Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

Its been eight years since Bohemia Interactive unleashed Operation Flashpoint upon the world. They have followed it up with two ArmA titles - so called spiritual successors - as the license was held by publisher Codemaster. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, is Codemasters' internally developed sequel, I was bracing myself for a major disappointment.

The first time I booted up Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising those fears wear quickly proven wrong. It is still all about warfare out on the open plains in constant danger. As a commander of a small group of marines your duty is to aid other troops on the offensive, sabotage enemy installations, carry out rescue missions and quite simply do your part in a larger war effort.

The root of all evil - money - is once again the cause of all the problems. The island Skira is rich with natural resources with China and Russia contesting who it actually belongs to. The hostilities have gotten to a point where China are preparing a full scale assault on the Russian mainland. This is where Russia calls upon America to keep China busy on Skira, while the Russian fortify their position in their own territory.

Every mission starts with a debriefing where you are given an overview of the mission area and your objectives. After a rather lengthy intermission for loading you are dropped on to the battlefield and get your instructions through the radio. To aid navigation there is a compass that gives you directions and also highlights enemy positions with red triangles. The compass also marks position vital to your objective with a flag. How you make it there is entirely up to you.

There is also a overview map that you can use to scout the terrain. You can also give orders to your fellow soldiers on this map, you can also do this on the ground by holding in the right should button and issuing orders. The orders you issue open up more tactical options and the system is really rather deep.

There is of course an enemy out there as well. He is dressed in a uniform and has countless weapons and projectiles at his disposal. It's a good thing the world is abundant with cover in shape of rocks, hills, birches, fences, houses, vehicles, sand bags to hide behind when the bullets start coming your way.

During the fire fights its absolute chaos. The sound of bullets flying by, and hitting the dirt will cause soil or splinters to impair your vision. Trading bullets with the enemy from behind cover will get you nowhere and you will have to call upon your friends to lay down suppressing fire, while you flank the enemy or vice versa. Or perhaps you can call for an artillery strike to handle the business.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is a demanding game that requires attention and precise action from the player or else you will end up dead. If you are on a mission to save some fellow soldiers your best bet is to eliminate all enemies before rushing in to save them. If you do a sloppy job you run the risk of having to pay a high price later on, and this is especially true for the more fixed set pieces.

The controls in Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising are almost always perfect. I seldom feel that it restricts me from doing anything, and while I would have liked to have been able to get up the menu for my equipment faster, we are talking about a war simulation. This means that reloading, changing weapons, can take its sweet little time. The weapons both feel and sound authentic, and a far cry from Hollywood.

Naturally there are plenty of weapons to choose from. Carbines, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, grenades, pistols, mounted guns, and much more. One interesting aspect is how sound travels from a distance, blow something up on the horizon and it will take a short moment for the sound to travel to your position.

While the graphics may not live up to some of the competitors Dragon Rising delivers a much larger playing area. And it does look good, personally I would have liked to have seen some better animations of the enemies, but as you mostly just see them through a sniper scope it's nothing that ruins your experience. The buildings in the game are largely unimpressive and dull, while the nature is very impressive.

As the day passes the light conditions change. If you start a mission in the cover of darkness you will soon find yourself exposed at dawn. The lighting is superb as is the usage of smoke.

But there are weaker sides to Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. A thing is the vehicle physics that gives jeeps and Humvees a lunar rover like feel. If you hit a rock you will be sent flying through the air. Another thing that annoyed me was the my weapon most of the time disappeared for a few seconds when exiting the vehicle.

A smaller deficiency that isn't a real problem, but that takes away some of the atmosphere is that when a soldier reports what they see, distance and direction it sounds a bit like calling a hotline to get information of what pictures are shown at the local theatre. Patched together.

The loading times are excessive, but I can accept that given the vast environments. If you die frequently it is more of a problem. Sometimes when you enter a save zone you can be under heavy fire and then it's not exactly great to be unable to see anything for a few seconds just to die and get a lengthy break while it loads.

The artificial intelligence isn't the best despite that they try their hardest not to die 99 times out of a 100, I have seen seemingly paralysed enemies standing behind a wall with their heads sticking out above the cover. Most of the time however disposing of Chinese soldiers is a much more difficult job. And I also think the enemy can take one or two bullets more than what ought to have been the case.If you are playing at normal difficulty a hit is represented by a white cross while a killing shot is represented by a red one. Sometimes the enemy is left standing even with 4-5 hits. It all depends on where you hit them of course, but at least where I'm coming from this is far from realistic.

Operation Flashpoint is a very, very good game, that is unfortunately plagued by a few minor problems and bugs. The overly resilient enemies, poor vehicle handling and glitches weigh down the final score. With that said I'm very impressive and pleased with the result. A solid, entertaining war simulation with nice graphics and plenty of options.