Just fired up Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising and took a quick spin to check on what’s new and what’s gone. I know it’s not a real sequel, as that would be ArmA, but I’ve heard of ArmA’s bugs and performance. Besides, Dragon Rising is shiny. I like shiny.
One thing I notice as soon as I start is that the menu is slick and tactile. Dragon Rising uses the same engine as GRID (which also had an excellent menu), so the first thing you learn by this game is that if you want a great main menu for your game, you need to use the Ego Engine.
Despite the consolized menus, I’m pleased to see that there’s attention to detail even before you start a mission. Briefing comes in two varieties: an advanced briefing and a to-the-point objectives list. You get to see (but not customise) the equipment loadouts for your squad and then you’re thrust right in.
Being used to mute protagonists, I was confused at first as I wondered where the traditionally-black-squad-leader is talking from. Then I realised that it’s supposed to me. Good. Moving around feels heavy and there’s quite a movement bob, which gets dizzy after a while. Your gun looks gun and even feels heavy, so that’s good. They also sound great, meaning that I’m back into my old habit of firing random rounds as I walk across the island of Skira.
At the same time, differences from the original game become apparent to me, one-by-one. The game retains the third-person view of the original, but only in vehicles. In first-person, you’re forced into first-person. Not that I’m a fan of third-person combat, but I kind of liked watching my character run. Really, knowing Operation Flashpoint, getting from Point A to Point B isn’t going to be a grand adventure full of intriguing characters and scenery – it’s going to be a long, arduous walk. Just like in real life.
The scale of the island is much larger than any of the three islands in the original game. The map is helpful here, and it’s also a whole lot more readable than the one from the original, where you had to struggle to make out which of those little rings is yours. But going back to the long walks, the number one, and I mean Number One thing I miss from the original game is time control. In the original, a well-ignored little control allowed you to change the very speed of time. Not very realistic, but it sure as hell made your long marches and drives a whole lot shorter. No such thing this time. You’re going to have to bob your way all those kilometres.
Another thing I don’t like: being the commander. I’d very much prefer being the lackey following the commander and the original game offered plenty of that. Here, you’re thrust right in as a squad leader on the first mission. Being the leader means that you also have some responsibility in the way of ordering around members of your squad. This isn’t nearly as tedious as it sounds – not because of the new radial command system, but because they rarely need any orders at all.
Your squad members are intelligent folk, and know well enough to take cover, take out the enemy and do what must be done, to be general. Still, the command system allows you to execute flanks, supressing fire and other such life-saving gimmickry, so I don’t think ignoring it is a very good idea. It’s a pain to use, that’s for sure.
Hitting the Q button takes you into the command mode. You then use your movement keys to navigate the weird radial menus and find the command you’re looking for. It’s not an especially bad idea… for an average shooter. When you’re facing fire from six Chinese soldiers and have a bleeding wound, navigating five menus to search a command is not a very appealing proposition.
Even if the original game’s communication (and I mean communication because you had to relay information using it back then) system was based on the number keys, at least you could remember numerical patterns to throw orders around. The radial command is highly distracting, breaks the game’s flow and is also annoying when you forget that your order is placed wherever you’re aiming. Overall, the biggest design blunder in this game.
Combat is good ol’ Flashpoint flavour. Your enemies, usually several tens of metres away are little more than dots on the horizon. They’re smart enough to hide behind bushes, take cover and look very professional. As before, you can’t go in hero-style, and have to be especially cautious about your moves. Of note, however, is that shooting feels especially easier this time. This may have something to do with the modern weapons. The scope is a whole lot more helpful than aiming down the sights in 1985.
My second biggest gripe is the colour. What is it with all the brown? It quickly gets weary to watch, brown hills, brown building, brown grass, brown water, brown friends, brown enemies, it’s tiresome. Judging by the game’s screenshots, there should be some more colour in the other missions, and there better be.
I also tried the mission editor, easy-to-use as always. I assembled all the game’s vehicles in a row to try them out (as a certain General Zheng), and they all handle quite well. The ground vehicles are fun to drive, and I especially like the Hummer. I also didn’t know the M1A1 was as flexible as it is. The air vehicles have changed a lot, and controlling them is going to take a bit of time. Also, you only get to play as either the gunner or the driver (or commander), never both (which the previous game did allow). This kind of takes away the fun of using air vehicles, because one of my favourite strategies in the previous game was hunting out and hijacking a jeep, driving it to an airbase, stealing the chopper and bringing it to the battle. Nothing like a bit of homebrew air support.
I love old school RPG games. They can be on my VBA, or on my PC and they are good. They have this cozy, comfy feeling of being in these old graphics so that they give you an idea of where you are and what you are doing, but still leave plenty to the imagination. I especially love it when you get these literary lines during gameplay, like “(player name) walked through the pristine glade and found a druid who looked so old, he looked like he could drop any minute into the tar-black cauldron he was stirring.”
What they said.