Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, A Codemasters game.

palindromic BOB Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:59 pm

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
A Codemasters Game

8 years ago, Codemasters changed the way people thought about the first-person shooter. With Operation Flashpoint: Cold War crisis, you had a huge amount of freedom in an open world and a level of realism that hadn’t been seen before. An attempt to transfer this experience to the original Xbox in 2005 had a lukewarm reception. With dated graphics it did little to endear itself to the console gamer. Tactical shooters such as Rainbow 6 and Ghost Recon began to thrive on console and soon Operation Flashpoint was lost in the sands of time. Now the sequel has finally appeared, developed solely by Codemasters, this also has a brand new game engine. But how does it hold up.

Starting up the game you are greeted with your options and naturally you want to jump straight into the campaign. In doing so you get carried through a quick history of Skira and the reason why you are going to be fighting there. In the not so distant future, China has mobilised military forces against Russia. Skira is an oil field claimed by Russia and now captured by the People Liberation Army (PLA) of China. Russia has requested assistance from its allies and, where there is oil, the US are happy to help. This storyline sets the background for the game and it’s not too hard to imagine the situation really happening.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, A Codemasters game. Skira10

86 square miles of challenge!

In single player you take the role of a fire-team leader and are in command of 3 other trained soldiers that know how to take commands. The first mission is based on the smaller island of Skirinka and you're tasked with the destruction of the PLA early warning radar systems to allow US forces to evade Skira. This mission will give you a basic introduction. Basic, is an understatement here. You need to play around with the controls to really understand their power and reading the manual is a must. This mission provides a good testing ground with low enemy numbers and a nice area with variety of vehicles and weapons (if you can find them) to play with.

Commands are issued by a combination of the RB button and 4 directions on the d-pad. You can’t move when issuing orders so ensure you are safe before you start trying. The L stick is used to select team members in order to split fire teams etc. This is a pretty fiddly process but when you master it, it allows you to manually flank positions via the map screen. I can’t help feeling that swapping command to the left stick and selection to the D-pad would have provided more flexibility and allowed the initial command radial to display more than 4 options.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, A Codemasters game. Team12

They'll help you out of a tight spot, but only if you take care of them.

Issuing commands can be done by looking at an area and selecting it with some being context sensitive such as the Assault building option. You can also issue via the map view. Here you can string commands together by setting multiple waypoints. This adds a higher level of control and tactical thinking but is, again, quite complex and not something you can do in the middle of a fire fight. The enemy don’t stop just because you want to look at the map. Be careful with your command, if it is bad and you treat the team as expendable you’ll find them less likely to co-operate and you’ll probably end up dead because you have no support.

When you get shot,a red circle will appear and start to run down. This is your blood loss. You must patch yourself up with a field dressing to stop it. The blood meter remains at this level. You can also patch up squad members or order them to patch up each other. Only the medic can restore health fully. As such you’ll be very protective of him, without him missions can go tit’s up quickly.

One option that is lacking is that to issue an order to take cover when you are caught out. The AI should be able to handle this alone but it is plagued by some glitches. A highly trained Marine should know to move behind something when shots are ringing in. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. The quickest ways to sort it is issue a follow command and lead them to safety like a lost puppy. This is annoying but if you think through your actions and command well, you’ll find you don’t really need a cover option.

Enemy AI can also be variable. Sometimes they will flank you or hit the dirt when you open fire, other times they take 4 shots to the chest with no obvious reaction only for you to drop them with a head shot.

Graphically OFP isn’t the most visually spectacular. Don’t get me wrong. It still looks very, very good, but some aspects lack detail. This is forgiveable due to the scale of the game and the levels of AI involved and I haven’t noticed any pop-up. A reported draw distance 35km is a feat in itself! The environments are highly immersive and can suck you in. The smoke effects are also very good. Sound is excellent and each weapon has its own “voice”.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, A Codemasters game. Smoke10

Smoke effects add atmosphere and depth.

The single player campaign is 11 missions long and each has its own range of primary and secondary objective to complete. This may sound short but each mission can take over 45 minutes to complete depending on your approach. They are extremely challenging and mission 3 proved to be a sticking point for me. It took me about 20 attempts to pass and even now I don’t know exactly how I did it. Difficulty settings are unique in this game. They don’t make the AI harder, instead it limits your HUD, reduces checkpoints and removes team respawns making team management and protection a must.

