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From The Entertainment Depot - http://www.entdepot.com Microsoft
Despite the enormous popularity of first-person shooters, and this being the third in a series that has spawned an entirely new series, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is a rarity. The original and its expansions, Red Hammer and Resistance, remain fan-favorite titles to this day, regaled for their incredible difficulty, open-world approach, and immersiveness. Dragon Rising is the first entry not developed by the original developers, Bohemia Interactive, and similarly provides a unique if frustrating experience as its predecessors.
Dragon Rising, similar to past Flashpoint titles, is based on a plausible what-if scenario surrounding world powers. Instead of a skewed 1980’s confrontation between the United States and Russia, the current conflict revolves around the struggle between Russia and China over Skira Island (based on Kiska Island) and its newfound reservoir of oil. Told through a slick opening utilizing stock footage that slightly reworks history, the island’s tumultuous past of colonization is revealed to having led to a crisis in 2011. After Russia called in western businesses to assist with the arduous extraction of the newly discovered oil reservoir, it finds itself facing China’s amassed military along their shared border. Reeling from a global economic crisis that destabilized its government and brought the hard-line People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into power, resource-starved China cannot let the discovery stand unchecked. The PLA overtook Russian forces in a surprise attack on Skira, and now Russia has called upon its ally the United States to send the marines stationed on Japan over to engage in a series of quick strikes in an effort to break the PLA’s hold.
As fireteam leader, you command a squad of three soldiers. With the use of a radial and context-sensitive menu, orders will be issued both on the spot and on the command map. Your men can be issued a variety of orders, from assaulting buildings to getting into certain formations and spreads to engaging selected targets. A similar system has been used fairly successfully in the past with games like Rainbow Six and Full Spectrum Warrior, and Dragon Rising has similar results. Problems arise whenever you move beyond the small-scale engagements of the other titles and find yourself in the thick of things. Plodding through radial menus, often three levels deep, is often cumbersome and dangerous; not only that, but the contextual aspects can result in inappropriate orders, such as someone being told to exit a vehicle instead of to follow you. It’s a good system when it works, but additional streamlining and enhanced object recognition is required for it to be effective in all situations.
Even if an order is properly issued, you might not find it being carried out. Your squadmates are, if nothing else, a wilily bunch, sometimes surprising with their sharp eyes and excellent aim while other times bewildering in their behavior. You can only look on in disbelief as a soldier ignores your order to enter a building and instead walks along the outer perimeter, shortly before being peppered with bullets. They might opt to not listen at all and just sit around. I made a routine of telling them to ‘tighten up’ and to ‘follow’ so that I could baby-sit them. The manual mentions morale being a factor for both sides, with suppressive fire and overwhelming odds keeping soldiers from carrying out orders, but I didn’t notice my men do anything of the sort and only a scant few times elsewhere: a human teammate squealed out after being bested by an enemy online, and a few enemies headed for the hills when we overpowered their position. Unquestionable confidence in your men will result in failure, but it is still worthwhile to send them on simple tasks so that you can focus on completing the main objectives – plus it looks cool to see them pull off an attack.
The enemy suffers from AI issues as well. Engaged soldiers will seek cover by hitting the deck, crawling to safety, or making a mad dash for a building, but engaging them can be tricky: sometimes they see you from a half mile out, other times you have to shoot them to get a response. There is something strange about struggling through a fierce firefight after being spotted during a flanking maneuver, and then seeing a soldier do nothing after their comrade has their head pinged a few feet from them. The unevenness in the AI really does a number on the immersion factor, sometimes providing a challenging and rewarding experience while other times being anything from baffling to infuriating.
