Off Duty Gamers

Amidst the hype of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 machine this was a game that by in large snuck by most military gamers with the stealth of a delta team. While all heads turned towards the run and gun constant action I turned my sights on the possibility of tactical realism and more realistic OPTEMPO. So begins my experience…

Story

Considerable care had been taken to extrapolate a near future based on social and economic realities. The back story of how you (the player) gets to where you are and why are neatly laid out up front in a time line of events as if you’re watching a PBS documentary.

Its the near future and China’s oil demands on the market have forced a confrontation on the island of Skira. This island is a source of deep oil reserves and control of it has some heavy economic consequences. China sends its army to secure this island and in a UN move the US is part of a force sent to the island to reclaim it before the scale gets any larger.

Unlike many titles the story here takes you to the events of your current day mission so once you’re ‘on site’ you no longer are bogged down with the larger picture and just like any grunt on the road, all of your ‘story’ is in the 100o yards of territory to your immediate front.

Graphics

If you’ve got the hardware, this game’s visuals are outstanding. The attention to detail on such things as the heat signature while using IR scopes or just the standard passage of time as the sun rises or sets. I found many times where the position of the sun dictated where I commenced an attack in an effort to put the sun behind my squad.

Details are everywhere in this game from foliage to weapon sites and if you like to have that immersion feel, this game goes a long way to get that done. I have to say that one of the most ‘fun’ moments includes calling in an artillery strike and then sitting back on a ridge line to watch the fireworks. Impacts marked with booming low end sound and concussions are have all the excitement you find in real combat videos when a successful strike saves an on the ground unit from what could be a rough slog through an area.

Gameplay

The missions are longer than your typical ‘run and gun’ military shooter and you should be prepared for a very realistic walk into an objective. The missions progress along the island of Skira and are consistent with standard military objective taking while advancing the overall mission of recapturing the island. The missions push a mix of slow ‘sneak and peek’ and wild ‘all hells breaking loose’ action. I appreciated the balance and there is something for everyone here.

Replayability

You can definitely play this game a few times in the standard mission mode especially if you turn up the difficulty but that’s not where this game aims to keep you. The focus was on multiplayer and it is where this game both wins and loses all in the same shot.

On release the game had a lot of trouble with connecting players online and considering the release was smack on top of the competition this flaw put quite a beating on the Codemasters support staff as complaints mounted. For many by the time the issues were largely cleaned up COD had hit shelves and pulled a lot of potential attention away from this game.

Where this game wins (at least on the PC side) is with the mission editor. There is a lot of potential here for some interesting missions and the editor is easy to use and has a wide variety of detail from the units you will place to the time of day your mission will occur. We will see if the undercurrent of Dragon Rising players will keep this game alive with fan built downloadable missions.

Tactical

There is a lot to like about the tactical ability in this game. The development team scores well with a radial dial style command system that allows for a lot of granularity in commands while keeping it pretty quick to navigate and manage. The only downside seems to be in the midst of a heated exchange and requires you to make sure you have adequate cover that will allow you to stop firing long enough to utilize the system and make wise tactical decisions.

Standard formations and flanking maneuvers are available and while civilians may not know or care about a wedge vs line formation, those with the experience can leverage proper formations to anticipate and effectively protect the squad while taking the objectives.

Realism

Here’s where Dragon Rising makes a difference in the market. Codemasters has gone to great time and effort in order to capture the details of combat. There is no battlefield faith healers resurecting you from the dead. As in real life, if you get hit, you need to find a medic or manage your wounds or you will bleed out and even after stopping the bleeding you will contend with being slowed down with a limp or slowed action so the name of the game is ‘be smart’ about your engagements.

In a move Ive never seen done before the levels of difficulty in the game have no change on the mission, number of enemy, weapons or AI. The key to increased difficulty is in taking away from you (the player) all the comfort tools that troops on the ground just don’t get. As you turn up the difficulty you lose things like the compass and hud elements. This changes the game and will raise your blood pressure as you work to keep your own troops in sight while trying to pick out the enemy and keep an eye on movement. Just orienting yourself constantly in order to follow up on hearing ‘Enemy 100 meters south’ can be challenging when you don’t pay attention and lose your bearing.

A note on the AI…. we all long for the day when artificial intelligence gets far enough to offer a solid foe or effective squad mate but this isn’t the day. I found that if you let one of your squad do the driving, you may just end up ready to shoot him for not being able to drive around a stand of trees. For most functions, the AI does a well enough job but the times when it goes wrong seem to be big screw ups that are very noticeable.

Overall Impressions

This is a solid tactical game which could be easily used to learn and practice standard tactics and procedures. Building custom missions has the potential to extend this games life and let people setup real world objectives to try out in the virtual world. Just like its predecessor, this Flashpoint might enjoy a long life with a smaller but dedicated following if the community gets behind the mission editor and online play but the general population just doesn’t see past ‘run and gun’ long enough to appreciate the subtle art of war.

Pros: The details, the graphics and the granularity of combat tactics

Cons: Rough AI and limited online multiplayer action