Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Review

I have recently begun playing this game again. There aren't many reviews laying around, so here's one I whipped up.

Note: I haven't tried the multiplayer yet, so I'm not going to review it until I do.


Surprisingly, the plot of Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising is fairly easy to understand - and for that reason, had me quite interested.

Basically, the huge fictional island of Skira (that's where the game takes place) has been switching ownership over the past centuries, having been owned by Russia, China and Japan. After the Cold War, a fresh, new oil reserve was found on Skira. During the global economic crisis, China finds itself in need of oil and so sets out to claim Skira from Russian ownership. Russia responds to the Chinese invasion and demands China to leave the island, though China claim original ownership and so disagree to leave, which results in a China vs Russia war over Skira. Russia then requests assistance, which is where the US responds and becomes involved.

The plot is one of the reasons why I liked this game. I found the plot was very similiar to the real-world Falklands War of 1982, in which Argentina claimed the Falkland Islands which were under British ownership. Great Britain responded to their invasion and defeated the Argentinian invaders. Perhaps the British developers of the game (Codemasters) slightly modeled the story of Dragon Rising on the Falklands War?

Compared to most other games of the same generation, Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising doesn't really bode superior in the graphics department. Many of the game's textures and visuals appear old, bland, flat and generally boring.

There is also "texture pop-in" from time to time and some environmental objects such as plants and trees appear 2D.

As you could imagine, this game is pretty much the closest thing to a military simulator you can get on consoles. If you're used to the more fast-paced, run-and-gun type arcade games such as Call of Duty, you probably wouldn't like Operation Flashpoint.

Don't get me wrong, this game can be fast-paced and action packed, but not on the level of Call of Duty, by any means. You will spend most of your time laid in grassy ditches planning your squad's advancement to the next objective. Running and gunning tactics will certainly gain you many KIA's and objective failures.

As the squad commander, it is your job to decide all factors for your squad - your rules of engagement, spread and formation to name a few. Of course, you can also direct and order artillery and also controll their factors (spread, etc.) You can also command vehicles, either from the outside or from the passenger seat.

As with pretty much every military simulator, you can only withstand one or two rounds before dropping (this is dependable on difficulty, however). Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising utilizes a unique injury system; if the player is shot in the arm, their aiming will become impaired and if the player is shot in the leg, they will only be able to sprint for short periods. Of course you are equipped with field dressings which can aid smaller fleshwounds, but if you incure potentially life-threatening wounds, your squad's medic must be called upon.

This is where the game can flop. Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising is notorious for having terrible AI. I witnessed this myself when playing the game earlier. I was laying down fire on PLA soldiers, when suddenly, one of my squaddies ran and stood in front of my line of fire, getting shot down.

Getting killed, or having squad members killed will likely result in a mission failure, which is very frustrating. Missions tend to take at least 30 minutes to complete (probably longer on higher difficulty settings), and checkpoints are sparse, so very sparse you wouldn't believe. You can run for 5-10 minutes on foot, and then be ambushed by the enemy and have to restart your mission all over again. Oh so very frustrating.

It helps having some experience with the genre, as missions tend to become ridiculously hard, even on the lowest difficulty setting. One mission asks you to defend a village with your squad of oh-so-intellegent AI buddies while masses of PLA infantry stream in from all angles. In some situations, you need luck more than tactics and skill.

There are quite a few vehicles available in the game, both for the US and PLA belligerents. Tanks, APC's, attack and transport helicopters are all available. The aircraft handle fairly well, though the APC's and smaller armored vehicles suffer from slight understeer at times. Something which surprised me, among many others, was the fact that, regardless of the colossal size of Skira and the presence of a runway, the game's developers didn't bother to utilze any form of jet aircraft. I mean, there aren't even any AI ones that fly through the skies during the campaign mode. Quite a disappointment.

There is a wide range of weapons available in the game, from assault rifles, to sub-machine guns, sniper rifles to explosives. Weapons act and sound fairly realistic, taking ballistics into account.

As for where the game takes place, it's huge. Skira is humongous in size and has to be one of the largest "playing fields" of any game. Skira may be large, but once you begin to explore the island, you will notice how boring it is. The island is very boring. If you travel from one side to the other (which takes a while...) you will see just the same old, same old, over and over again. There are no large towns or any ruins. All that remains on Skira are trees, bushes, rocks, beeches and a few buildings (but not enough buildings to make a town!)

Overall:
Overall, the game is definately one to try-out if you're a fan of military simulators.