Operation 'Red Shadow'

Beeping. Regular, persistent. The apparatus. Somewhere in the background, a conversation – muffled voices, rapid words.

You are Lieutenant Reed, agent for the Mars Development Authority (MDA). Your latest mission went haywire, leaving you with a traumatic brain injury that prevents you from remembering what happened. Luckily, your data implant still contains the mission’s findings. It’s just a matter of recalling what happened. But in doing so, you’ll be forced to pick a side in a planet’s struggle for independence.

Gameplay
A brief intro establishes your current circumstances. Your body is on a hospital gurney while an MDA staff member prepares to engage your “Memory stream,” a scan that allows you to relive the content of your implant. The gameplay is thus structured around piecing together what happened via flashbacks (or rather, one continuous flashback), and is structured so it feels like the mission is actively unfolding.

For the main gameplay, the screen is split into two panels. The left side serves as a transcript of recovered memories. The right displays your inventory and is where you make choices. Choice-making alternates between choosing options from a list or typing in commands. The latter involves clever usage of generative A.I. that gives the player more freedom, particularly with character interactions. Like when you encounter your first obstacle: a supervisor suspicious of your presence.

Supervisor: Who are you? What are you doing here?

Typing “show id,” along with confirming your name and job, is all you need to complete this interaction… But there’s nothing stopping you from asking the supervisor about themself. If you fail to identify yourself, the game automatically has you knock out the supervisor. Either way, we move on with the mission. In this sense, while the gameplay is generally linear, you do get to choose how you went about the mission…

The memory fades. This is not how events unfolded.

…within reason. That said, once your memories have been recalled and the gameplay returns to the present day, you get a change to decide how the mission’s findings will be used.

Thoughts on mechanics
Theoretically, this use of generative A.I. would offer more flexibility and interactivity than a game that is strictly choice-based. However, it still feels limited. You punch in bits of info that are fed to you via dialogue or content in your inventory.

Its innovativeness is also hindered by some rough edges, such as alternating between “him” and “her” for a single character. Interactions with NPCs don’t last long enough to really appreciate what we learn about them. Then again, we are an MDA agent tasked with uncovering secret plans, not with making friends.

Also, conversations can loop repetitively. That’s probably the main issue.

Does Operation ‘Red Shadow' use generative A.I. successfully? I’d say that it does. It’s just not particularly deep.

Story/Visuals
On its own, the story is a rather generic Earth vs. Mars narrative. Mars is dependent on Earth. Earth only cares about profit and control, leading to the formation of resistance groups on Mars. But the fact that the protagonist is an undercover agent for the oppressors (MDA) makes things more interesting. As we relive the mission, we see the struggles and optimism of the resistance members… along with the power that MDA wields over Mars.

Longing. Fear. Pleas to get away.
This is no longer politics.
This is life.

This all leads to a final choice made at the end of the game: (Spoiler - click to show)Do you follow orders and help squash the resistance, or do you side with them? (Arguably, the best ending is if you die from implant overload mid-gameplay. Mars gains independence, there’s no war, and you are awarded the highest of honors without anyone questioning your loyalty.)

Also, there is artwork. It’s your typical A.I.-generated sci-fi art that is, nonetheless, engaging to look at. Undeniably cyberpunk. It works well enough for the game’s purposes. I think it does a good job in conveying the sterile coldness of the MDA.

Final thoughts
Operation ‘Red Shadow’ is a fun exercise in the possible application of generative A.I. in interactive fiction. It has the excitement of an infiltration mission mixed with dystopian themes of unrest and a desire for independence. As an experience, it needs work before players can fully appreciate what generative A.I. has to offer. Right now, playing the game is more about tiptoeing around the implementation than diving into the story’s world. But that doesn’t stop it from being a good experiment in storytelling.