Operation
Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is the man’s man of tactical first-person shooters.
This hardened sequel is a burly fellow, one that has no need for shaving cream,
eye protection or seat belts. Whereas other similar titles offer regenerating
health and characters with bulletproof skin, Dragon Rising reminds players that
gunfire can instantly kill you, enemies won’t normally dive into your shots, and
that healing your gaping shrapnel wound isn’t as easy as applying a bandage. In
a way, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising brings the balls back to military
shooters, but my time with it made me realize that this probably isn’t a good
thing.
The game
centers around a fictional conflict between China and Russia over an oil-filled
island called Skira. The U.S. steps in to put an end to the tussle, which sends
your Marines all over the massive open-world island trying to stop the hate. Of
course, a complete lack of cut scenes means that this doesn’t really matter all
that much, as this sordid tale of greed and violence is only moved forward by
between-level text and in-game radio chatter.
Each mission
requires that you traverse the vast, dangerous island to find and silence the
Chinese forces that are controlling certain installations. Along the way, you
can commandeer everything from a jeep to a tank to help you zip around the 130
square miles of open terrain, and you’ll need them all as each mission is packed
with multiple distant objectives. From the capturing and defending of a
beachhead and radio tower to the rescuing of pilots from the wreckage of a
downed helicopter, all of the missions force you and your squad mates into
situations that leave you greatly outnumbered. The shooting in the game is
fairly realistic, so don’t expect to hit a distant target unless you stand still
and take a knee. You’ll also need to become as good of a commander as you are a
shot, as plotting out your path through the grassy hills, darkened forests,
demolished villages and archaic industrial plants is essential to keep your men
in this existence.
With the
touch of a button, you can pull up a list of commands that will order your
three-person squad to attack, defend, cover, flank, or heal whatever you’re
pointing at. And you’ll have to do this a lot, as your boys will often get
preoccupied in a never-ending bullet exchange with a target that is far enough
away to ensure that none of their shots will ever come close to hitting
anything. This gets frustrating at times, as neglecting their activities can
lead them into making a stupid decision, ignoring an obvious target, or getting
themselves killed. Your fallen comrades will resurrect themselves at the next
checkpoint on the normal setting, but harder difficulties make their deaths
permanent. As long as you keep them focused, the squad mechanics work fairly
well, but getting them to do what you want can sometimes be more of an annoyance
than a helping hand.
Speaking of
annoyances, some may be turned off by the extreme difficulty of the combat in
Dragon Rising. As little as one bullet can take you from full health to a body
bag, though it normally takes two or three. Once you’re hit, you’ll have about
30 seconds to heal yourself before you bleed to death. Your character will go
down permanently if too many bullets slice through his brittle bones, which is
where he’ll stay until he fully bleeds out or one of his A.I. companions rushes
over to heal him within a given amount of time. Of course, since your squad
mates are usually too preoccupied with shooting a distant sniper, you won’t see
much help from them overall. Also unhelpful is the game’s checkpoint system,
which is far more deadly than any tank or rocket launcher.
Dragon
Rising seems to hand out saves at random, as you’ll sometimes complete multiple
objectives and slaughter dozens of dangerous hostiles without having your
progress recorded. If you happen to get perforated by a stray bullet during this
time, you’ll find that you’ve lost 10-20 minutes of progress, and the lack of
any type of manual save forces you to rely on this very unreliable and seemingly
nonsensical checkpoint system. This completely breaks the appeal of Operation
Flashpoint, as the fact that any regular enemy can nail a lucky headshot and
force you to start over from scratch will keep you from experimenting with and
exploring the massive open-world sandbox environment. I often found myself
sticking to the easy path or ducking behind a wall and hoping that my companions
would kill everything for me, as I knew that one ill-informed peak from my
hiding spot could send me face down into the cold, scary hands of death. It also
doesn’t help that the load times are exceptionally long, ensuring that you have
plenty of time to stew in the anger caused by an unfair fate.
I really
wanted to love Dragon Rising. I’m a fan of difficult games, and usually dig
titles that go against the norm and attempt to do something different with their
genre. But in this case, the lack of checkpoints, long load times, and
unreliable A.I.-controlled partners siphoned most of the enjoyment out of it,
leaving me with nothing more than a half-broken controller and a throbbing
headache. I’ll take my shooter without balls next time, thank you.
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Gameplay: 6.0
Don’t expect to
run-and-gun in this one, as careful maneuvering and intelligent tactics are the
only things that will keep your squad breathing. Too bad that the sadistic
checkpoint system ruins it.
Graphics: 6.0
Muddy textures
and uninteresting environments undermine the massive open-world landscape.
Sound: 6.0
Stilted voice
acting and sparse music are overpowered by nonstop gunfire.
Difficulty: Hard
Even on the
easiest difficulty setting, one bullet can send you to an instant, unexpected
grave, which often results in an explosion of profanity and pillow punching. The
fact that you’ll then have to replay half of the level doesn’t help things.
Concept: 7.0
Operation
Flashpoint’s semi-realistic approach to war is a breath of fresh air within the
well-worn tactical shooter genre, but bad design decisions ruin any fun that
could be had with it.
Multiplayer: 7.0
Four-player
cooperative play in each of the campaign’s single-player levels and several
competitive modes highlight this fairly meaty package, but I ran into some lag
online and the servers are as empty as a beer bottle at a Packers game.
Overall: 6.5
Operation
Flashpoint: Dragon Rising’s
unique spin on tactical warfare might be dug by the truly hardcore, but some
frustrating design decisions will keep this one from rising as high as it
should.
