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OVERVIEW + GIVEAWAY
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

I’ve been playing Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising for the past few days and, despite spending hours of my life in its world, I’m still only on the second mission. To say the game is difficult would be an understatement. The game is simply kicking my ass, repeatedly. Truth be told, I kind of like it.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising takes place on the island of Skira, which has been a disputed territory since the end of the second World War. The game opens with a stylized, fictionalized montage of the region (the island’s topography is based on the real-life island of Kiska). The montage certainly comes across as credible, and even goes so far as to mention the recent world-wide economic problems before revealing some interesting future history from the next three years.

As tensions between Russia and China flare, a small team of US Marine Corps is put in charge of recapturing the island from the aggressive Chinese military. Doing this is obviously a lot easier said than done, given the fact that I’m somewhat stuck.

Stealth plays heavily into the game, as does team management skills. Both these things, I admittedly am horrible at. However with trial and error, I’ve been able to get pretty effective at completing certain milestones within each mission. As a commander of a squad of four, it’s up to you to ensure not only the well being of your team mates, but also the efficient use of their combined skills. The enemy is too smart to be taken out by Rambo-like tactics, so leave that for another first-person shooter.

Instead, each move needs to be carefully planned. While certain key events are scripted, there appears to be a good amount of randomization regarding where enemies will confront you. A helpful map allows you to plot paths to key marker points, but due to the sheer size of the virtual island it can take you a very long time – especially considering you’ll be sneaking a lot – to get to where you need to go. Oftentimes, ambushes are unavoidable and cover must be sought.

Having a squad to back you up has its pros and cons. On the upside, if you manage them well, they’ll treat you well. If you’re felled by enemy gunfire and a squad mate is around, you can call out for assistance. Likewise, they will expect the same courtesy of you. It’s possible to get along okay with one or all three of them killed in action, but it definitely makes things harder. An obvious downside is that it sometimes feels like you have to babysit them out of fear that they’d otherwise get into trouble.

I’ll be playing more Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising in the coming weeks, and will hopefully be able to finish it soon. But from my early experience with it, it’s proven to be a very challenging yet rewarding game. It’s definitely nice to have a game that doesn’t coddle the player for a change.

To help me feel better about not being so great at the game, however, I have been sent a few mysterious promotional “Military Packs” that I’ll be glad to share with random people who email me (torontothumbs@gmail.com) with the subject “Get Better At Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising” before November 11, 2009 November 30, 2009.

Posted in Awesome, Contests, Overviews, PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |