Recent reviews by MiL1TiA

A revitalized cult classic racer that leaves a lot to be desired as a modern title.

Firstly, as I've read through many reviews and the comments that followed with, I find it necessary to mention..

I'm recommending this game in hopes that any of the things I mention reach the devs or at least resonate with what others feel about this revival.

YES, I've played all the original games,

YES, I am a foreign, JDM car enthusiast, that has been to and driven on (in many of the cars featured in this game) the Japanese expressway.

and YES, I've completed all the content the early access release has to offer.

If I'm setting an overall negative tone for this review, its not because I'm not excited for the future of TXR or that I'm not absolutely elated that my favorite racer from years past finally gets a revival. Its going to sound negative because it misses the mark, although I can't bring myself to give the EA version a thumbs down, i am really disappointed in the modern evolution of TXR, even in these early stages. I see this IP, Genki, and its devs unfortunately getting caught in the trap of overwhelming praise from TXR die hards.

Yes, the nostalgia is real, but games have evolved and they have evolved in that way to retain the original fan base AND cultivate a new one. Both are necessary for the success of this game and i fear if Genki leans too heavily on nostalgia to drive sales, TXR will be dead in the water only weeks after full release.

Where TXR in 2025 misses the mark

The biggest disappointment for me is the supreme and all consuming lack of immersion. The Japanese expressway and the racers that inhabit it are not works of fiction, its a real rich sub-culture with nearly 50 years of tradition and reference material to work from. However, the realization TXR provides has no real hooks when it comes to immersion, I'm always clearly playing an arcade style racing game, playing as a nameless driver, in a copy paste JDM car.

Let me break down what i mean:

- No ambient noise or sound design, TXR delivers the worlds most noise complaint expressway, as if the parking areas are used as libraries. The environment is dead silent, the parking areas are desolate, and the garage menu is a bland forgettable setting that doesn't give you any feeling of ownership or uniqueness.

- The soundtrack is DATED and too targeted. Yes, i remember the Japanese power metal/synth riffs from the earlier games, and it just doesn't work here. I would wager to say that if anyone is still playing this title, they have most definitely turned off the music to substitute it with a more modern electronica/trance playlist from spotify.

- Huge missed opportunities with the interactivity of the parking areas that in their current state feel underdeveloped. Nightrunners for instance (an indie title also based on the expressway racing scene) at least allows you to exit your car and walk around. There's no player interaction with the toll booths, which again would lend to immersing the player.

-The environment is gray and bleak, nothing about the map in its current state leads you to believe you're in one of the biggest, most modern metropolises in the world. The AI traffic is robotic and the design of the vehicles don't strike you as regular commuters or commercial shipping vehicles and PLEASE TELL ME WHY we can race regular traffic, this makes the whole highway just feel like an arcade speedway and not a representation of a real place.


- The stamina value being assigned to your tires (limiting you to an average of 10 races per tire change, despite perks and tire compound) is a really shallow mechanic that again breaks immersion. I could understand that kind of tire wear if the game was focused on drifting but eating a set of tires in 15 minutes just by driving at high speeds on paved roads is so stupid. Why not use fuel instead, why not allow the players to tune cars for certain octanes, visit gas stations, the amount of features that you could implement with that alone would be much more welcome in a modern game than tires that cant withstand a 10 minute commute.

- Access to vehicles being locked behind the "BP" tree is going to turn a lot of people away from this game. I can't imagine too many people are going to want to play through half the campaign in the starter car. These caps on your wallet size and hard locks on cars is a real killer to the pace of the game. If the intention is to have you feel "invested" in a car, i much rather do that in something i actually enjoy driving. IMO they should do away with the entirety of the machine and perk trees.

-No cockpit view in a modern racer is huge MISS especially when Import Tuner Challenge had this feature nearly 20 years ago.

-No multiplayer and no plans of implementing multiplayer shortens the lifespan of the game significantly. They could expand the career mode by 300% and upon full release, everyone would be shelving TXR forever. There are so many amazing things that could be done with this if it had live service and multiplayer functionality.


