Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Review
- Posted October 17th, 2009 at 18:47 EDT by Joseph Lustig
- 47 Comments
Review Score
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
- PSU Review Score
- 8.5
- Avg. user review score:
- 7.6
Summary
Looking for a brutal war experience? Look no further than Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising.
We like
- The realistically brutal simulation
- The wide array of weapons
- The long missions and large maps
We dislike
- The grinding difficulty at some points
- The initially unwieldy controls
- The abnormal learning curve
See PSU's review on Metacritic & GameRankings
War. The great philosopher Plato once remarked that only the dead have seen the end of it. Now gamers across the world can get a little closer to the brutal, unforgiving reality of modern war in Operation Flashpoint's long-awaited sequel, Dragon Rising. What sets this title apart from any other generic war game, you ask? Some might argue it's the complex command system that lets you put any squad member anywhere at any time to do anything. Others might say it's the savage realism that every bullet is a potential nail in your coffin—that there is no such thing as a one-man team. And still others would claim it's the wide array of the world's most modern weapons of war seamlessly infused with the genius plethora of vehicles. Any way you look at it, there is something for everyone if you fight hard enough.
North of Japan there lies a territory viciously fought over for centuries. Having first been claimed by China early in the 15th century, the remote island of Skira has also been ruled by Russian and Japanese forces alike over the course of hundreds of years. Now, Russia has secured most recent control of the oil-rich island as the global economic crisis reaches its lowest point in years, driving the demand for oil and other various natural resources to an all-time high. China now rushes in and Japan charges, putting the world on the brink of a full-scale war. Enter the United States Marine Corps. United Nations has requested America's unrivaled power to cease the bloodshed. As the elite, it is your sovereign duty to free Skira from the oppression it now faces. But be wary—this is real war; suit up accordingly, because no two battles are alike.
Operation Flashpoint has more guns and gizmos than anyone could reasonably request, which immediately throws the player into the full chaos that is war. As the insurgents, marines will have enemy forces set up all over the island in the places they least expect with the firepower to keep them off their beloved island. The player must choose the appropriate weapon for each situation—no glitch or cheat guns here; every weapon is different. Upon entering the battlezone, players will be outfitted with several trinkets specially designed for that specific mission. Paradrop into the hills at night, and your squadron will wield advanced, long-rage sniper rifles with NVG, mines, a flashlight, a pistol, a medical pack, a combat knife, and a few blocks of C4 with a detonator. Choose your shots carefully, however; your only source of extra ammunition will be caches or bodies, which immediately thrusts you into a survivor state of mind. Yes, that's right—if you don't take care of your squad members, you'll be scavenging clips off their bodies as well.
Your best friends are your squad members. They will heal you when you are incapacitated, give you suppressing fire when requested, assault a building when ordered, and even drive you to the nearest village so you can use the bathroom (or slaughter the enemy forces who beat you to it). How could one controller possibly contain enough coordination to command your troops with such precision, you might be wondering? Well, it's really quite simple. Codemasters has taken the R1 button and transformed it into a command center. Simply tap it once, and a directional pad-shaped menu will open up with an option for every direction—up, down, left, and right. Broken up into easy-to-assess categories such as Offense, Defense, ROE, Follow Me, you won't spend long getting your squad to do exactly what you want. Your command module even adapts to the situation. If you're shot, call for a medic. If you're driving, call for support gunners. If you're looking at an enemy outpost, call for leftward flanking. Even if it is a little unwieldy at first, players will eventually get the hang of it. The only way it could be easier is if you could talk to your squad mates. But wait, you can!
If you have an internet connection, a PlayStation Network account, and a microphone, you have all you need to drop into the battle with your friends. Multiplayer isn't as grueling as the campaign since human intellect is still superior to computer A.I. If you just can't seem to capture an enemy village or save a friendly AAC, just hop online and try again with three of your buddies. This doesn't necessarily mean it will become easier however. Your A.I. friendlies are programmed marines, while your friends may just be, well, friends. Still, the intensity increases in multiplayer due to the fact that one stray bullet could put you out of an hour-long mission with your friends, and nobody wants to be the dead guy in spectator mode. Thus, Codemasters has ingeniously sculpted a war simulation that doesn't buckle under the weight of today's incredible demand for a AAA multiplayer experience. War remains war.
