Covert Ops beat "Resident Evil on a train" by a full 2 years, and that comparison is appropriate from engine to caboose. Inventory juggling, (very) limited ammo, "bad" voice acting, a story that barely tracks, it's all here in PS1 glory. The high-espionage adventure of Jack Morton on a nuclear train speeding its way to Paris features all the standard trappings of the RE series but with an action movie wrapper, and honestly it works better than one might expect. There's no guesswork in the combat as giant crosshairs indicate both a proper lock and the amount of critical damage each shot will deal. The story moves at a rapid pace that never lets up and keeps the twists coming with branching paths. The game's limited physical setting also means it's genuinely one of the best-looking games from the generation, with the added flash of a rotating camera on pre-rendered backgrounds.
It's not all meal service and great scenery, though. A number of typical PS1-era issues rear their ugly heads. The aforementioned limited ammo is so limited that it can become literally impossible to finish the game. Enemies seem to drop predetermined items, meaning that every bullet fired is gone forever. This is exasperated by the fact that enemies respawn, and in a game where the nature of the story has you running back and forth between the same 10-15 rooms, you'll be doing a lot of unavoidable hallway shooting and begging the enemy corpse to flicker away to reveal a magazine (it won't). That's an even bigger bummer when you run into one of the impressively unfair boss fights. Bosses often have screen-covering attacks that tank controls are absolutely not equipped to handle, with long invincibility periods between successful hits from the player. Beating bosses is less about reactive gunplay and more about learning which loop of shoot>dodge roll>dodge back>shoot you need to employ to "outsmart" their programming. They also tend to come without warning, so God help you if you haven't saved. Lastly, on the story end, every "twist" is about as obvious as a tunnel painted on a wall and the plot holes are so big you could... well, drive some sort of large, automotive commerce vehicle through them.
Covert Ops is kind of a perfect PS1 game. It contains all the elements people associate with the generation: surprisingly impressive graphics, clunky tank control combat, a wide cast of characters with all the wrong accents. It's far from a masterpiece, but if you're looking for obscure survival "horror" games, you could choo choo choose worse.
It's not all meal service and great scenery, though. A number of typical PS1-era issues rear their ugly heads. The aforementioned limited ammo is so limited that it can become literally impossible to finish the game. Enemies seem to drop predetermined items, meaning that every bullet fired is gone forever. This is exasperated by the fact that enemies respawn, and in a game where the nature of the story has you running back and forth between the same 10-15 rooms, you'll be doing a lot of unavoidable hallway shooting and begging the enemy corpse to flicker away to reveal a magazine (it won't). That's an even bigger bummer when you run into one of the impressively unfair boss fights. Bosses often have screen-covering attacks that tank controls are absolutely not equipped to handle, with long invincibility periods between successful hits from the player. Beating bosses is less about reactive gunplay and more about learning which loop of shoot>dodge roll>dodge back>shoot you need to employ to "outsmart" their programming. They also tend to come without warning, so God help you if you haven't saved. Lastly, on the story end, every "twist" is about as obvious as a tunnel painted on a wall and the plot holes are so big you could... well, drive some sort of large, automotive commerce vehicle through them.
Covert Ops is kind of a perfect PS1 game. It contains all the elements people associate with the generation: surprisingly impressive graphics, clunky tank control combat, a wide cast of characters with all the wrong accents. It's far from a masterpiece, but if you're looking for obscure survival "horror" games, you could choo choo choose worse.