D.E.A.D Special Ops (2007)

D.E.A.D Special Ops is a tactical shooter computer game and the first installment in the D.E.A.D: Special Ops series of video games. It was developed by Mojang Tokyo and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 in March 23rd, 2007. An expansion pack, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Mission Pack: Eagle Watch, was released on January 31st, 2008. The original PlayStation 3 version is available for download from the PlayStation 4/PlayStation 5 Store.

Singleplayer
Special Ops 1 is a tactical shooter, which focuses more on stealth and tactics than on sheer firepower. To add to the realism, all in-game characters, terrorists, hostages and Rainbow operatives, can be wounded or dispatched in just fractions of a second. Tools such as thicker body armor, automatic rifles, and grenades have little value before the player grows accustomed to the gameplay.

Before each mission is a planning stage, during which the player is given a briefing, and then chooses the operatives to be involved in the mission, their weapons, equipment and uniforms. The planning stage determined elements such as the path the AI-controlled squads would follow during the mission, as well as where they will deploy devices such as flashbangs or door breaching charges.

Successful missions often last just minutes, but may require dozens of repetitions and planning changes. During gameplay, the player controls only one team member directly, and can see stats for that member and all units on the Heads-Up Display. Teams not under player control follow the orders given to them in the planning stage. The player can take control of any living operative at will, making them the leader. Any casualties that occur during a mission are permanent, so the deceased cannot be used in future missions. Consequently, many players replay missions that are technically successful merely to reduce the number of casualties.

Plot
D.E.A.D Special Ops 1 is set in 2010. D.E.A.D is an international counterterrorist organization, composed of elite soldiers from NATO, EU, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Russia, South Korea, Japan, South Africa and Israel, formed to address the growing problem of international terrorism. The organization's director is Roland Fanning, and the team leader is Nathan Prescott.

Soon after its formation, Rainbow finds itself responding to a series of seemingly unrelated terrorist attacks by Free Gaia, a radical eco-terrorist organization. Throughout their investigation, D.E.A.D is assisted and advised by Sigmund Charles, chairman of the powerful biotechnology corporation Omega Research, whose facilities are frequently targeted by Free Gaia; Nathan Weaver, the American Science Advisor to the President and an acquaintance of Charles; and Mary Corduroy, a biological expert working with Omega who is rescued by D.E.A.D following an attack in the fictional country of the Democratic People's Federation of Šventarga in Eastern Europe.

Following an assault on a Free Gaia compound in Wyoming (the fallout of which results in the United States government temporarily banning D.E.A.D from operating on American soil) that uncovers evidence they are committing unethical human experimentation, D.E.A.D learns that Free Gaia is actually a front for Omega itself. Omega is developing a highly contagious strain of Rabies called "Pax-Morbius". Viewing humanity as an environmentally-destructive "disease", Charles plans to exterminate almost all of the human race using Pax-Morbius, sparing only Charles's chosen few, who will rebuild the planet into a scientific environmentally-friendly utopia. To achieve this goal, he has used the scattered terrorist attacks to create a heightened fear of terrorism, which he is exploiting to gain a security contract for his own private security firm, Praying Mantis Security, at the Summer Olympics in L.A, Praying Mantis Security's personnel, led by Shaun Savarino, will then release Pax-Morbius at the Olympics, spreading the virus across the world when the athletes and spectators return home.

After gathering intelligence and rescuing Corduroy from a last-ditch attempt to silence her, D.E.A.D captures Weaver and Savarino and prevents the release of Pax-Morbius at the Olympic Village, foiling Omega's plans. Charles and his collaborators flee to their Ark Prime facility in the Amazon rainforest, from which they had originally planned to weather out the global holocaust. Rainbow assaults the Ark Prime, kills or apprehends Charles's collaborators, and takes Charles into custody.

Release
D.E.A.D was released for the Sony PlayStation 3 on March 23rd, 2007 in North America and May 2007 in Europe.

Six weeks prior to the game's release, early copies of the game were leaked onto online piracy websites. The users that uploaded the game files reportedly "took credit for 'cracking' a game with no copy protection in it", angering the developers; network programmer Masato Kozuto recalled going on a profanity-laden diatribe in the office, only to be pulled aside by Ken Masada for his volume, having been heard from three offices away.

After the release of the game, Ken Kutaragi offered to sign copies of the game for Mojang Tokyo employees. Several members of the development staff were frustrated by this, as Kutaragi was relatively uninvolved in development, yet offered signed copies as if it was his.

Missions
There are sixteen different missions available in D.E.A.D Special Ops 1.