Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

[Steel]

While it got some discussion in the OFP lookback thread, I thought the game deserved its own thread as theres quite a bit about this game that merits discussion.

My first impression was that it is terrible. Other games get accused of looking brown, for the first 5 minutes of this game the only colour I saw was brown. Overall even on high settings it looked like shit. Controls feel clunky (-why is there an obvious 2 second delay after the reloading animation has completely finished before you can do anything with your weapon?) and are poorly mapped when options do exist.

I'd honestly say that this is a worse game than even OFP1. Even though I think OFP1 is practically unplayably ancient now this game feels worse.

It seems to take 5 hits to take down a Chinese infantry with any weapon, which is ridiculous that you can repeatedly hit an enemy and have them still perfectly able to fight back. That is, if they did fight back. There is a reason I was able to take my time and see how many times you could shoot them: The AI is spectacularly shit. It is not able to engage beyond 100m. OFP1 AI was actually better than that in that the squad would at least go prone, possibly face you, if they started taking fire, here men will just stand still and get shot.

The new Q menu is laughably crap. Shoddily executed and much worse than the old system in all respects (I can't find any order that can be executed either more intuitively or with fewer keystrokes under the new system). Basically all it has done is instead of pressing ~ to bring up the menu you now press q, a movement of 1cm less on the keyboard, but meaning there cant be convenient lean keys (oops but it doesn't have that). On top of that you now need to stand still to order anyone and orders can be buried under several layers of menu. Old system you open the menu and then it took exactly two keypresses to accomplish anything and remove the menu, and you could do it while running. Now any command will require perhaps 6 key presses including manually closing the menu again (all the while standing still) and there is no clue in which direction through the submenus you should navigate. Old system had context sensitive commands, so you'd open the menu aim at a truck, click and everyone gets in, new system has just about retained that level of functionality.

Its amazing that mods for OFP1 released years ago could have made a massively superior game to this. I played Arma2 a month or so ago and I though it was pretty crap, but compared to this it looks like a gem.

It feels like they were trying to go for the CoD style with this, but failed massively. With the massively reduced scope they needed to make the individual level more engaging, which they didn't, effectively resulting in a squad level shooter which gets horribly raped by actual FPS games.

Did I miss something here? How the fuck did this get any kind of score in any of what I had previously assumed were decent reviews? Is the reason I got my copy half price because I'm playing Delta Force 2?

[charlemagne]

I got the game on release, but I didn't really feel any true motivation to play it, so I'm only up to mission 11 or so.

I think the game looks pretty good, smoke looks awesome, especially distant smoke columns, and smoke doesn't butcher FPS which is a huge plus. All in all I like the engine, it's not really "ooooh shiny" but it fits the setting. Also, it runs really fine on somewhat older hardware (8800 here) and still doesn't look like shit.

I dislike a couple of things. For one, the clunky controls which just plain suck, switching weapons or weapon modes is a pain in the ass, e.g. why the hell can't I switch to grenade launcher while moving? The radial thing, while good for calling in artillery, sucks for squad orders, I also do not find it really intuitive. It's kind of ok once you get used to it - but I honestly can't recall the order system from OFP1 good enough to compare the two.

What I really dislike: the missions. For one, I really enjoyed the in-game cutscenes and storyline in OFP1. It really tied the room together, and I really miss that in OFP:DR. And besides that, well, the missions just plain suck. It's just "run there, kill everything". Well duh, I realize that there's a war going on But somehow missions in OFP1 were more variable and left you with more freedom about how to achieve things (at least it was perceived freedom).

I especially hate the constant pressure of time. If my mission is to scout ahead and kill all enemy AT-teams, why the hell wouldn't base wait for an "all clear" from me instead of going "oh hey, tanks are rolling out now"? In my first try I didn't even locate the AT teams before they blasted my tanks.

I don't hate this because I'm an old fart whose reflexes suck too much for FPS type games (well, they do), I hate it because this is supposedly an open-world type game - but I don't see much open world in those missions. It's sprinting from objective to objective which could've been achieved in any corridor stroller just the same.

