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Operation Flashpoint

Score: 85%
ESRB: Mature
Publisher: Codemasters
Developer: Bohemia Interactive
Media: CD/1
Players: 1 - 16
Genre: Miscellaneous

Graphics & Sound:

The graphics in Operation Flashpoint are an oddly mixed bag. Some of the visuals, such as the character faces (with moving mouths!) and many of the buildings, are downright awe-inspiring. But just as often you'll see muddily-textured vehicles, jumpy animation, and a framerate that would make any grown gamer cry. And then you'll see the realistic shadows, and it's almost all worth it. Because of this, it's hard to shoehorn the graphics of Operation Flashpoint. They're very impressive at times, giving you a real feel that you're prowling around at dawn on a massive island in the middle of the ocean, but every once in a while the weak textures and jumpy framerate will bite you in the ass and remind you that it's just a game.

Much the same can be said about the sound. There are times when you hear the staccato of distant gunfire and you start to look around the room, making sure no one's firing at you as you play the game. When the sound shines, it really does, pulling you in. But the voice-acting is fair to middling, and sometimes downright laughable, and the cut-and-paste radio chatter is simply bad. I understand the need to do it that way--instead of recording 5000 lines, they could record 500 and then splice them together--but one would think that it could be done a little cleaner. The music is the sort of stuff you've heard in any movie that resembles the game; grab a copy of Crimson Tide and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.


Gameplay:

Fortunately, Operation Flashpoint shines where it matters most--gameplay. While the title can be damned frustrating due to the raw difficulty of 'realism' and some strange design decisions, there's a lot of fun to be had too, especially for those who are looking for an action game that's much more realistic than pretty much anything else out there.

The concept of the game starts off good, and only gets better as the game progresses. You start off stationed on the Malden Islands, a private with a fat lot of nothing to do. Before you know it, however, the islands come under assault, and as the resident NATO troopage, you have to go and find out just what happened. The plot gets more and more interesting as the game progresses, and you move up in the world, driving and flying various vehicles and even giving orders to subordinates instead of the other way around. Set during the time of the Cold War, the game definitely intrigues with the setup.

And it's quite intriguing in the actual play as well. Most games are limited to a 'zone' or 'corridor' of play, especially shooter-type titles; you find yourself closed in by artificial obstructions, keeping you from free reign over the environment. Not so in Operation Flashpoint. If you want to amble all the way to Timbuktu, more power to you. This sort of freedom is downright disconcerting at first, because it's not typical that you get to execute true flanking maneuvers on an enemy in a first-person game.

Of course, the game doesn't have to be played in first-person. Indeed, when you hop inside of vehicles, it'd probably be a wise decision to switch to a more omniscient view. Did I say vehicles? Yes, yes I did. You want to drive jeeps? Tanks? Helicopters? Have at it, then. There's a world of vehicular enjoyment to be had in Operation Flashpoint. To keep the game simpler, you don't have to learn a whole new control scheme for each vehicle, so there's definitely some tradeoffs for the hardcore sim crowd when it comes to the various things you can pilot. But it's worth it for those of us who look at the instruction manual for Microsoft Flight Simulator and whimper like dogs.

The game's plenty realistic, though. At the beginning you'll find yourself the human equivalent of cannon fodder, trying to dodge flak and basically survive from second to second. As the game progresses, you'll find yourself in possession of bigger and better hardware--realistic, of course--and on tougher missions, where you have to juggle more things and even perhaps command some folks of your own.

If you get tired of the gunfire and tanks and heavily-scripted single-player missions, you can always jump into multiplayer. Doing squad-based combat with your friends can be entertaining, but you need to make sure to hook up with a solid team of players, or do it on a LAN. In a game this realistic, coordination is absolutely necessary if you don't want to get your collective heads blown off.


Difficulty:

Operation Flashpoint is hard. And then you turn it off of the 'Rookie' level, and it's downright impossible. Part of this comes from the realism of the game; you take a shot to the head and you die, just as in real life. Part of it comes from the computer AI, who has an uncanny ability to make downright impossible shots. And part of it comes from the missions themselves, which are overpowering to say the least. There's plenty of challenge in the game, and even veteran players will probably find themselves stumped a lot as they play. The evil save mechanism doesn't do much to help the situation--you've got one save per mission, and after that you've got to start the damn thing over. Evil.

Game Mechanics:

For the most part, the game controls like a slightly more complex 3D shooter. Whenever there's a number of things you can do, the easiest way to do them is to click the middle-mouse button, scroll the mouse wheel to the action, and then hit Enter on the one you wan to do. If you don't have a mousewheel, you can use enter and the braces. The rest of the controls are fairly standard--WASD, mouse for movement (although it also aims your gunsights), and the like. You can give commands through a command menu, which is a little clunky, but it works. The basic game mechanics are solid, but with a title this complex there are always a number of issues--weird popping with the models, 'warping' for entering and exiting, rather moronic vehicle AI. Not to mention the evil other side and their damned accuracy. The game has short load times for massive levels, which is impressive.

Operation Flashpoint is a difficult game, and at times a very frustrating one, but when the game shines it shines very bright. If you don't mind getting shot in the (virtual) head on a regular basis, and you don't mind being a little constrained by the save system, there's a whole lot of fun that you can have with Operation Flashpoint. The mulitplayer is solid, and the single-player experience is very enjoyable as well. Those who are slightly less hardcore may want to steer away from Operation Flashpoint, however, because one thing the game ain't is easy. So pack those rifles and get a move on, soldier!


-Sunfall to-Ennien, GameVortex Communications
AKA Phil Bordelon

Minimum System Requirements:



Win9x/Me/2K, P2 400, 64MB RAM, sound card, 16MB 3D accelerator, 8x CD-ROM, 450MB HD Space
 

Test System:



Athlon 1.1GHz running Win98 SE, 512MB RAM, GeForce 2 GTS w/ 32MB RAM, SoundBlaster Live!, 8x DVD-ROM

Windows Oni Windows Original War

 
Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated