Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, published and developed by the British team, Codemasters is a highly realistic, tactical first person shooter. The plot takes place in an alternate timeline in 2011 where the U.S. is at war with China, due to negotiations with Russia. Despite it’s fictional storyline, the game is a pragmatic representation of a modern war in terms of atmosphere and combat.

Rating: M for Mature (PEGI: 18)
Genre: Tactical Shooter
Publisher: Codemasters
Release Date: October 6th, 2009

RENT

The rendering is a bit poorly done for a next gen title, with flat, heavily pixilated foliage and washed out colors. Several aspects of the environment don’t look particular realistic, and the game is frequently colored in chromatic grays, making it hard to spot targets from a far off distance, with noticeable screen tearing. However, the maps are quite large and the draw distance in the game is immense. The game’s presentation is at least interesting and fits the mood of the game, with black and white stills explaining the events leading up to game’s beginning.

Our first mission in offline Campaign mode opens with a squad based objective to destroy a Radar Satellite. The difficulty of the game is immediately apparent when first engaging enemies. Simply running and gunning like you would in more traditional, console based shooters will quickly get you killed, head shots automatically meaning death. Players will be required to take a very strategic, tactical approach to excel at this game, whether online or off. You start out with an MK16 Mod Assault Rifle, a few grenades and a combat knife, however default weapons will change from mission to mission. Injuries are shown by color and location depending on the severity of the wound, along with what part of the body on the player icon in the top left hand corner. Wounds can be dressed for yourself, or for a team mate, which may prove difficult while playing with the AI, as the erratic behavior of CPU team mates will have you chasing them around for extended periods of time before they actually let you heal them.

The second mission with the task of blowing up the Sunburn, a radar site, by sneaking your way toward it and destroying it via detonator. The flow of the story is somewhat vague, and other than main and secondary (optional) objectives not much as will be explained as you move through check points, which save your progress. As objectives become more difficult to complete, players will have to rely on giving tactical orders to their team, finding new ammo (which is extremely limited) and weapons from enemies. Players might find themselves frustrated with the game’s unpolished game mechanics, in addition to it’s difficulty. I would sometimes experience the “body twitching” glitch in which downed soldiers convulse comically, thus dispelling the serious tone of the game. Targeting is a bit buggy and could use some work as well, as shots fired feel a bit off at times.

Mission three requires your team to secure a beach head and defend a fort for a set amount of time. This part was actually pretty fun and engaging as you get swarmed by enemies and need to position yourself and spend your ammunition carefully. I can’t stress enough, ammo is extremely sparse, making the game feel reminiscent of older, PC based war simulators. Multi-player should at least be fairly enjoyable for those looking to play a game of this variety. Up to four players can clear the Campaign mode together, while a standard online match is comprised of 16 vs. 16. Although with only four maps initially available, even people who enjoy the game might find themselves bored quickly.

All in all, unless you are looking for a throw back to older war simulators initially only found on the PC, this game may not be the game for you. The replay value severely trails behind other games Flashpoint competes against, while still lacking a polished combat engine and depth of content and weapon variety.

A review copy was provided by Codemasters and does not effect the outcome of this review.

Contest:
Thanks to the nice folks at Codemasters, we’re also able to give away some cool prizes.  I have three pretty awesome Operation Flashpoint branded messenger bags ready for a good home.  To get in the running for one of these bags just leave a comment on this review.  However, to win, you must be a registered member of GamingAngels.com!  I’ll be choosing three winners at random next Wednesday at 5pm CST.  Good luck!