A few weeks ago I picked up a copy of Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising for the XBox 360, I wanted it on the PC, but unfortunately mine’s doing the dance of death. I know, Flashpoint has been out since October, but unlike the real ‘critics’, I have to purchase my games (which is probably one of the reasons I’m so harsh on a lot of these games and probably a big reason they’re so nice, they have no real value to them). So here’s a rather belated opinion of the one and only War Sim currently on any console.
Back in the day, Operation Flashpoint was infamous for its realism and was unbelievably harsh and unforgiving when it came to being shot at. Unlike Call of Duty where you can take 10,000 rounds in the face and merely gain a screen of red, Operation Flashpoint was based on real life, i.e./ You get shot, you go down, like 10 ton a shack of shit. It was brutal and realistic, something the fans loved, but is all that still there? This was something I was unsure of when buying it, after all, I was buying it for a console, and we all know that console gamers can’t grasp the basics of war (most seem under the impression that men in green tin cans save the universe on a weekly basis), so I was somewhat expecting a dumbed down COD style game, simply with the Flashpoint name slapped across it. I was actually in for a surprise. Though I haven’t had a chance to play it much, a lot of what I remember the original Flashpoint games for is still there. For one, the realism, it’s still there and it’s beautiful.
You start the game on a small island, I say small simply because it’s small in comparison with the real island, but in actual fact it’s pretty damn big and takes a good 15 -20 minutes to get from one side to the other on foot, and within this island you get to play soldiers. This ‘tutorial’ island is anything but a tutorial, you’re dropped of and a little marker pops up on the screen and tell you to piss off down the road. You’re given a few pointers as to what the controls are and how to change weapon and such, but that’s your lot. It just leaves you there, no nicey nice bubble wrapped tutorial or anything. As soon as you hit your first marker you’re engaged by the enemy, which wasn’t too much fun first time around as I was admiring a burning tank and the gits shot me in the back of the head.
But that there is the beauty of the game. There’s no corridors to walk, or set areas where the enemy will engage you (Something CoD can’t seem to grow out of, stuck in the 90′s) there is simply an open map with no real set parameters for the enemy. If you shoot a patrol and some geezers hear you, they’ll move to where they think you are, or maybe jump in a car and speed towards you, you simply don’t know until you start playing.
I think maybe I’ve been slightly unfair here, I actually set out to avoid comparing this game to Call of Duty, especially since I can’t stand the new games (go view Old COD Eye for my reasons why). It’s just that CoD is almost universally classed as the benchmark to which all shooters are judged, which in this case is extremely unfair, they’re just nothing alike, the only think they have in common is the first person perspective and the American flag.
Dragon Rising is one of those games for the older class of gamers, those who can appreciate games for what they are, but with it having that kind of audience comes its biggest downfall. Bugs. Now, I honestly don’t remember the last time I played a game where I didn’t experience at least 30 minor bugs and at least 2 game breaking bugs, if there’s less than that it’s classed as amazing excellence of another planet. Example, Bioshock 2, praised by all for its awesomeness and stompy shooty stuff, but its biggest bug is the simple fact that though you’re supposed to be a big stompy brute, you feel like a dainty little ballerina. You’re covered in a huge diving helmet, yet pathetic .32 sidearms seems to reduce you to a blubbering baby in 2 direct hits. What’s your helmet made of? Papier bleeding mache?!
Ahem, anyway, what I was trying to say was that Dragon Rising has its fair share of bugs. This is kind of expected though, the code running under the bonnet is clearly sophisticated. The enemy AI is immense and the ballistics are top notch.With all this though coms the obvious bugs, the most noticable being your teams AI. Well it’s not so much their AI, but their judgement of where to stand. I’ll use the tutorial as an example. One of the objectives is to blow up some crazy SAM sites which is a good 15 minute walk from where you start. When I finally got there, I told my chaps to stand at the back of a building, thinking they’d take cover up against the wall. What I failed to realise is that they would take a keen interest in the APC around the corner and with this perverted interest, they got themselves prone and started crawling toward it. Of course, enemy APC’s being nasty as they are, shot at them, but that didn’t stop my crazy looney’s, oooh no. They persevered and they screamed like girls as they took round after round and completely ignored my orders. It was a moment I won’t forget.
Something similar to Rainbow 6: Vegas 2 would have been awesome, nice and precise, so when you say “go there”, they actually go to that marker and take cover, not start a bloody picnic.
Despite its flaws, the dodgy squad AI and a lack of local split screen multiplayer (which would have countered the crazy squad slightly), Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is a good game that deserves its little place on my shelf. It’s not a game that’s for everyone, especially if you just want gun totting action, but for those of us who enjoy something deeper and something with a little more pulse, this certainly is worth a look.
Tags: Dragon Rising, Flashpoint, Operation Flashpoint, OpF
