Shadow Ops: Red Mercury

About

Shadow Ops: Red Mercury casts you as Captain Frank Hayden, a Delta Force operative racing to stop a nuclear threat. The game mixes fast-paced shooting with a globe-hopping mission that takes you from Syrian streets to French landscapes. You'll use modern weapons in linear levels, battling terrorists and enemy forces as you hunt down a rogue mercenary with a nuclear bomb. Split-screen and multiplayer options add variety to the combat. The game leans into over-the-top action rather than military realism, blending movie-style intensity with tactical shooting. While the story follows a familiar mission structure, the inclusion of co-op play and competitive modes made it stand out at release. Released in 2004, it offers a straightforward shooter experience with a focus on explosive set pieces and team-based objectives.

Storyline

The player takes the role of Captain Frank Hayden, an elite Delta Force operative and the former leader of Black Saber, the President's personal black bag unit. Hayden and his team are attempting to recover a briefcase nuclear bomb code named "Red Mercury" from terrorist mercenary Vladimir Styanovich, known by his Nom de guerre "Vlady the Vicious", who is operating out of a coastal Syrian town. The team's Black Hawk is shot down immediately upon insertion, and they fight their way through the streets in pursuit of Vlady. Hayden is too late to stop Vlady from escaping via helicopter, but manages to damage the helicopter's rotors with small arms fire. Vlady, escaping over the ocean, states he is nobody's martyr, and attempts to disarm the nuke and "re-evaluate". To his dismay, the bomb rearms itself seconds later. Vlady leaves the bomb on the helicopter and leaps into the ocean in a futile attempt to escape the blast. The blast wave from the nuke kills Vlady and capsizes the U.S. aircraft carrier which had been Hayden's base of operations, as well as destroying the helicopter sent to extract Hayden's team, knocking them unconscious.