Vampire Nazis vs. Werewolf Allies. It’s the type of premise you would expect to find in the cult classics section of the video store--stuffed between SS Girls and Killer Nun. A psychotic nun with a vengeance? I might have to check that one out. I’m a sucker for bad horror and exploitative camp, and therein lay the problem. Operation Darkness is a straight-faced turn-based strategy game, but it doesn’t have the tools needed to be taken seriously.

The baby-faced protagonist, Edward, wasn’t always a supernatural hero. He was a gangly pretty-boy who managed to get shot in the back by a half-dead Nazi after the battle. Edward would have died crying for mercy had Major Gallant not happened along for a suspiciously convenient blood transfusion. Three weeks later, miraculously healed, and still clueless to Gallant’s secret identity, Edward was shipped off to join the Major’s covert company – Wolf Pack. No obvious foreshadowing there.

The game isn’t bogged down by the classes, specialized units, and micromanaging of most strategy games. You have the eight members of Wolf pack, with room for future recruits, and a stockpile of basic firearms. A handful of small maps and skippable tutorials will ease you into the rest. Playing is simple, but minding the details will keep you alive.

Unlike the swords-n-sorcery strategy games that rule the console scene, Operation Darkness favors high-caliber firepower. Pistols, belt-fed machineguns, rifles, and bazookas are a few of the weapons at your disposal, with plenty of variations for equipment junkies.

It’s tempting to send everyone out packing Rambo-cannons, but you’ll fly through ammo as if attending an NRA weekend getaway. It’s important to strike a balance, matching weapons to individual characters’ stats, and remembering to pack some extra bullets. There’s nothing worse than stabbing your last opponent to death only to have a squad of reinforcements march in alongside a tank.