With over 70 weapons there is a large range of death givers. Unfortunately you have no control over your load out prior to a mission. If you are not happy you must search ammo crates and dead bodies to get what you want. This isn’t a bad thing entirely. If you could always select an M16 with a heat vision scope, and a .50 cal sniper rifle as a backup then things would become a lot easier. The addition of realistic weapon operation such as the time taken to switch weapons or the need to assemble a Javelin Missile before taking out a tank adds another level of planning and tactics. When you do fire, it is necessary to compensate for the drop of the bullet when shooting over distance. Lining the cross-hairs up on a head at 400m could leave you seeing a puff of dust as the bullet drops at the enemy’s feet.

Wind direction has no effect so at least that’s one less thing to contend with. This game is full of little things that add to the realism but are far too numerous to cover. From the day/night cycle, and the fact you can’t flick down night vision goggles when your eye is glued to the scope. This all adds to the depth but can sometimes shattered by the AI and graphical glitches. One that really stands out is enemy occasionally freeze when killed. This leaves the body standing like a statue until it disappears.

The lengths some people go to!

Vehicles are available for you to control. Wheeled vehicles have a familiar control scheme with RT accelerating and LT braking and reversing. They handle adequately but you aren’t going to want them in Dirt 2. They are necessary for covering large distances quickly but otherwise stay clear, they make you a big, noisy target.

Helicopters are a different beast entirely. These handle very strangely and take a lot of time to get used to. The auto hover button is handy to help prevent accidental crashes but when you begin you’ll die; a lot. A lack of a specific training mode is most obvious when it come to the choppers. Taking one for a free flight without needing to track it down mid mission would have been highly appreciated. In fact there is no sign of the obligatory “boot camp” to any of the game. You are thrown in at the deep end from the very start.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, A Codemasters game. Choppe10

They look fun but be prepared to crash.

Multiplayer:
Multiplayer on the Xbox it presents a bit of a dilemma. I wanted to like it but couldn’t. Limited to 4 vs 4 in competitive modes the additional 12 team members are made up by AI. Human players can choose to be on one team with each taking a different role or they can take command of each team and control the AI. This is a big difference to the 16 vs 16 available on the PC. Things get hectic and trying to command an AI squad while taking fire from much more intelligent human players doesn’t sit well with me. I found myself splitting my squad and keeping the medic beside me was the best tactic. If 16 vs 16 couldn’t be supported then at least 12 vs 12 should have been considered. Even reducing map sizes to suit 8 vs 8 would have been a better option. Vehicles also seem to be highly affected by lag making them nearly impossible to control. It’s interesting to try the competitive modes and they do have a place but they are not for me.

Co-operative mode is where this game excels and the vehicle issues aren’t as present. Other co-op FPS games benefit from the increased fire power but don’t really change much compared to the single player. With Operation Flashpoint it’s a different story. In a 4 player co-op you can substitute all AI team members and become a crack killing team. The host is team leader while the rest fill in the roles of the team.

Communication and co-operation is vital. If you have a Rambo in the squad he will ruin the game completely. If you are all willing to approach the game in a sensible thought out way then you will have one of the most engaging experiences of your gaming life. You have the option to play through the campaign or through individual missions. This includes 6 bonus missions that can be unlocked via codes freely available online and they can be played in single player as well. One minor problem is the fact you can’t control co-op campaign progression. If you are at mission 9 and want to begin the co-op progression at mission 4 you can’t. You can select it as a single mission but there is no ability to chain missions together.

There are some minor glitches. Sometimes checkpoint don't trigger in co-op meaning you need to set up a new game and sometimes you begin a game holding thin air before your gun appears, but these can be lived with. Another thing lacking is the mission editor that exists on the PC. Far-cry 2 had a full map editor and it worked well. Why not a mission creator for the console which you could then share with friends and the community? It would have extended gameplay and made it possible to create custom missions specifically to suit a party’s mood and game play style. Hopefully we will at least get extensive reasonably priced DLC but Codemasters missed a trick here.

