Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

I have one vivid memory of the original Operation Flashpoint which burns brightly in my mind. The memory of being cut off from my squad, lost in a forest, with an enemy tank searching for me. In my recollection of the event I scurried from tree to tree for maybe half an hour, praying for a gap so that I could make a break for the safety of the hills. I'd like to say that I found an opening and made a run for it, but in reality the tank spotted me as I hid under a bush, and loosed one fatal round in my direction. It was with this memory that I approached the new Operation Flashpoint with respectful caution. Was it going to offer that same level of intensity that left me sweating and fearing for my life? Or would Codemasters take the original formula and dumb it down to appeal to a larger demographic?.

Following a stylish introduction which details the interwoven tapestry which makes up the history of Skira - the island you are fighting to liberate - it's straight into the action. The Chinese have seized control of the island (and its wealth of oil reserves), and the USA has been called in to help the Russians recapture the area. And true to past form, I initially spent quite some time bewildered and cowering behind a tree while my fire team were torn asunder by enemy fire. A few slightly frustrating minutes in, and it became clear that this was a game which demands to be taken seriously, and requires an adjustment of focus. Having killed countless hours playing action-packed Hollywood shooters in the past years, it was now time to unlearn all that gung-ho bravado, and change my style completely. If you want to get any kind of real enjoyment out of Dragon Rising, hell, if you just want to survive, you need to play it the way it wants to be played: slowly, methodically, and with military precision.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising offers the kind of serious take on military combat not often seen on consoles, where explosive run-and-gun action is the usual order of the day. Codemasters has really done their homework with this one, putting some hardcore research hours into what life is like on the front line, and it pays off in the game. Everything from ballistics tracking to squad strategies are taken into account, making it all a bit tricky to get into if you're after a quick blast before bed time. Looking back now, if I have to be honest, the first couple of missions actually weren't a whole lot of fun, because the learning curve is quite steep. You start off with a couple of objectives handed to you via radio comms, and then it's up to you. There is very little hand-holding, and it really can be infuriating when you just don't know what you are meant to do next. But persevere through this barrier, get to grips with the controls and the tactics required to succeed, and it becomes second nature.

Looking at the controls, you as fire team leader are in charge of three other soldiers, and you issue orders via an initially overwhelming contextual radial control system. Again, this is something that first feels clumsy and unnecessarily complicated, but once you get the hang of it you can't imagine it being any other way. So barking commands at your fire team becomes straight forward over time, but what remains annoying to the end is the manner in which said fire team, on occasion, reacts. I often found them lining up in my direct line of fire, and then still panning along with my line of sight as I tried to strafe past them. In a standard shooter this wouldn't have a huge impact, but in a game where each bullet counts it can really get on your nerves. Their path finding is also sometimes found wanting. There were occasions where I made a desperate dash for the safety of a wooded valley, only to turn around and find that my squad were still stuck in the barn from whence I came.

Enemy AI also suffers from similar issues, sometimes faring even worse than your own team. In a combat simulator so grounded in the reality of war, the spell is quickly broken when you are firing at distant enemies and they just stand there, even though the bullets are whizzing right at their heads. This is an intermittent problem, and for the most part the enemy soldiers will dive for cover when under fire, but it does go wrong more often than it should.

In general though, I found my squad to be unobtrusive, helping me more than hindering me, and more often than not, got me out of a tight situation. They are eagle-eyed to put it lightly, firing on enemies I had no idea even existed. This is very useful, because the enemy will be firing at you from what feels like miles away, and often you will be dead before you get a chance to return fire. During the learning phase, it often works out that you wait for your team to open fire on an enemy, and you sort of just help them out. Once you have the game's flow under control you will be flanking and out-gunning your Chinese foe like a deadly predator, but it takes some time to gain that confidence.

In the build-up to the release of Dragon Rising, much was made about the huge open world and detailed theatre of war. In honesty I was initially underwhelmed by the graphics, but the visual style did grow on me. There are some blocky textures here and there, especially in the distance, as well as some less than stellar small artifact design, such as plants and trees. But this too becomes unimportant once you grasp the sheer size of the missions that you're involved in. Let's just say that the overall graphical feel adds up to a whole lot more than the sum of its parts.

It's this sheer size of the missions that is also Dragon Rising's greatest asset. The developers have truly captured the feeling of being part of something bigger, a cog in the ever-turning war machine. Often your fire team will just have a small role to play in the bigger picture, supporting a line of tanks, clearing anti-air emplacements to make way for air support, basically just doing what needs to be done to carry the war forward. Through authentic comms chatter and briefings, as well as the presence of other squads also going about following their orders, there is a feeling of immersion here that is often missing from military shooters. And it's that immersive quality which scores highly for me personally. I found myself talking 'army' talk after the first days play, earning me some rather odd looks from the people around me, but that's exactly what Dragon Rising does... it sucks you in to its world, in some way making you feel connected to Skira Island and its fate.

To take this feeling of really being there to the next level, we need to look at the multiplayer game. It is possible to play the entire campaign with up to three other players co-operatively, which automatically removes any squad AI concerns, making it an even more engrossing experience. Granted, there are a couple of bugs here too, and I spent my first LIVE mission stuck between a tree and a weapons crate, begging my squad mates to please shoot me. It didn't help much that they made me the medic, and were constantly hollering for me to come heal them. But that was an isolated incident, and for the most part, the co-op mode was an enjoyable experience.

Another way in which Codemasters has strived for realism is with the sound, which is sparse yet functional and strangely impactful. The only music is during the menu screens, and it's atmospheric artsy stuff, suited perfectly to the game at hand. On mission, (or 'Oscar Mike' as you will soon be calling it once you're addicted to this game) it's all just footsteps and wind and breathing and bullets flying. Sprint for too long and you hear your heart throbbing in your chest, coupled with a perfectly done vibration on the gamepad. The sound direction really does add another valuable layer to the immersion.

Taking a game which is so deeply rooted in realism and putting it out there with your Call of Duty's and your Gears of War's was never going to be an easy task, and I know that Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising will not be to everyone's liking. It doesn't have that flashy Hollywood feel which many action gamers long for, and it lacks a tiny bit of polish to the AI and other minor areas, but underneath its hard exterior is a game just dying to grab hold of you and not let you go. This is addictive, hardcore combat in its purest form, where one shot kills and every bullet is worth its weight in gold.

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