Overall, the missions and the whole "storyline" is just incredibly boring crap so far. Yeah, drama like getting captured and escaping and then teaming up with rebels and what-not may not be the most realistic wartime story but it gave me more fun missions than just bog-standard capture this-capture that stuff.


I guess the open world will be more fun in multiplayer, but I didn't check that out yet.


Anyways, I'm disappointed by OFP:DR. I expected a whole lot more, in essence an updated, prettier and less clunky OFP:CWC. What I got feels kinda like CoD:Now with more room to fail your mission in.

[Stark]

I don't mind the look either; on 360 it's fine and on PC it's 'max settings' just isn't very high. The PC interface is a pile of shit and the mission scripting is shoddy. I like the mission pacing though; much better than OFP's 'walk for an hour' stuff. Charlemagne's point about a lack of interest in missions is good - not only are there no cutscenes, there are no fucking BRIEFINGS unless you look for them.

The terrible interface is a giant lol because a) the 360 one is way better and b) 360 games have had actual radial menus (ie more than 4 options) for years.

[Edward Yee]

At least on PS3, I can second this from Steel:

It seems to take 5 hits to take down a Chinese infantry with any weapon, which is ridiculous that you can repeatedly hit an enemy and have them still perfectly able to fight back.

"Even" on Normal, this is one of the most annoying things (on top of trying to aim with an analog stick) about firefights.

I don't know if it's a PS3/Xbox 360-only thing, but I found the weapon "commanding" (as opposed to manipulation) counterintuitive. It's one thing for slower draw and reload times than "less milsim" players are used to, it's another with stuff like "combat knives and hand grenades are selected Battlefield 2 style, but underbarrel grenades are selected by holding the Reload button to choose ammo type." What the hell? Also, accidentally choosing the wrong munition for a shoulder-launched weapon (i.e. by not enough pressure on the button) and having to sit through the entire animation of oneself loading the wrong munition before having to sit through the animation of one's loading the correct munition as well??

I also have to say that I can't see the use of the Forces sub-menu in the pre-mission, where you get to see the TO&E of everyone in your platoon... with no ability to alter anyone's, not even your own.

* I'm one of those guys who ends up using the index finger for all shoulder buttons, the only thing my middle finger is good gaming-wise for is the bird, right clicking a mouse, or certain keys, so I'd prefer a trigger-shaped pair of upper shoulder buttons to a trigger-shaped pair of lower shoulder buttons as on PS3/Xbox 360.

[Chris OFarrell]

Well, I've been playing the game a bit and have some opinions;

Firstly, the graphics. I also agree the reddish/brown in the first mission was a LITTLE over the top, in fact I'd say the game engine has some genuine issues with lighting. Often I'll be looking at something or someone, I'll raise my POV slightly, and bang, it goes either far lighter or far darker like HDR is ramped up 6000% or something. It is REALLY annoying I must say. Also, the night missions would be nice if they took place in weather other then a full moon, the blasting of light in the sky in the NVGs does annoy me a little.But on balance, I like the graphics. The engine runs very smooth, the detail is more then acceptable with the kind of fantastic long range views I expected. The weapons are modeled very nicely and so are the characters and vehicles, albeit not ultra detail, but still some nice touches. Like I could see the gearstick inside the Hummer shifting with each gear, small things like that. The engine was not Crysis, but its a hell of an improvement from Flashpoint and quite respectable in of itself.

Gameplay was a mixed bag. I've played the game through mostly in Co-Op with Alyeska, so we were not relying on squadmates -just shooting them, looting their weapons and letting them respawn, THAT is broken badly. On the positives;

The weapons are good. Not great, but good. Solid mix with various sights and attachments, although the bullet drop is a little much on some of them given the distances. I frankly don't mind the fact that it can take 5-6 shots to put down an enemy solider with an M-16; the PLA troops are clearly wearing body armor and the piddly little 5.56 round just doesn't have the power to reliably penetrate. In Flashpoint, everyone appeared to be walking around WITHOUT body armor, so its a different thing. Unless of course you are careful enough to place your shots CAREFULLY, or even hit them and get them down, then move up and frag them or just pull out your pistol and finish them off as they roll around on the ground, or try slowly to pull themselves out of there. And other weapons are very cool, I LOVE the SCAR for its increased power and accuracy, lots of fun with that. The thermal imaging systems are godlike at night, better then the NVGs frankly, they are great for scouting your path out before moving.

I DO hate the vastly more limited ability to load up weapons / equipment in the pre-mission briefing; in Flashpoint you had a limited ability at first sure, but it slowly expanded into more and more choices. Even just giving SOMETHING of a choice of limited alternatives, which slowly get wider as you get further into the campaign, would have been SOMETHING at least. Annoying as hell for me.

The complete confusion over changing weapons is not at all welcome, especially with sub-options like grenade types on assault rifles. Also VERY annoying is the inability to abort a weapons change. I mean you put down your AT weapon, slowly put it together and shoulder it, when you pressed the wrong button and just want a rifle? And for some of the weapons like the PLA RPG deal, how many times do you have to LOAD the damn weapon? It would be far better if you load it once, then when you pull it out a second time, its a much faster weapons switch or something.

The command menu is not as bad as I thought, once I practiced with it, but it seriously needs work. I would still take it in a second over the horror that was Flashpoint, but even Battlefield 2 has vastly moved beyond this kind of crap. Needs a patch, fast. I have no idea why they disconnected the fire support menu from it, just makes no sense at all to me, though once you GET the fire support up, its a great deal of fun to play arty strike or JDAM strike, and the options for the various barrage patterns and so on offers good flexibility.

Gameplay wise, there are a lot of issues.

Okay, the game is less 'instant death' then Flashpoint, I can accept and understand this, everything from the respawn system and medic system has been designed around that, and frankly I like it as it keeps the game just 'real' enough but doesn't give you the screaming-at-computer-for-hours rage from being headshotted ten seconds from finishing the map from halfway across it. A lot of the mission level design is well thought out, challenging and fun, ESPECIALLY when playing Co-Op. The 'Blow up Radio station -> Who is this Chinese VIP' SpecOps mission was awesome fun playing with Alyeska, haven't had that much fun in a very long time in an FPS and we only fired like one magazine each, if that.

Other missions, not so much. For example, SpecOpps into the oil storage facility to blow the fuel pump. We slowly work our way in to the jump off point, and find there is a single PLA soldier standing there. After a quick discussion over TS, I move to the side and get a perfect shot at the guys head with a silenced M-16 while Alyeska takes out his knife and moves in. I mean this HAS to be what the frigen knife is for right?
Alyeska sneaks to within about 3 meters of the guy and he suddenly turns around and I take no chances, blwoing his head away. There was NO WAY IN HELL he could have alerted anyone and the kill was silent. But no, the bad level scripting has spoken and somehow the Chinese AT ONCE know what has happened with a 'the Chinese are alerted to our presence!' event. Thus begins a frantic running-for-our-fucking-lives in a broad semi circle to the other side of the refinery with most of the troops on the map chasing us, all knowing exactly where we were.

Another time, we went through an astonishing amount of work to kill a pair of Tunguska's guarding a hilltop objective from air attack and get a pair of Cobras, the damn things make ONE pass then run away!

*Your* team AI of course is hit and miss, but they are a solid improvement on Flashpoints useless teammates at least, if the command menu gets sorted out they would probably be a LOT better.
And the ability of major allied forces to keep getting themselves killed when keeping them alive is the objective is just amazing. I mean WE are sent in to clear a SAM threat or AT threat or mortar threat or something so aircraft, tanks or LAV's or something can head in, but do they WAIT? No! You get a five minute deadline or else they will come in anyway and die! I mean on the last mission Alyeska and I have to kill a tank that is in turn killing our LAVs -protecting them is an objective. To DO this, we are given a single Javlan and while it was sweet to kill the thing, then we are told that we have to kill a SAM vehicle in 5 minutes or a Blackhawk is going to die.

Oh, you used up the only AT weapon the game let you have already? Well you have a bit of a problem then, don't you?

Suffice to say there was no way in hell we could get to the SAM which was a hell of a walk away through hostile terrain, find an AT weapon or C4 and kill it in time, so the chopper happily comes in because no-one has ever invented any device to communicate with a distant person in the history of mankind... to put on such a vehicle...

Oh, wait...

And suffice to say, the campaign is ABSURDLY short. Especially compared to Flashpoint...and absurdly so compared to Flashpoint + Red Hammer. No cutscenes or story build = lame.

There are other problems as well. The complete LACK of a grenade launcher site is utterly BS. Even fucking Project Reality has a grenade site to let you place your fire with a degree of control, this game has NOTHING!


There are a lot of other points both good and bad, but I'll just sum it up as this;

This is a game that feels in Beta-Test, albeit a very polished Beta test. It needs a lot of 'fixes' to fix the game up. Its stable from a crashing point of view; the game never crashed for me once and the netcode was smooth as silk playing online, through the server browser feels like a browser cira 2001. But its way too short a game, with too many gameplay issues. I'd give it 7/10, bump that to 8/10 if you're playing co-op with a friend. At least on your first run through the game.

[Vympel]

Game sounds mediocre after all. I'll pass.

[Chris OFarrell]

Oh please, you just don't want to buy it because there are no T-90S units running around to square off with M1A2s

[Oskuro]

Well, that'd be silly, not liking the game because of a lack of T-90s. A lack of Hinds, though, that's unforgivable.

[Vympel]

Oh please, you just don't want to buy it because there are no T-90S units running around to square off with M1A2s

Mmmmbah. Grumble. That's part of it. (and no HINDs? Come on?!) But really, everything I've heard about it doesn't impress me much.

[Steel]

Oh please, you just don't want to buy it because there are no T-90S units running around to square off with M1A2s

Mmmmbah. Grumble. That's part of it. (and no HINDs? Come on?!) But really, everything I've heard about it doesn't impress me much.

I haven't played it since I made this thread, but I haven't head any incentive to thanks to the freshers, although in the intervening time theres been nothing to draw me back to it.

Its like they're hoping to grab the CoD4/5 players without offering anything as awesome as their gameplay.

(apologies to anyone who was just one the swap....)

[Alyeska]

Flashpoint is wicked fun, but also quite irritating at several points. The way some of the missions are scripted is most annoying. The multiplayer setup is difficult to use. No dedicated servers. Buddy system almost non existent. Very hard to host games. Lobby host cannot kick players. Almost impossible to select missions. The weapons are nice, but a little off. Pre-set configurations on the guns. No way to configure them yourself. And I get irritated by the continued use of iron sights. Come on, these days everyone and their mother has scopes. Especially the US Army and Marines.

[TheMuffinKing]

I just rented this and I must say that I am impressed with the big island and how the graphics hold up on the Ps3. I wasn't entertained though.

[Pulp Hero]

Flashpoint is wicked fun, but also quite irritating at several points. The way some of the missions are scripted is most annoying. The multiplayer setup is difficult to use. No dedicated servers. Buddy system almost non existent. Very hard to host games. Lobby host cannot kick players. Almost impossible to select missions. The weapons are nice, but a little off. Pre-set configurations on the guns. No way to configure them yourself. And I get irritated by the continued use of iron sights. Come on, these days everyone and their mother has scopes. Especially the US Army and Marines.

(XB360) I am honestly annoyed at how tiny the sights/optics are. One thing that COD4:MW got correct was its visual depiction of iron sights and most optics. The EOTech inDragon Rising is unforgivably useless because of its size, and it completely works against being useful for close quarters.


Also the medic is a retard. This complaint is apparently so common, that days after release the developer started working on a patch that includes a Medic AI upgrade.