Graphics : 7.5G
Not ground breaking, but not many faults considering the size of the game. The draw distance and smoke effects are excellent. Some graphical glitches can rudely break the reality of the game but don’t ruin the fun.

Sound: 8.5G
With each gun having a unique sound and satisfying explosions it all add to the immersive atmosphere of the game. Hearing enemy chatter in Chinese and even give grid co-ordinates in their native tongue is always sign they are too close for comfort.

Gameplay: 8G
Deep gameplay marred by some minor hitches and variable AI. The control system has some flaws but is very well implemented considering what you can do. Competitive multiplayer modes are interesting but it’s disappointing they couldn’t have got us closer to the PC’s 16vs16. Co-op multiplayer takes the campaign to a new level by removing AI frustration and adding fluidity to the gameplay. When played with those willing to take time and approach it with sense it is arguably the best co-op experience available on Xbox.

Overall: 8G (Not an average)
Well worth a look for the co-op mode alone. It is necessary to approach this game in a tactical mind frame. Failure to do so will result in your death. If you are willing to put in the time to learn the full extent of the controls then the single player is a satisfying and rewarding experience. Even the occasional glitches fail to detract from the games sense of being in a war. Online Co-operative gameplay is the core. The limited competitive mode and missing mission editor are disappointing but there is more than enough to keep you going anyway. A lack of a full tutorial mode reduces the accessibility of the game to newcomers and the difficulty of some early missions could mean you won’t want to stick with the battle but that’s your loss. This is not a run and gun shooter.

If you think Call of Duty has depth then you’ll drown in this game. If you found yourself paddling in the shallows with Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six then this game may just be what you are looking for.

**KENT HAMMER** Mon Oct 19, 2009 5:39 pm

Another Bobtastic epic effort!

Good work mate! Very Happy

sophosuni Mon Oct 19, 2009 6:01 pm

Good review

Guest Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:50 pm

good review mate

chrism1066 Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:12 pm

wicked review mate!! i might look into getting this

nate23 the man Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:52 pm

1st class review mate. Top stuff.

harry haddack Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:58 pm

great review been thinking about getting this game for the last week if it's still £35 a purchase may be the cards.

palindromic BOB Mon Oct 19, 2009 11:13 pm

My local ASDA has it for £27 so check there if you've got one near you.

iFINGER Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:47 am

Great review mate it pisses all over mine by nine shades. Lol

palindromic BOB Tue Oct 20, 2009 8:00 am

iFINGER wrote:Great review mate it pisses all over mine by nine shades. Lol

But really it doesn't say much more! Even scored the same. Tempted to be harsh and give a 7.5 but the co-op is just so good it pulls it up.

I wish developers would consider optional implementation of the chat pad when the controls are deep. An ability to assign squad and command hot-keys on the chatpad would have been excellent with this title. I also wish they'd make use of the headset in single player mode so that radio chatter came though it instead of the sound system if you weren't in a party. Would really add an extra level of depth.

But hey that's just me. I once made a cardboard cockpit with speakers connected to the mega drives headphone output for playing Desert Strike!

iFINGER Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:01 pm

Desert storm - what a great game that was! Lol

sophosuni Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:32 pm

iFINGER wrote:Desert storm - what a great game that was! Lol

I thought that was an invasion of Iraq? Wow you must like your war games really realistic. Just remember that if you shoot the civilians its called war crimes not failing a level Laughing

Guest Tue Oct 20, 2009 6:44 pm

great review as always Bob

you have a talent for this matey

Dynamic Jackel Tue Oct 20, 2009 8:38 pm

Nice Review

palindromic BOB Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:55 pm

sophosuni wrote:
iFINGER wrote:Desert storm - what a great game that was! Lol

I thought that was an invasion of Iraq? Wow you must like your war games really realistic. Just remember that if you shoot the civilians its called war crimes not failing a level

I prefer the term target practice Very Happy

Leigh36295 Sun Oct 25, 2009 4:05 pm

Very good review. Good job.

Mavriick Thu Nov 05, 2009 10:18 pm

I might just dig out my Desert storm games and give them a go for old times sake,but that means i`ll have to play the ps2 again mmm!(ps2) sorry about the swear word. Rolling Eyes

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