Operation Flashpoint (PC) > Reviews > No nuclear missiles. You disappoint me

Author's product rating:   

Playability & Enjoyment	OK -
Graphics	Good
Sound	Good - relevant music & effects
Difficulty & Complexity	Very complicated and extremely difficult

Advantages:	Realistic, soldier - istic, and almost fantastic
Disadvantages:	Frustrating, high system specs and lacks oomph

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

In an ideal world there would be no wars. But then, in such a peaceful society, what sort of PC games would we play? Because although there are hundreds of sports and suchlike presented in the medium of computer games, the most popular subject by far is war.

What is it about killing that keeps the punters coming back for more? There is nothing that the average teenage boy enjoys more (except perhaps the obvious) than a violent, bloody, state-of-the-art first-person shooter.

The games producers and publishers have of course latched on to this and we (the PC gamers) are inundated with new FPS’s on a regular basis. Games such as Half-life have enjoyed huge success, and each new FPS that is released is called upon to be bigger and better than the last.

And that’s what impresses me the most about Operation Flashpoint. This is not a game which jostles with its peers be the Next Big Thing. It makes no effort to be a glossy, no-holds-barred shootathon. It doesn’t need to. Codemasters have realised that if you break the mould with style, everyone forgets that the mould ever existed.

The first thing that must be understood about Operation Flashpoint is that this is not a game for the trigger-happy. Approaching this game in the same fashion as a run of the mill FPS will only result in failure and frustration. The reason for this is that Operation Flashpoint is more of a simulation than anything else. Instead of the confined corridors of most FPS’s, the firefights are set against a backdrop of open grassland. This in itself results in a different style of play from other shooters. Most of the duration of a gunfight is spent crawling along the ground, trying to spot distant targets; by silhouette or by the muzzle flash of their weapon as they open fire.

But Operation Flashpoint doesn’t stop at infantry combat. During the course of the game the player experiences war at every angle, from being in it up to the neck as an infantry grunt, to soaring overhead as the pilot of a Thunderbolt.

Operation Flashpoint certainly looks the part. The game engine is good, and well suited to outdoor environments. Although the system specs for optimal performance are quite high, the game runs well on lower end systems with texture detail turned right down and still looks fine. All the vehicles are accurately represented, and although I can’t personally vouch for the authenticity of the weapons, they feel good enough for a civilian such as myself. It also includes a third-person view as well as the standard first-person, something that is becoming more common in FPS’s. This view is especially helpful when driving a vehicle such as a tank, when visibility is all-important.

The in game sound is suitably dramatic, with realistic sounding engines and gunfire. The radio traffic, which is integral to the gameplay as a whole, sounds very authentic, complete with phonetic coordinate readings.

The idea of Operation Flashpoint to allow the player to fight as a soldier, a driver, a gunner and a pilot, not to mention a squad commander, is vast and mostly implemented well, but there are many things which are far from perfect. The level of difficulty becomes very high even for an experienced gamer, and the style of play takes a good while to get the hang of. Early on in the game, a large amount of time is spent simply moving from place to place and this may irk the more impatient gamer.

The game plays in a convincing fashion, as though it considers itself to be above the antics of its peers. Whether you enjoy playing it or not is down to what you look for in a FPS, action or realism. While Operation Flashpoint scores well on realism, it lacks the bite that makes a truly great FPS. There are no really great bits to this game, but there are a large amount of good ones, which is more than can be said for most games.

In short, Operation Flashpoint sneers at the hectic FPS’s that are so numerous these days, and instead treads the path of originality. The result is a war simulation both fun to play and realistic, complete with war quotes on the game over screen. Remember, war is not fun. But computer games are.