend! It’s extremely fun with a buddy :)

While there are a few good level ideas here, the game's overreliance on repeatable minigames instead of actual communication with your partner makes the experience numb even at a very short 3-hour playtime.
It's not bad, and the hacker aesthetic is pretty good, but it doesn't make this game feel less "skippable" for those who have played some asymetric coop games.
Also, a part of the final level is so confusing, I don't get how you could solve it without using a hint.
(big + for requiring only one copy to play online, though!)

the name is bong.

jame bong

DUH NAH DAH-NAH DAH NAH-NAHHHHHHHH

A fantastic co-op game, of which there is still a lack on the market. The puzzles are creative and you sometimes get into a time crunch. Just the thing to play with your best buddy and put your relationship at risk. The story is just right for the flow of the game and guides you through the missions.
But that's where my criticism lies. The game lacks missions. Even though the three hours of content were very entertaining, the early ending of the game surprised me. For the price I paid, I'm hoping for a continuation of missions through free DLC's.

Played this with my very drunk friend, which probably wasn't a great choice for a partner but we managed it (just). Very ambitious for what it's going for, and because of that it does feel stretched thin, despite the short length. A lot of creative mechanics for puzzles are thrown to the wayside in favour of yet another sliding block puzzle, while everything else is seemingly missing an entire layer of polish. It's still really fun though, a higher budget sequel with a control scheme that doesn't suck ass would be very much appreciated.