Dragon Rising may not be the most fun game to pick up and play, but it has definitely earned the title of the most realistic. In an era of one-man teams, glitches and hacks, it may take some time for players to adjust to the tactical challenges of a real war simulation. Granted, the game isn't perfect by any standard, but one would be hard pressed to be able to say that it wasn't a job well done by Codemasters. If you are looking for a genuinely brutal war experience, look no farther. The adrenaline will rush. Your palms will be sweaty. Your forehead will be beating. You will be at war.
Comments
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KCgonewiild |
KCgonewild- 6:48pm BST - October 17th, 2009
- 1
deleted by Gilly. stupid first comments are not welcome here.
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Vertana |
Vertana- 7:00pm BST - October 17th, 2009
- 3
I love the game, the only that bothers me are the vehicle physics. This would be a small gripe, but one of the big "features" is the realism. It's not realistic when I take my humvee over a rock the size of a basketball and flip in the air (I mean flip, like a warthog in Halo flip). Also, once I hit an insurgent with my vehicle and it was like he was glued to the grill (instead of being hit and flying away from/under the vehicle). I hope that last one was a bug, not the vehicle/pedestrian collision physics, but the first one was definitely physics issue.
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Free_Agent
- 8:21pm BST - October 17th, 2009
- 10
I really wanna pick this one up. I am waiting a week or two though, because there are too many good games out right now, and I want to make sure I have time to play them all. I am currently on my 6th run through demons souls( I just can't stop playing it :) after that I'm picking this up along with Uncharted 2.
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dc89 |
Stiss- 8:47pm BST - October 17th, 2009
- 12
The game is quite buggy in certain aspects. The biggest one really strikes the realism part: If you lay smoke down in multiplayer, your cross hairs go red when over a enemy, even through the smoke, and your enemy can 'see' you too. I've been shot out of now where a few times and this is why!
Go check out the official boards and you will see there are a lot of people who are unhappy
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edward_moffet |
edd- 8:50pm BST - October 17th, 2009
- 13
I think i'm going to pick this one up used, i've really been looking at it and i still got a few on my wishlist that are top priority but this one is worth a buy
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welshfrankie |
welshfrankie- 9:02pm BST - October 17th, 2009
- 14
Hmm, I'd love a demo for this game TBH. However, I will probably pick it up for Xmas :D
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dc89 |
Stiss- 10:16pm BST - October 17th, 2009
- 18
At Duff?
What Servers? The game is P2P that why the multiplayer is horrendous. 1 in 10 games is ok. Codemaster's did promise dedicated servers too, as I said there are a lot of people who are unhappy because Codemaster's did promise an awful lot that they did not deliver on.
Btw, if your wondering, I do like this game, it is pretty good but when you watched all them trailers and they really bigged it up, you are a little disapointed.
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PSX_Legend |
KillZone3000- 2:50am BST - October 18th, 2009
- 21
@20 The mission structure is realistic, tactical and precise in this game, Far Cry 2 however was a pain in the a** to travel and exploring , wasting precious gaming time.Operation Flashpoint is not only run n gun if that your thinking.
Every time i play Far Cry 2 i get motion sickness cause the game "forces" you to move great distances all the time, still it was a decent game but not great.
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neoxthexone |
neoxthexone123- 9:44am BST - October 18th, 2009
- 23
Its a great game and really hard aswell since sometimes it takes 1 shot to kill you. The drivin is iffy too :S 4/5
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Beasley2K |
Beasley2K- 3:27pm BST - October 18th, 2009
- 25
"If your shot, call for a medic."
Should be "you're".
