The Game is On.
Shadow Ops: Red Mercury is a First-Person Shooter developed by Zombie Studios and published by Atari for the Xbox and Microsoft Windows.
Captain Frank Hayden of the elite Delta Force unit is attempting to retrieve the "Red Mercury" - a prototype nuclear bomb, one which somehow ends in possession of terrorist mastermind Vladimir Styanovich. Uncovering Vladimir's hideout in Syria, Frank and his team are unfortunately caught in an ambush, and to make matters worse the Red Mercury prototype is prematurely activated.
When Frank eventually made it back to the States, he uncovers a secret CIA traitor from his unit who's in league with Vladimir, as well as a rendezvous with his ex-lover, Galena, and a mission to stop a second Red Mercury from activating in a global summit meeting between world leaders.
"As an operator involved in the world of BlackOps, you never know who to trust..."
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Vladimir Styanovich, the terrorist mastermind, likes to call himself "Vlady the Vicious" for no reason other than just because.
- Anti-Air: The Syria missions have insurgents in the streets deploying anti-air cannons to prevent Frank's transport from extracting his team, and he needs to destroy those cannons to complete the mission.
- Assist Character:
- Galena can assist Frank in the Kazakhstan shootout, but being a scientist armed with a dinky little pistol she's hardly much help.
- The final stage in Paris where Frank enlists the help of the French counter-terrorist squad, RAID (Recherche, Assistance, Intervention, Dissuasion). They are far more competent in providing backup against Kate's mooks as Frank proceeds his way up the Eiffel Tower to prevent Kate's nuke from destroying Paris.
- The Big Damn Kiss: How the game ends; Having saved the entirety of Paris, with a nuke going off above the Eiffel Tower, Frank and Galena decides to make up and kiss publicly in front of cheering French civilians and RAID members. Roll credits.
- Desperate Object Catch: In the final cutscene, Frank catching the briefcase containing the second Red Mercury, dropped from Kate's chopper as the villainess falls past him to her death. Frank barely managed to grab it, preventing the nuke from wiping out most of Paris.
- Foreshadowing: In the opening narration when Frank claims as a BlackOps operative, he couldn't trust anyone, the first character the camera pans across is his handler, Kate Daniels.
- He Knows Too Much: Vladimir had the lead Kazakh scientist developing the Red Mercury for him killed with a direct stab to the guts, to prevent anyone besides his mooks from uncovering his alliance with Kate Daniels. Frank interrupts Vladimir's massacre and managed to save one of the scientists, his Old Flame Galena, before Vladimir can eliminate her too.
- Hidden Villain: For most of the game's first half, the feared terrorist mastermind Vladimir Styanovich appears to be the game's Big Bad. He's killed roughly halfway through, acting as a Disc-One Final Boss as it's revealed Frank's liaison, Kate Daniels is the actual villain behind the Red Mercury's theft.
- Hollywood Silencer: Frank can obtain a silenced pistol and submachine gun for missions involving night infiltrations. It expectedly turns his gunfire into soft farts.
- Hook Hand: Vladimir's left hand, which ends near the shoulder and is replaced entirely by a plastic appendage ending with a hook. It doesn't impede him in opening the briefcase containing the Red Mercury.
- How We Got Here: The first stage opens with Frank Hayden caught in a warzone somewhere in Syria, battling insurgents left and right while trying to retrieve the Red Mercury. It didn't work, and as the Red Mercury explodes - destroying most of the town Frank and his team is in, as well as the US Navy Aircraft Carrier meant to extract Frank's team - the next level then flashes to how all this mess happened.
- Locomotive Level: The game's second-to-last stage, set on a train bound to Paris where Frank must locate where Galena is being held hostage by Kate, Yuri and their mooks.
- Once More, with Clarity: The first level ends with the Red Mercury detonating and Frank's unit being forced to withdraw. Cue the second level and flashbacks, before the game catches up again with the explosion revealing Kate being the actual mastermind behind it's theft.
- Outrun the Fireball: More than one of the cutscenes.
- When Vladimir realize the Red Mercury prototype he's carrying is unstable, he leaps off his helicopter into the Indian Ocean while the prototype explodes. It doesn't work.
Vladimir: [to the about-to-be-nuked pilot] I say good luck, amigo, but it don't look like luck's on our side!
[jumps as the Red Mercury destroys the helicopter, a US Navy Aircraft Carrier, and a small Syrian town]- The Kazakhstan level ends with Frank and Galena escaping the place as the facility explodes into a fiery mess.
- The final stage in Paris, set on the Eiffel Tower's tip. Once Kate has been dealt with, Frank and Galena realize the last Red Mercury - onboard Kate's chopper - is still active and poised to blow. They then jumped on the top of an elevator, with Frank triggering it so the entire elevator goes all the way down at maximum speed as the nuke goes off. They made it out alive, somehow.
- Railing Kill: Enemy mooks behind railings and balconies have a special death animation where they flip over before falling all the way down.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: In the Kazakhstan facility when Frank reunites with Galena, his ex-lover, for the first time in years - and realizing she's one of Vladimir's Unwitting Pawn.Frank: Galena? I should've known.
Galena: [slaps Frank] THAT'S for leaving me the last time!
[draws herself closer to Frank for a kiss]
Galena: ...and this is for loving me right...
[Frank responds by nonchalantly pointing a gun on Galena's gut, before raising the barrel to her face] - Take a Third Option: How the game's climax plays out; Frank, having killed the traitor Kate, only for Galena to inform him there isn't enough time to stop the Red Mercury's detonation. Frank then decides to let is explode anyway... while flinging it into Kate's transport. Where a detonation above the Eiffel Tower would result in zero civilain casualties.
- Weapon Title: Shadow Ops is the name of Captain Frank Hayden's elite Special Forces unit. Red Mercury is the name of the stolen prototype nuclear bomb he's tasked with retrieving to prevent it from falling to wrong hands.
- Whole-Plot Reference: For a game-to-game example, the mission in Kazakhstan in this game is seemingly transplanted from the Kazakhstan mission from fellow FPS The World Is Not Enough. Not only are both locations the same, but the player is introduced to Frank's on-off lover, Galena, in an identical way to how Bond meets Christmas in the other game. Both games also contains a shootout against mooks in a circular room with enemies swarming from left and right, while the Love Interest character is running between control panels where Frank / Bond needs to provide cover for, the heroes making an escape down a shaft, and an Outrun the Fireball cutscene where the whole facility explodes behind Frank and Galena / Bond and Christmas followed by Frank / Bond being chewed out by his superiors over his recklessness in the prior mission. Not to mention both games having a Hidden Villain, Kate Daniels and Electra King.
- Galena: That's just in case you ever tried to leave me again.
Frank: Fat chance.
