Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising

[The Captain]

I got this yesterday and having had a few hours on it I think it's excellent. The tension and reward dynamic is incredible, and the change of pace and feel from the likes of Call of Duty et al are very welcome. Having never played more strategic PC-ish shooters beyond the demo for Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway I may be a little late to the party but OF has engaged me more than I could have expected before I played.

One of the strange things I've noticed after doing the first couple of missions is how the squad talk suddenly becomes really stilted when you change fire teams - at the start of the game Mullholland and his team sound quite naturalistic, but the next lot seem to be deliberately reading things robotically, for bugger all reason. It reminds me of the 'Where wolf? There wolf, there castle' scene from Young Frankenstein. Breaks the immersion somewhat....

Sandbox or no, the island of Skira is tremendously atmospheric and forbidding. It's something of an artistic tour de force for a war game, if not always a technical one.

[louiecat]

I have managed to complete the first three missions. The atmosphere of conflict has not been bettered IMO, the guns feel so hefty and "right". The level of difficulty is spot on for me - although I am surprised how easy it is compared to what was talked about once you use a bit of patience and actually follow orders - case in point - defending the village in mission 3 saw me die lots until

Spoiler: show

I stopped leaving the area I had been ordered to guard (south entry to vill) and looking to get involved in the surrounding contacts.

Then it was piss easy! I love the game for the fact that it encourages you to think beyond the obvious "videogame answer" to a problem of running into every conflict and trying to kill everything. Twice now my tactics have been to avoid conflict and they have paid off. Still to play this co-op. Looking forward to doing that with all the guidance markers off!!

[Hedphelym]

Having completed the game (360), my views are that this is a very good game at it's heart, and I did enjoy it. However, I do think that it is pretty broken in a lot of respects.

Firstly, (and I can only speak from a 360 point of view) calling the game an "220km open world battlefield" is very, very misleading. Simply due to the fact it is not open worlded - It's just levels. Yes, there are big environments to play through, but there is a clear path for mission objectives to be completed in and the "action" is contained in relatively small areas with "break areas" inbetween, which are basically empty. Going more than 1-2km around any objective is mainly pointless, both tactically and in a time-wasting sense.

This brings me on to the next point - The actual way the missions play out. Although I agree it is possible to complete objectives in slightly different ways, having played through it again and experimented with it a lot, it seems at the end of the day you HAVE to do certain scripted things otherwise it's mission failed. Meaning that the gameplay is not as open as the Codemasters has sold it. This usually comes in the form of having to take out AT teams, or AA vehicles - with time constraints - in order for another fireteam to get through. Nothing wrong with that I hear you shriek, but it's not like if that fireteam gets taken out that it makes your mission that bit harder - It just ends the mission. This wouldnt be a problem if this scenario wasn't repeated on pretty much every other mission. It get's very repetitive and boring, especially when they are always giving you time constraints. Which is another method in which the way you play is more scripted than open.

Your fireteam AI is at points simply turd. AI is always going to dodgy in any game, however, in a game where you are constantly told "Keep your fireteam alive, and they will keep you alive" yet you are spotted because one of your fireteam decides he isn't going to go prone like the rest of you, and ends up getting slotted - It's gets frustrating. Especially coupled with a clunky orders radial (which, I guess isn't a problem on the PC version though).

Vehicles are not as abundant as Codemasters have led me to believe. I saw and used about three vehicles in my first campaign playthrough and even then they were vehicles that it was pretty obvious they wanted me to get in. (Eg, it came a parked right next to me). I saw one chopper in the whole event - right on the last mission and even then, unless I wanted to just fly it about getting shot at, I could only use it for about 30 seconds. Boats? attack helicopters? I saw none. And even if I did, they would be pointless to go a grab as I can see no situation in the whole game where they might pose an advantage - and this is a similar situation with weapons and equipment. It's all nicely placed and scripted into the levels as seperate entities.

My point is that I'm not saying "theres not many vehicles or guns in every single level to use so it's s***" It's the fact that Codemasters have sold this game as an open world battlefield, where you can make your own choices and use what you can find to your own ends to get the job done. I'm simply stating the fact that this is not the case, as the game is series of 11 seperate set out levels, with predetermined equipment, weapons and vehicles. Meaning whatever angle you come from, you are still following a set path, and you will have to follow a set out structure of events regardless. I have found the only true difference you can make to any mission is if you are discovered by the enemy or not. The game also seems to be dreadfully buggy, with leaves me thinking that it is pretty unfinished really.
Haven't tried much of the multiplayer yet, as I think the servers are being crappy and I keep getting error messages.

However, having said all that my negativity comes from what I was sold on the game being like. I still think it is a great game, but I feel misled.

[The Captain]

Yes, having sunk more time into it I have to agree on all points.

Especially unhappy about the number of bugs in the game, which are all too apparent and go a long way to breaking the immersion and actual playability of some of the missions... It smacks hugely of 'Oooh fuck MW2 is out very soon and we need to get this out on the shelves RIGHT NOW or no-one will ever, ever bother with it.'

And that's a shame, as in many ways what Codemasters have acheived with this is utterly amazing. But it keeps falling over its own feet. Erk.

[noodles]

What about online ? Any good ?

[The Captain]

Well, the co-op campaign is infinitely better as your teammates aren't morons (hopefully), but the two modes on offer, Annihilation and Infiltration, feel a little aimless and soulless. Maybe this depends on the quality of the opponents you find to play against, but it never feels like much more than a stripped down, impoverished version of the campaign.

They might release a patch to address the more game-breaking bugs, but there are some fundamental design worries here that I think will never go away. A massive, crying shame. It'll be worth a punt if you find it in the bargain bins after Christmas, though....

[Portland]

Is anyone playing the PC version on a min spec machine? My lappy fits the min spec, but is well short of recommended.

(Dual core 2.5 with 4 gig RAM and an 8600M GT with 256 onboard)

Don't want to punt for it only to discover I have to dial detail right down to get a decent frame rate.