- The rival vehicles are one of the most immersion breaking parts of the whole experience. I can imagine you would like to feel like your racing serious tuners, drivers, and enthusiasts. I understand a few vehicles included that are themed or there for shout outs to the previous games but in 2025, nobody wants to race a K-car with a clown nose named "upside down jester fella". All the rival vehicles feel like 5 minute children's craft projects with no style or direction. How about manufacturer decals, aggressive formative style, something you would ACTUALLY see driving around the expressway. A ton of games have missed the mark on creating compelling and believable AI opponents, but TXR really takes that to another level.

- The level of customization is abysmal, so much so I'm starting to think that tuner culture may never get the fan service it deserves when it comes to customizing vehicles. Again, Nightrunners is the best attempt at this I've seen in the modern era, but for a game like TXR to exist among other similar racers with the customization in this current state is just not feasible. There's no interior customization, no headlight/tailight customization, no window-tint, no exhuast, no nothing really. Every car gets 3 bland body-kits if that, along with a wheel selection that i think even Gran Turismo 2 beats in size. Don't get me started on the livery editor, which fails to live up to any kind of standard of functionality or ease-of-use, the color selector is ancient and i could be convinced it was pulled directly from the era of the previous TXR titles.


- The engine sounds for the vehicles put me in the mind of a low-budget mobile title. All the cars sound digitized and lifeless, this includes the attempt at turbo blow-off and exhaust pops. There are so many games out now that are proof of concept for great vehicle sound design. This is most abhorrently noted when passing the AI traffic that were only given a 10cc moped motor played over a Bluetooth speaker.

- I'll reiterate, the OST is dated and anyone without some very passionate connection to the TXR series is going to substitute it for their own music 10 minutes into their first play through.


- Why are the vehicles magnetized to one another? Why does a 1000hp Supra have no torque and nearly stalls out from a dead stop? I don't know, but I never thought I would say that recent Need for Speed titles have better handling than anything, but TXR's model makes you feel like you're on literal rails. I can't really say anything technical about the handling model because simply put, there is hardly one at all.


- The AI, including the traffic and rivals alike, are COMPLETELY path dependent and brain dead.

So to preface.. I just logged over hour 100 of Hired Ops, additionally i'm currently sitting at Rank 68 on the world leader boards. This isn't me flexing the e-peen about my stats but rather to add validation for my forthcoming scathing of some persistent issues with game.

Firstly, you'll notice that i DO recommend this game, highly in-fact. I consider Hired Ops a true reawakening to the glory days of fast paced tactical shooters ( circa MW2, MW3 ). The mashup Counter-Strike/MOBA perk and currency system is a surprisingly unique and enjoyable mechanic to progress through matches, constantly tipping the balance in either teams favor while rewarding good gun play for the individual. The customization system has a pace that makes you feel validated ( although slightly grindy ) it keeps you coming back searching for rare attachments and weapons. The gameplay is fluid, kills feel rewarding, weapons have good feedback, and the maps are fleshed out with competition in mind..

All of these are great things and reason enough for you to click the "Download" button now that its gone FREE 2 PLAY.

Also, because i know you're wondering.. The real money market place only buys you in game currency and experience boosters. Yes this may shorten the length of time it would normally take someone to unlock "this" or "that" but still requires a good amount of game play and skill.

So on to the real reason i'm grinding my feelers into the keyboard on this one..



I'm realistically hoping that the devs at Absolutsoft take a moment to heed the issues of hired ops's player base and give this review a thorough look over.

The following issues are in no particular order, but rather a collection and culmination of not only my time invested in the game but a query of friends and other members of the community.

- "The default party size is 3"

I think someone really REALLY dropped the ball on this one. I cant wrap my head around why any team-based shooter would limit the squad/party size to anything less than a FULL TEAM. If you and 4 of your closest buds wanna hop on hired ops you better get ready to tell poor Jerry he can "screw off", on the contrary you could use the current work around which is searching for a game on a specific server, on a specific game type, on a specific map, and the exact same time while simultaneously rubbing your lucky rabbits foot that you A.) get into the same game and B.) by some alignment of the stars get on the same team. This isnt a hard or even complicated fix or reworking of the games code, its changing a number.... Give us a full party please.

-"You can't melee while sprinting"

I too often come to a complete stop and ask my enemies permission to bury my blade in his eye socket.. Again, easy fix, having to slow down the action to make a split second decision like engaging in melee combat makes no literal sense if you cannot melee while on the run.

-"LMG's are BROKEN AF (insert numerous more F's)

The variety of classes in the game start out with balanced weapons, time to kill isnt great, the sights are meh, and the ammo count is statistically low... UNLESS you happen to choose the "Destroyer" class which i might add is a very appropriate name. The destroyer starts out with the RPK, which to many is a lengthened hardened version of the AK-47. However, somewhere along the way the weapons designers turned everything on this gun up to 11! Want a sniper rifle? It can do that. What a close range SMG? it can do that. Want an accurate medium range monster that has a larger magazine capacity than any other class? ... You guessed it, it does that too. Realistically the RPK is half the "time to kill" as any other weapon in the game, and you will often find yourself asking "Will i EVER win a gunfight against that weapon" ... the answer is no jimmy, you wont.

- " Mines don't give a Rat's A** whose team you're on"

Again this is another one of those issues that boggles the mind, or mine in this case. Say you want to protect an objective point with an array of "steppy-explodees" while you push the next point but alas just as you leave the now fortified position SUPERSNIPERURMOM420 who unfortunately is on YOUR team comes stomping in behind you, obliterating his legs in a fashion that would make Lt. Dan blush. Friendly fire is one thing, which additionally i feel like should be specifically reserved for the search and destroy game mode... but mines, friendly fire mines? Come on...

- " The servers are located on the dark side of the moon"

If you even remotely live in an obscure or unpopulated area of the globe ( australia for instance ) you may find yourself wondering why you can't select any servers. The game provides several servers at this point but ping restricts all of them and chokes out a large part of what would be a larger player base. Forcing high and adequate ping users to play with eachother, which as you probably called it, creates a whole new host of issues..

-"REEEEE-SYNC D-SYNC"

However common dsync has become in early access shooters these days, Hired Ops takes this to a whole new level. Being killed in cover, shots not registering a hit marker, bullets following you around walls, you will experience all of these, a lot, like.. a lot a lot.

- " The scorekeeper isn't so good at math"

All your stats are gonna be jacked up. Leaderboards, Scoreboards, contracts, the lot. The cake is a lie and your statistics are to.

- "Prepare for some stupid contracts"

TO COMPLETE CONTRACT: deliver ten long head shot to an enemy sniper while using an SMG on only the target designation game mode while under the effects of a stim-pack.... @Absolutsoft NOBODY IS GOING TO DO THAT CONTRACT

-" You're gonna need some storage"

The game in its current state does not allow you to sell your duplicate or unwanted camos and items obtained through the crate system for in game credits. So they basically sit in your inventory doing nothing but elongating the scroll window. This is one of my biggest complaints, how do you overlook something so simple?

-" One of these things is... like the other"

Yes the game has character customization, you choose one of two reskins of the same items. So basically what im saying is there is no character customization.. You can see that its something they tried to implement but didnt back it up with any content. Can we get some new helmets, body armor, knee pads.... hell i'd take eye shadow at this point.

-" Hired Ops is compromised "

There are hackers in this game and lots of them with no way of easily reporting them. I've never heard of "SaberClaw" anti-cheat, and struggled to find a legit website for the company, maybe its a "in-house" software, or i suck at google, either way its irrelevant because.. well.. it doesn't work, like.. at all.

-"Literally everyone is god-tier sniper"

Can we cool it on the damage for body shots with the snipers? They are formidable if not dominant close range weapons and they shouldn't be. Period. Consider adding to the time it takes to ADS?

in closing..

All of this taken into consideration, Hired Ops IS worth your time. If you derived any pleasure from the golden era of Call of Duty and crave that nostalgic fast paced shooter then you will fall addicted to the play style and should feel nostalgic and rewarding to you. The reason i included so much criticism is that i do really love this game, it's off to a great start, and unlike a lot of other games in early access *cough escape from tarkov *cough.. the core mechanics are there, the full experience of the game is implemented, it just needs some tweaking and some content to be a real competitor in the FPS genre.

also for god sake..

N E R F T H E R P K

-MiL1SH