NIDZUMI+

As a games critic, journalist or whatever I tend to call myself, it’s my job to tell the truth about games. However sometimes it’s a truth that I don’t want to tell, this is the case with Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. Let’s start with the honesty, shall we? I didn’t finish OP: DR, I tried, I really did, but nevertheless it couldn’t be done. It wasn’t due to a deadline; in fact it wasn’t due to the game itself being bad. Allow me to explain.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is a realistic war sim in the first person perspective; the campaign plays out over a war over oil and reflects modern day issues. Playing as the US army as they reach out to lend a hand to their Russian allies, you must defend a fictional island, Skira as it’s contested in a battle between Russia and China for its natural resources. As the story’s roots are set deeply in conflicts of today, the plot can certainly strum your nerves, making sure you realise that something like this could happen anytime in our lives. Bringing out this emotion, draws you into the game, fighting in what is a muddied conflict.

With such a realistic setting and knowing the past of the Operation Flashpoint series, it’s almost obvious that the action in the game will be just as realistic, and it certainly is. This however is my first stumbling block. Being such a realistic game, it’s very easy to die. Enemies are hard to see in the distance and they’re often ridiculously accurate, even on the easiest setting of the game. Helicopter gunships often circle over head literally laying waste to anything that moves and your AI teammates are often less than helpful. One example would be my mission to hold up a barn from an oncoming wave of enemies and rather than my team standing by my side, they preferred to wait outside for me in a hail of bullets while I ran around attempting to heal them all.

Bringing out this emotion, draws you into the game

Using the remarkable radial menu system that shouts orders at my team didn’t help none either. Whether I asked them to follow me, defend the building or even, as a last ditch attempt, suppress the enemy, they still stood around waiting for their guns to fire in the right direction. An awful shame as they can be quite intelligent when things aren’t so hectic.

This leads me to my next frustration. As it tends to be quite easy to expire when on the battlefield, this leads to a fair amount of respawning from your previous checkpoint. However they seem to be spaced so far apart that endless trudging along the fields, re-treading your steps is always needed. In one mission I’d managed to clear the first few objectives with no issues. As I neared the next checkpoint, walking just under a kilometre to it, it had taken me twenty minutes to reach my destination. A firefight ensued and I was sniped from an unseen enemy, one shot, time to respawn. But I respawned at my last checkpoint, which happened to be twenty two minutes earlier. Endless frustration was then my enemy.

Trekking across what is a beautifully rendered scenic view isn’t an issue when done one, even two times, but if, like me you were to die a lot and have to walk this path many times, you would, like me put the controller down and leave it for a while.

I did find that playing cooperatively was a lot more fun, diving into a four player squad and taking on the objectives was more enjoyable. Mainly due to not relying on AI counterparts and dealing with your friends instead. Calling out map points between each other and running tactical manoeuvres is charming and should be used much more. Unfortunately the checkpoint issues are still a problem here, in fact when your whole team die in co-op there is no “return to last checkpoint” simply a “restart mission”

Dragon Rising seems to alienate people who want less of a challenge

There are people that will say, “But it’s authentic” and to those people I will say that they will enjoy the game. However when your AI squad call out directions to enemies it isn’t always helpful, bringing up the map doesn’t stop the enemy from advancing and can lead to sticky situations, as the game doesn’t pause to do so.

The game makes it clear that as you progress through the harder difficulties, it will take away your HUD and the checkpoint system completely, and if that is what you’re looking for that is fine. But Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising seems to alienate people who want less of a challenge, maybe to enjoy the visuals or the story, rather than being mowed down by unseen gunfire. This leads to the game being inaccessible to casual shooter fans with an interest in the war stories. A shame really as playing the campaign feels very much like venturing out into the online world with no experience.

I didn’t stop playing because of the graphics; they have a shine to them that ironically shows the dirty, gritty side of war. I didn’t stop playing because of the audio, which is superb, gun fire often makes you want to duck on your sofa and the percussion of a grenade exploding is immensely satisfying. I stopped playing because it wasn’t all that fun, having to press restart with a sigh and hope to make the next checkpoint. If you have three friends who will play with you and you can work well as a team, Operation Flashpoint is a joy to play; otherwise it’s a shooter that feels too big for its boots.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising displays excellent shooting mechanics, terrific weapons and features that make you feel as if you’re there on the battlefield. Features such as calling in air strikes, placing mines on roads for oncoming vehicles and the array of equipment to be used. However OF: DR feels to niche to enjoy a large audience and too tough to bring in a more casual crowd. The game is a technical marvel, but the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired.