12:00 pm
Operation Flashpoint hits the scene as the sequel to an old favourite to those who actually played it and a new experience to fans of military shooters that are looking for a different change in pace.
While games like the Call of Duty series usually floats just about anyones boat, Operation Flashpoint sets out to bring you a fully realistic shooter, in the real world where one bullet can kill you and tactical decisions are more important than any skill with a weapon.
Hit the jump to find out if Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is for you.
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising puts you in the middle of a modern war over an the island of Skira that has changed hands various times over the course of history. While the Russians currently have ownership of the island, a large, newly discovered oil reserve has China claiming original ownership of the island.
Long story short, the brown stuff has hit the spinning thing and the Yanks are called in to assist the Rusks.
Dragon Rising, as stated earlier, is more of a combat simulator and puts you in realistic missions where risks are things that are highly frowned upon. The pace of the gameplay is slow when compared to other FPS games but if you are looking for a game that needs you to think before you act, you will absolutely love the rewarding feeling that you get when you and your squad achieve your objectives like pros.
Shots are tough to make and made even tougher when bullets (that can kill you quickly) are buzzing past your eyebrows and a lot of the combat takes place over fair distances. The beauty of this sort of game however is that you need to take bullet trajectories, speed over distance and even leading ahead on running targets, making it feel all the better when you get that insane headshot that you calculated so well.
The gameplay can differ heavily depending on if you are playing it solo with AI squad mates, or working as a team with buddies online.
The solo career involves a lot of squad commands and can be troublesome as you sit through your multi-leveled command system trying to get someone to do something that would usually be completely logical to a human, like heal the dude that’s bleeding to death right next to the medic.
I don’t want to rant on too much about the AI, just know that they are troublesome at times and can cause issues, especially since checkpoints are sometimes far apart (and non existent in hardcore mode).
When it comes to the online/system link multiplayer though, Operation Flashpoint shines in a big way. Some surreal moments were had in our co-op missions, as we all sat on top of a hill, scouting out the objective with our binoculars and planning the best route to the target, or collectively deciding that it’s all gone sour and running for the hills like girls.
