Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Review

Game Name:	Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
Platforms:	Xbox 360
Publisher(s):	Codemasters
Developer(s):	Codemasters Studios
Genre(s):	Shooter
Release Date:	10/6/2009
ESRB Rating:	M for mature
Price:	$59.99

I hope you have a military translation guide when you play Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising because the game is as realistic as it gets with call signs, flanking maneuvers, and full squad control. You take the role of US Marines and Special Forces fighting against the super power of the People’s Liberation Army from China. You will fight for control of a Russian island called Skira which the winner will have access to oil.

Gameplay

The game is a first person military squad based shooter and will place you into the role of a commanding officer of a squad. You have full control over each member of the squad and can issue orders with a radial menu with many options, and for some will be a little complicated to learn what everything does. This game is for the hardcore military fans, with the detailed commands, maps, and maneuvers. Each member of your squad is a specialist in his field; you have the sniper, medic, and support. The game places you in different missions based on either providing cover for tanks, knocking out radio communications, or taking out a powerful leader. The open world gameplay will have you running across giant open fields, through forested areas, or climbing mountains.

The world might actually be too open for most people as you will be completing an objective and having to run across the map to the extraction point that will be about 10 minutes of running in the game. What really got me into the game would have to be the amount of details put into the gameplay, like when you get shot it might be a one hit kill or a damaging hit to the body. You will bleed out if you are not fast enough and will effect your vision and speed at which you can run will decrease, so grab the field dressing and try to stop the bleeding before you die. Also you will take damage to different parts of your body and will change the way you can complete your mission. If you are hit in the leg, you can’t run anymore, hit in the arm your aim will be decreased so make sure to protect your medic and have him fix you up to continue on the mission at full strength.

The weapons in the game are very detailed and you will use a different amount based on situational missions. You might be a sniper on one mission using night optics, or you might have a normal assault rifle. The amount of items you can carry are limited so you will have to pick and choose what you want for your primary weapon and secondary weapon carefully as you pick them up from ammo crates or the dead bodies of your enemies. Some of the missions might have you using a combat knife for a stealth kill or using C4 to blow up a radio tower, it is up to you on what weapons you want to use to get the job done. For taking out the enemy vehicles like the tanks you will have shoulder mounted rocket launchers. When you equip a shoulder mounted weapon will have have to put it down on the ground and assemble it and that will take a few seconds to do so make sure you are not exposed to enemy fire. One of the best things to do for me was to call in air strikes or artillery strikes on the enemies and watch it rain down to obliterate them. Moving onto the AI both for your squad and the enemies I found it a little difficult at times to control the squad and have them follow my orders. The enemies on the other hand are great at taking cover, hiding behind objects, and going prone to avoid your shots. For me the first few missions were very hard to complete because I took it as any other shooter and tried to run and gun, won’t work in this game at all.

Tactics and planning is the way to win the missions and keep your squad alive as it will be hard to spot the enemy with the camouflage they will be wearing and how they have the best eyesight in the game, because they can see you coming from a mile away while you can’t seem to see them at all. Now on the other hand it seems that the squad you command won’t do anything unless you direct them to do so, and can get frustrating quickly as you become a babysitter and not a commanding officer. There is 11 missions total in the game and each mission depending on different things can range from 20 minutes each or longer. I believe according to the in game tracking that that final mission time I completed the game in about 6 hours of actually playing the missions, but it felt a little longer because I spread out playing over a few days.

Audio

The audio does a great job of giving you directional firing from your enemies and the different pops and clicks of bullets passing by your ears and will have you taking cover. The guns feel right and the sounds that they make seem accurate, as the suppressed weapons have a small popping sound when being fired and even when shooting you can hear the empty shell casings hit the ground. What I found interesting was the fact that when bullets were being shot at you and hitting the ground around you it would cause an impact sound and even pop up dirt around you for a visual of dirt hitting your screen. So in general I used the sound to my advantage and was able to identify where my enemies were if I even couldn’t see them. The squad reactions and commands for accepting orders were very robotic and repetitive, which became annoying after a short time. There are even detailed sounds of your player breathing hard and your heart beating from running for long distances, which even for me sometimes it felt like my heart was beating fast from the pressure of trying not to get shot. The operational voice over for mission briefings and objectives were good but also repetitive with hearing “Solid Copy”, “Oscar Mike” and “How Copy”, over and over again. Giving commands to your squad to move were given in full details with grids and call signs, which for me were unnecessary and over detailed for my taste, when I had to constantly move the squad. So the attention to detail for audio was very well done but would of liked to hear more options or variations of commands.

Graphics

The graphics are decent enough where you can find enjoyment in playing the game. The open world is probably where most of the game will shine as you will have a large world to maneuver your squad and assault the enemy from different directions. The ability to see clear across open plains and across mountain tops was amazing for identifying the enemy with binoculars. I did run into a few problem glitches that took me out of the game. I found sometimes that when killing an enemy instead of his body falling over and dying they would stay in a crouched position, making me waste more ammo on them because I didn’t know if they were dead or not.

The detail of dirt hitting your screen was a nice effect and the small tunnel vision you will get when hit by bullets and blood is emptying from your body really made you feel like you were in a war zone and fearing for your life as you bleed on the ground. Overall I would say that the graphics were meant for playing on the PC and not the console, but good enough to give a good visual presentation of a military shooter.

Multiplayer

There are some options when it comes to multiplayer for this game. You can play 4 players cooperative through the full campaign. You can play 4 players cooperative through a single mission. You can play team deathmatch with 8 human players and AI teammates. Lastly and my favorite to play is Infiltration, which is a single objective and teams have a role to attack or defend. When searching through the multiplayer server list you can filter the options for what gametype and map that you want. I first started up deathmatch and waited about 15 minutes before the room filled up and the countdown started. I played on the map called chokepoint, which placed each team on opposite sides of a river with a bridge to cross. When I was playing it seems like I was killing mostly AI opponents more then human players because the AI would just sit on mounted machine guns for me to get free kills. The deathmatch game ended when the score reached 50 and I am unsure of how the AI is supposed to help when playing a deathmatch game, but it just didn’t feel right to me. The only reason I could possibly think of having AI teammates in deathmatch would be to keep the game moving with points because of the open world space it would be hard to only find 4 people on the opposite team.

On the other hand playing the infiltration mode was great, because I love objective based multiplayer. I played on the two available maps where the first map was an abandoned airfield where you had to destroy the radio tower and the second map you had to destroy a defensive tank position. You start out with your squad and are given a way point marker for the location of the objective and have the ability to choose different classes, like sniper, medic, machine gunner, and support. Using the open world map and a well coordinated team the firefights could be very interesting. I would say for me I would spend time playing with friends through either the campaign or maybe playing the infiltration mode. My experience in multiplayer was on the quiet side as players didn’t have microphones and in this type of game that is going to be one of the best things to have, communication.

Final Thoughts

I would say if you can find a few friends to play this game with as it is 4 player cooperative, pick it up and enjoy the military simulation that this game provides. Playing with the AI was a little rough at times and hard to control with commands by either getting stuck on objects or not killing the enemies. Some glitches were present (Glitches were enemies ending up in the crouch position after killing them, to make them appear alive. AI getting stuck on objects like rocks or behind houses. The mission where you had to attack the airfield one of my teammates just vanished and only thing left was a gun floating in the air) but mostly the game played fine. The hardest part for people will be learning all the hidden controls when it comes to getting the movements and orders for each squad member to be worthwhile. I really disliked the game for the first 3 missions as I was dying every few minutes from hidden enemies. Then doing some research on how to control the squad and other tips and tricks, by the end of the game I was able to almost go through an entire mission without shooting my weapon myself and having my squad take out the enemy forces to complete the mission. This would be something for a rental to check out what it has to offer and some easy achievements as each level completed in the campaign will give you one and some of the secondary achievements are easy to earn also. Give it a chance and after the first few frustrating learning curve missions you will find it worth some time to spend with it and enjoyable.

Final Score 3.5 / 5

About the Author

Jonathan Heier I am an avid gamer who likes to learn what it takes to be part of the gaming industry. I find myself always asking questions and trying to learn as much as I can about both the consumer side and the developer side. I have also been told I love Halo.