Understand it and enjoy it
In order to fully enjoy Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, you have to go into it with the right mindset, knowing what it is, and what it isn’t. What it is is a great military simulation game that will make you think and strategize to overcome it, and that if you have the patience, will reward you for it. What it is not is the next big online, high-intensity, over-the-top first person shooter. And, if that’s OK with you, you will surely find something to enjoy in Dragon Rising.
The meat of the game is without a doubt the campaign, which can be played either by yourself with three AI squadmates,or online cooperatively (no split-screen). The game pits the United States Marine Corps against the Chinese People’s Liberation Army on a fictional island off the coast of China. The game presents a brief, believable backstory to the conflict at the beginning of the game, but beyond that there is more or less no further plot development. While this may seem negative, it actually serves the game well as it doesn’t force feed you any lengthy and ultimately irrelevant exposition. You end up feeling like an average Marine, only knowing where you’ve got to go, who you’ve got to kill, and when you’ve got to do it by.
Through the campaign you'll tackle 11 missions playing as two different fireteam leaders: One is an infantry sergeant, and the other is a spec-ops lieutenant. The missions alternate between these two fireteams, lending the gameplay some variety. One mission you may be storming an airfield supported by attack helicopters and tanks (“ass”), and the next you may be sneaking through enemy lines to recon an enemy encampment in the dead of night. This variety keeps the game fresh and makes every mission interesting. However, as interesting as it may be, a game is only as good as its core gameplay.
When you first pick up the controller, the controls may feel a little clumsy and cumbersome, especially if you’re used to the smooth, slick controls of something like Call of Duty or Halo. The movement is slow-paced and methodical, so you won’t be leaping from full sprint to prone in the blink of an eye or vice-versa. To cope with the number of commands and equipment at your disposal, there are a lot of button-based menus that you need to navigate. While it can be frustrating and time consuming to cycle through these in the middle of a pitched firefight, I feel confident saying that the controls never led to what I felt was an unfair death. The combat itself is lent a great amount of tenseness and suspense thanks to the fact that one well placed bullet can send you back 5, 10, or 15 minutes (or the whole mission on Hardcore). You have to take cover and place your shots well, accounting for travel time and bullet drop. The combat is intense and satisfying, and is certainly a strength of Dragon Rising. However, there are certainly some issues potential buyers should be aware of as well.
My biggest gripe is with the friendly AI. Sometimes they will act intelligently, but other times they are utterly stupid, standing up in the open when there are any number of boulders they could take cover behind. These issues are compounded by the fact that in the heat of battle, their AI decision making seems to supersede your commands. Many times I would try to break contact with the enemy and have my fireteam follow me, only for them to refuse to move and subsequently die. A fall back command is supposed to have them pop smoke and move to a designated position, but I never saw this work. In addition, it never feels like you have quite enough control over them. There was one mission that I had to replay a number of times and I felt like it wasn’t really my fault. Tasked with repelling an attack, I had to order my men to defend the position. However, without any direct control over moving them into cover, they repeatedly stood out in the open and died. When I finally beat it, it felt more like luck than skill or strategy (even then I was the last man standing). These issues can be overcome by playing cooperatively online, but you shouldn’t have to resort to that.
My issues with the game beyond that are relatively small and rarely get in the way of enjoyment: Sometimes when enemies die they will remain in a crouched position minus their firearm which can be confusing, objectives can’t be read in game (if playing on a difficulty higher than normal), waypoints sometimes don’t show up if you skip one, you sometimes have trouble aiming below the plane of your body when prone, you may find yourself all of the sudden standing up if you bump into an object while crouching or prone, and sometimes enemies take what feels like a few too many bullets.
Another area that could be considered a gripe, but for me really isn’t is the competitive online play. This offers two game modes, one of which is straight up team deathmatch and the other is some sort of small force versus larger force mode called Infiltration. Personally, I played the TDM mode one time and found it very boring. I believe 4v4 (along with AI squads) is the maximum number of players on Xbox, and it just lacked personality and intensity. In addition, there are very few people online, so don’t expect to be playing this for the next three years. However, while competitive play may be lacking, the cooperative play can be very fun. Assuming you get matched up with some good squadmates, playing cooperatively eliminates the friendly AI issues and offers you a unique, highly tactical multiplayer experience. From what I've experienced, the online community is excellent, and people will actually work together, strategizing and following orders to accomplish a common goal -- a true rarity in online gaming.
Below are some facts to try and paint some sort of picture of the game. These are after I played the campaign solo on Experienced (11 missions) and then two co-op missions online:
Enemy Kills: 372
Small Arms Kills: 306
Grenade Kills: 2 - This is not a CQC game.
Artillery and Airstrike Kills: 52
Deaths: 42
Total Distance Traveled: 59 km - All but 10 on foot
Mission Time: 7:19:55
Adjunct
I just realized that there are additional, standalone, cooperative missions that you can unlock via codes entered in the Extra section of the menu. Why anyone would hide large chunks of content from a user is beyond me, but here are the codes:
Unlock FTE Mission Mode - BLEEDINGBADLY
Night Raid - RaidT18Z
Coastal Stronghold - StrongM577
Ambush - AmbushU454
Close Quarters - CloseQ8M3
Encampment - OFPWEB1
Debris Field - OFPWEB2
These missions can only be played cooperatively online, and are much smaller than the regular campaign missions. They take about 10 minutes each as opposed to the 30+ you need to accomplish a regular mission. They usually involve simply clearing out enemies from a given area which means they are generally easier and more action-oriented, making them ideal for quick co-op experiences.
