Dutch Magazine 9/10
Translation
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is one of the most talked about shooters from the past years. And again, and again, the question rised if Codemasters could pull it of without the help of Bohemia Interactive. Jan locked himself up in his room for a week with the review-version to give you guys the final word.
I have never been in the army, and I have no idea what it is like to fire a weapon in a combat situation. And lets be fair, playing games doesnt make you a soldier.
On several occasions I did fire a gun once or twice, and i assure you that has got nothing to do with the shooting in a game as in Call of Duty, Rainbow Sic or Killzine.
Still I feel that after playing Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (A game being hunted with delays) I have gotten a feeling how modern warfare works.
It is filthy, it is tactical, it is deadly and a split second could be the difference between life or death. No this game isnt for softies. This game will cost you blood, sweat and tears, but eventually the statisfaction is immense.
Choose
Choices. Its might be the best thing in Dragon Rising. Because you will get them alot as a player in the intense campaign, which will let you sit on the top of your seat untill the last bullet has been fired.
The choice to attack a village from the left, right, front or back. The choice to switch your weapons and explosives at the munitiondepot. Will you take the sniper-rifle or will you keep the heavy machinegun? Sometimes you will have to decide quickly if you want your men to supress the enemy or flank them.
If you have decided to bomb a village, you get to choose from 4 kinds of bombs, Segmented, Centrated or Spread.
De formation of you squad the types of bullets in your gun, the speed of the bullets when exiting your weapon, which grenades you will have as a secundary fireoption, its all your choice. Choices, Choises, Choises, it doesnt stop. And you hardly have the time to make them, because the enemy is advancing.
Camoflaged Bastar d
Your enemy in this game? The Chinese who took posession of Skira because of the Oil-supplies. China looks at the history of the island, and they determine that they are the rightfull owners of the island. Russia however has an other opinion. America the self acclamed police-officer of the world gets involved in this matter, because its about oil non-the-less.
And this is how you get on Skira as an american soldier. This island is large, vast and dangerous. No hall to hall combat or invisible walls here. You enjoi the unlimited freedom to choose which way you should get to the enemy or objective. Most of the times this doesnt go well and you will die, and then you will try it again with a different tactic.
Will you go up that mountain? You will have a good view, but you cant stay there for long, so you dont become a sitting duck.
It doesnt take you long to figure out that you have to keep moving and take strategic points as fast as possible. It also is of great importance to control your teammates as good as possible.
You will also discover that it is wise to recon the area really well before blowing up an enemy target. Logically an explosion gets a reaction going and then there is no way back.
Sometimes you will hear bullets fly past your ears and hear your teammates yell: "Enemy, 300 metres, south!". But there is nothing to see, because the bastar'd is hiding in the bushes with his ACU (camouflage).
There are no enemies who will charge in front of your viser like a kamikazepilot, no, your advisery is a fullyblown enemy being controlled by amazing AI, who work at the blades edge.
Circle of life
I played Dragon Rising on the PC and on the Xbox 360 and I was supprised to see how well the consoleversion does im comparison with the PC. Ofcourse the PC-graphics can handle more and the game looks better on a PC. But the expirience, atmosphere and tension is just as good on the console as on the PC.
When you are used to playing on console and PC, the PC has a large advantage over the console when it comes to controls. Console-only players will probaply be overwhelmed with the amount of buttons you use to call out orders and use functions, the PC version however has all the functions layed out nicely over the keyboard, so I could quickly switch orders.
On the Xbox 360 and the PS3, the same actions are available but layered under many buttons. Which means that JJ (Another reviewer) was fiddeling with the controls for about 2 hours. But dont let that scare you, because after a little while the controls on the Xbox 360 works really well too. With a press on the right bumber a menu comes up with subjects. When you have picked a subject another menu appears, examples with this are: Airsupport, Different Attacks, Defences and formations.
After a little while you get through the menu's pretty quick. You will have to, because the right command will determine if you life or die. Dragon Rising makes me think of Brothers in Arms, but then with 10 times as amny options.
Fleeing
The thing that probapply impressed me most was the AI. Becasue the behavior of my teammates and the enemy is intelligent and convincing.
Your teammates often see an enemy before you, which makes you feel a bit daft, using the binoculares and taking advantage of the eviroment is a good advice I can give you.
But the enemy also doesnt mess around. When they have noticed where you and your men are, they will do anything to pin you down and smoke you out.
Your actions in the campaign will also determine the morale if your squad. At first I was a bit impatient and took a gamble to attack a bit to much. Several times my squad escaped death, if not wounded. So when I threw my men in another dangerous situation one squadmember just took off. This however also works with the enemy. Because when you shoot at a lonely Chinese soldier and pin him down, he will run like the wind! And believe me, those moments are gold!
F*ck this is good
As the campaign progresses, the tension gets up and the battle scale increases. Vehicles like jeeps, tanks and combathelicopters will play a bigger role, but still I enjoyedth action on the ground the most. Its an enormous rush when you are in the middle of a tank battle, and you and your squad flank to blow up some anti-vehicle stations. You really think your in the middle of a war.
Whilst on the background there are shots being fired and clouds of smoke fill the skies, I yell yo my men to follow me to the next objective. The adreneline rushes trough my vanes and with sweaty hands I tighten the grip around my controller. F*ck this is heavy and f*ck this is good! Codemasters have done it.
Other info:
True or false
Dragon Rising gives you an open world to fight in freely.
True and false. Yes you can go whereever you want and take a kilometres long detour, but no it doesnt really accomplish something. The routes of the missions are clearly layed out and the primary and secundary objectives are close to eachother.
One shot One kill
100% true. Even in assisted mode a Rambo among us will get a tough job, let alone doing the hardcore mode. The AI is just to strong!
War isnt Man against Man
True. The 'bunny hopping' way you move in modern warfare is miles away from what a real soldier would do. He would rather fight at a distace. Snipers and calling in airstrikes are way more accurate then go gunz blazing at the enemy. Dragon Rising shows how modern warfare works. Scouting and sniping are an important role.
You can break more stuff
Not really true. Yes, you can break more than in the first OFP, but the obstacles are still obstacles, even when they are made out of wood.
Really real weapons
True. In Dragon Rising you really have to take the wind and distance into account if you want to hit your target. Its really hard to hit someone. A deadly shot is also something that needs to be done the right way. On your knees or going prone, and not while your are gasping for breath because you just ran a whole lot. And an injured arm doesnt help either.
Variation in vehicles
Not fully true. Okay, there are APC's, tanks, boats and helicopters but fair is fair, Armed Assault II has alot more vehicles (blasphomy!)
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Total Panic
For developers making wargames, recreating fear that soldiers have is one of the most important and also hardest objectives.
How do you make the feeling that you get when you are begin shot at? Dragon Rising has raised the bar a bit higher.
Ofcourse a game is always far from reality, but we could really feel how a soldier feels better than ever in this game. A few examples why:
-When heavy weapons are firing, your surroundings become "gritty" and your screen really shakes. Logic when there are bombs falling all around you. Because of the gritty look it is hard to find a safe place to sit, which seems normal to us.
-The harder you have been hit, the more blurry your vision becomes. If you dont do anything about your wounds you will get slower bit ny bit. And after healing an arm isnt still fully functional, brilliant feature!
-Your men confront you when you give them a "dumb" order. And they scream when they are being ambushed or shot at.
-Your hear the bullets hitting the ground around you. And than you know thet you are pinned. Your only hope is to run like a mad man.
-In most wargames you feel like your the man when your in a chopper. In Dragon Rising this is different.You are still vonerable to AA guns. That keeps you on your feet, the feeling that you can be hit at anytime is almost unbearable!
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JJ gives it a shot[/B[
I will confess, I am a war freak. As a kid a regulary scored A's for my essays and they were all about war. You can always wake me up for a good wargame. Modern Warfare is still next to my xbox, with fifa 09.
Operation Flashpoint has been called the ultimate warsim by many. If you manage to survive in this game you are a real couchwarrior. Only normal that I was there as soon as possible when Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising rolled in! I wanted to know if I still had my commandoblood.
Lack of patience
However I have 1 problem and that is that I have a chronic lack of patience. I can fight, I can shoot but to carfully plan a mission, choose weapons and than move your men strategically over the battlefield doesnt succeed much with me. I always look for the action.
A few hits
Although I even tried to -against my nature- flank and not attack full frontal on my own, my actions kept failing again and again.
The sublime AI in Dragon Rising stopped my 1 dimensional attack everytime. And ofcourse the Chinese fortified their positions, yep, I should have spoiled my position.
Because you can die with just 1 hit in this game and healing is a tricky thing which really takes time, I died a whole bunch of times. This often meant that I needed to keep walking 10 minutes before arriving at the same point to try and take down the enemy. It really made me feel like stopping.
Fear
Thankfully I kept going, even though it was against my instincts. Because that you have to keep alert and can die at anytime, it makes this game way more realistic than those wargames which will let you walk away after being hit. Forget Modern Warfare, that is Hollywood-war. Dragon Rising lets you feel how it is like to operate in a combat situation. The fear of war is constant with you, it takes your breath, I can guarentee you that. The action feels real close all the time, even when there is nothing happening. I felt desolate, and I enjoyed it.
The total panic when a helicopter opens fire on you, the complete feeling of having no change when attacking to soon or to late and getting surrounded. Its gnarly but its how it works.
Puzzle
Dragon Rising made me throw away my Modern Warfare skills and play with my teammates and as real soldiers. Because a squadmember in Dragon Rising is of great value, so you protect them, and they protect you.
Every mission is a tactical puzzle with multiple solutions, which you slowly try to figure out, most of the time by doing nothing else but recon the area. But when the action breaks out and your plan turns out to work, the feeling of victory and euphoria is undescribable. Its why you play the game.
I'm not saying that I wont like Modern Warfare 2 anymore, but Dragon Rising really moved me. You have to bite trough, and then you will have a digital memory which will stay with you forever.
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Conclusion: Codemasters have kept their word, they have taken their time and found a good balance between a hardcore warsim and an intense expirience. And above that the console version is almost the same as the PC. Amazing.
Score: 90.
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The campaign will keep you going for a while, because you will -whether you like it or not-, definitly hit the floor a couple of times. Co-op is even more intense and gives the same gamplay but with even more depth! And then there are still Multiplayer modes and the planned DLC. So you wont get out of the army soon.