Review | Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
It’s such a shame because, while the AI needed a lot more work, the rest of Dragon Rising’s presentation and mechanics are mostly solid. It looks great, with unprecedented detail in weapons and equipment, as well as great lighting effects throughout the day and night cycle. The occasional bug will occur, such as corpses resisting gravity, and all the characters’ faces look the same, but despite the few flaws the whole game is suitably eye-catching. The sound impresses too: the cracks, thuds and wizzes from ballistics are realistic and of high quality, as are the character voices – though the occasional fractured grid references once again raise their ugly heads. All in all, it looks, sounds and feels great, helped along by responsive and well-mapped controls. The redial menu for commanding your troops doesn’t make for the quickest squad direction, but it all handles well enough.
That is, of course, until you get into a vehicle.
Ground vehicles handle terribly. Turning is unresponsive and tyres tend to hover rather than drive over terrain. Considering Codemasters’ success with the Colin McRae Dirt games, it’s enormously disappointing, and is yet another flaw that looks to undermine the hard work that’s clearly been poured into the rest of the title.
On paper the experience sounds too rough around the edges to be enjoyable, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Though everything doesn’t always work in harmony, when it does Dragon Rising is a good game – and even at its worst it’s still very playable. With occasionally uneasy footing, Dragon Rising treads an agreeable middle-ground between the hardcore and the traditional, with checkpoints and mission structure that feel more akin to Call of Duty while the remainder mimics the original Flashpoint. The result is an experience that’s both challenging and accessible, and has great appeal to all players. Although fans of the original will find fault with some of the design choices, on the whole Dragon Rising will benefit from its increased player base, much of which will veer towards the consoles for their military escapism. The trouble is that the consoles’ multiplayer aspect may fail to bring this player base together successfully.
//Functional but underwhelming
The maximum amount of players who can join a player-versus-player game in the console versions is eight, consisting of two teams of four supported by AI soldiers. When the PC can handle four times that, it’s quite frankly criminal that Dragon Rising’s console releases can’t support a larger amount of players, especially as teamwork is of such paramount importance, and relying on the AI is ill advised. The online PvP mode is still fun to play, with the option of two game-modes – Annihilation, a standard two forces face off, and Infiltration, where one small team of special forces take on a larger force defending an area. But the experience is nowhere near as enjoyable as it could have been with more human-controlled players. At the very least online play works, experiencing no reduction in frame rate or graphical quality, but it shifts play even further away from realism, with weapons losing their lethal edge slightly, and requiring more shots to down a fellow player.
Co-operative play is also on offer in Dragon Rising, allowing up to four players to team up and play through the campaign or through single missions. This is where Dragon Rising’s multiplayer begins to redeem itself, as replacing the AI with human players makes the whole experience much more engaging and a lot less frustrating. Talking to your team-mates to organise progression through each mission makes for a faster and more satisfying pace, and with no more radial confusion or AI incompetence to deal with, it changes the entire feel of the game, coming much closer to the Flashpoint title fans of the original hoped for. Unfortunately, all the multiplayer options are for online or system link only, with no local multiplayer included whatsoever. It’s all something of a let-down.
With multiplayer failing to encourage console players to return, that leaves the single-player campaign for replay value, and while each mission can be played through in different manners thanks to the freedom on offer, there’s no real compulsion to revisit. After a great opening, the narrative dries up completely, giving the campaign nothing more to offer – especially as all the missions are available to play individually in a separate game mode after completion.
There’s a lot to complain about, but Dragon Rising is an enjoyable game. It just falls short of the quality we’d hoped for. All the right components are present, and the flaws are easy enough to look past in most instances – but in others, they’re a stain that inevitably catches your attention. Codemasters are promoting the game with the line “As close to war as you ever want to get,” and it’s certainly fitting. Dragon Rising does a great job of catering to hardcore players while still remembering that it’s a game. It’s a flawed but fine effort, far enough away from both traditional shooters and simulations to feel fresh, and is certainly worth a look. If you’re going to take the plunge, though, just make sure you opt for the PC version if at all possible.
6/10
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This sounds like a pretty fair assessment from what I have seen so far. I only bought the game a couple of days ago and haven’t had much chance to play it but already feel I am going to be a little disappointed. I have been eagerly awaiting this since playing the first Flashpoint (and the surprisingly good Xbox port). I don’t often buy games on release so will be especially let down if the game doesn’t improve on my initial impressions.
Much as I like the multiplayer elements of COD, and recognise (although not enjoy) the quality of the single player, I much prefer the Flashpoint style. I even find GRAW slightly hard to like, although the multiplayer is the closest we are usually offerred to a tactical shooter. As such my concern is not so much for my enjoyment of this game in particular, but that if it is unsuccessful it will bring into question the demand for this kind of game in general (and the ability to deliver it even if there is demand).
I too hope that developers don’t become more and more put off in creating more (I hate the term but for lack of a better one) ‘hardcore’ games. Getting the right mix between realism and game is a tricky task, but in that regard Dragon Rising does an admirable job.
The silver lining is, recently we’ve seen a few titles which are more ‘hardcore’ being released, ARMA 2 and Risen for example. So whilst the flaws in these titles are holding them back slightly, let’s hope they capture enough attention to keep the premise afloat.
This is a very good review. I’ve been playing Risen since it came out and my character has attained level 8, and I’ve upgraded my weapons and armor. The game story line goes linear at the beginning, but the game open up later. Then you can tho what ever you want. For me this game is far better than Oblivion.