The final few sentences were a bit cheesy... a bit too dramatic... Also, my forehead doesn't tend to beat. That's my heart's job. An interesting way to finish off a review though; exciting and fast-paced.
I'm still unsure of this game, however. I'm not particularly into shooters, preferring strategic team-based thinking like this to skill-less run-'n'-guns. But that's what I have MAG for. This game does look really interesting though, so if I ever get a chance to try it, or my supply of games is running low, I may just have to pick this one up...
Thanks for the review Joseph.
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D0nni3
- 5:43pm BST - October 18th, 2009
- 27
If you havn't seen the video's leading up to the release of this game and like tactical shooters that you have to get your head stuck into then you should get this it's awesome
however it has some bugs that need ironing out and the devs really didn't deliver on what they promised. this is a great game and the review score is spot on here a solid game but not the best game you'll ever play
and dam some of it is hard! even on the lowest difficulty
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O_G_H
- 7:15pm BST - October 18th, 2009
- 31
We Dislike:
- The grinding difficulty at some points- Difficulty is NOT bad. See Demon's Souls.
- The initially unwieldly controls- Translation: "It's not like Call of Duty's controls."
- The abnormal learning curve - "I have to think about how to play?! Fail."
Brutal Legend got a 9.5 on this site. I'm starting to question whether or not I trust reviews here anymore. Who's writing these reviews? People's Moms?
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Tseng VII |
TsengVII- 7:30pm BST - October 18th, 2009
- 32
@O_G_H
First off, everyone agrees the difficulty is high, especially since the only two other difficulties are harder. And Demon's Souls is widely known as one of the hardest games of all time, so that's not really a good argument. Seconly, the controls really are pretty confusing compared to any game, not just the run-and-gun CoD. Third, the learning curve is because there really isn't any other game out there like this. Have you even played it? -
O_G_H
- 9:38pm BST - October 18th, 2009
- 33
" And Demon's Souls is widely known as one of the hardest games of all time..."
If DSs is one of the hardest games of all time, you must not have had much time doing this hobby. There's a Mega Man game that's harder (actually, quite a few) . DSs is simply one of the hardest this generation, which isn't saying much.
And yes, I've played both Demon's Souls and Operation Flashpoint.
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Tseng VII |
TsengVII- 11:02pm BST - October 18th, 2009
- 36
@O_G_H
Haha, you're something else. Well, as far as the user review score goes, it's fact that many people who haven't played the game rate it based on their assumptions what they think it should be. So, if nobody's actually played the game, the user score will be skewed. Fortunately, it looks like a lot of people have played it, so the score's pretty accurate.
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Beasley2K |
Beasley2K- 7:30pm BST - October 19th, 2009
- 39
O_G_H
Difficulty can be bad if it's ridiculously hard, ie. not even enjoyable. Demon's Souls if a different kind of difficulty altogether.
Regardless, I agree with you about people complaiing; the developers of this game set out with the inetentions of creating the most realistic war game ever created - yet there are people complaining that it's too realistic!
If you don't like this game because of it's realism, then it obviously wasn't created with a target audience such as you in mind!
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SPOTTED |
SPOTTED- 8:14pm BST - October 19th, 2009
- 40
It's hard, but not that hard. I already have 85% trophies. The key to simplifying this game is to take your time. Move slowly (with your fireteam) and take out one target at a time. Never try to do to much (like you're supposed to in SOCOM and COD). Patience is a vertue grasshopper!
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darthrazorback
- 12:53am BST - October 20th, 2009
- 41
I don't think this game is hard at all unless you play it like COD. Move slow and work with your team. Kill targets at 300 meters or more when you can. If you want truly difficult and annoyingly so, try Demon's Souls. It is the kind of difficult that makes you wonder for whom the developers made the game. It couldn't be 95% of gamers.
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Amurael666
- 7:37pm BST - October 22nd, 2009
- 44
i dont have this game but i really want it, it has everything in a war game you could ask and its a shame i cant afford it:(
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