Your enemy’s questionable intelligence doesn’t mean that Dragon Rising is easy. In fact, it carries the Flashpoint high difficulty flag to consoles quite well. Being on the sim side of things, the approach to each objective often requires a methodical and measured response. Rushing into a situation will get you little more than a bullet in the head, regardless of how inadequate the nearby sentries may be. I wondered if the fabled difficulty had carried over as the first level loaded, and within five minutes I saw my soldier withering in agony, screaming out for a medic, and then perishing to a reload screen. Get used to seeing those screens; you will be seeing them a lot. In fact, the difficulty levels don’t actually affect the enemy but your on-screen aids and checkpoints: on normal, hits register as white and lethal hits as red and there are relatively frequent checkpoints that bring your squad to your position and back to full health. The higher the difficulty is set, the more aids that are taken away. Despite this confirming that the AI woes are actually problems and not related to the chosen difficulty level, there is something satisfying about this approach. After a hard-fought win, the successes feel that much sweeter; and you can’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment as you limp to an extraction point with a beat-up squad, low on ammo, and carrying an enemy’s weapon.
Dragon Rising does diverge from past Flashpoint titles in several respects. Despite the flashy presentation, the story is a non-issue, with only snippets revealed during briefings. Unlike before, there is no driving narrative nor are you as significant or developed a protagonist. Dragon Rising takes a much more by-the-numbers approach: you get orders, and you give orders. There is also less of an emphasis on the open-world aspect with timed objectives rarely giving you the time needed to commandeer a tank or helicopter. You will still pilfer enemy ammo caches and corpses, thanks to often being undersupplied, but you won’t be driving much more than humvees or venturing too far from the combat zone. Oddly enough, vehicle control is just as slippery as before – I guess some things never change. On a positive note, the guns and firing mechanics feel tighter and much more responsive.
At only 11 missions, the game can be completed in about six hours. It can feel longer than that, though, with some missions seemingly taking hours on end to trudge through – the game thinks nothing of making you walk a few miles. In the end, it only took a few rigorous sessions before I had pushed the PLA back and re-established Russian control. Even though there were some very – very – trying moments, I ultimately felt satisfied with my victory, as the enemy had put up a truly dogged resistance and I had pulled off some stunning moments of daring. (Aside: AI squadmates, I apologize for leaving you to die so often, but the game didn’t penalize me and it was all for the greater good.)
It’s highly recommended that you play through the campaign, even on an easy setting, before tackling multiplayer. The mechanics adhere to real-world physics, which can be tricky to adjust to; if you jump in untested, you might find yourself outclassed, confused, and ultimately not having a good time. Multiplayer is well worth trying out, but due to a few problems it isn’t as engaging as it could be. One of the most surprising aspects is that there aren’t a whole lot of people playing. You can still find a few games running, so there are opportunities to mix it up with other humans, but such a low player count for a new title doesn’t bode well for its longevity. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up having long legs, though, because of the rarity of tactical shooters I can see a devoted crowd sticking with it. And devoted players are really the ones you want on your team, because when you have a communicative and effective leader, the experience is great.
The campaign is playable in co-op mode, with humans taking on the roles of the squad you command in the campaign, in addition to two versus modes: infiltration and annihilation. Infiltration has the outmanned marines taking a PLA installation while annihilation has two teams of four, complete with four AI soldiers each, going toe to toe. Unfortunately, there aren’t many maps – two for each mode – and any AI soldier not constantly directed are little more than fodder, as they do next to nothing to preserve themselves. Dedicated players can make up for a lot of multiplayer’s shortcomings, but many are content with going about things as lone wolves. I can only hope that multiplayer is supported long enough for a strong player base to form.
Dragon Rising is going to be a hard sell for a lot of people. Players weaned on Modern Warfare and Halo are likely to be infuriated by the slower pace and often unforgiving mechanics. Tactical shooters are spectacular when they work, and pure aggravation when they don’t. And in that regard, I have no doubt that Dragon Rising is going to infuriate a lot of people. The graphics are more serviceable than attractive, being a little bland but providing a nice sense of scale; the AI is too inconsistent; combat is sporadic; guns jam; and there is no customizable loadout, in single- or multiplayer. The manual is also woefully inadequate, covering only the bare minimum: what are the benefits of combat spreads? When should a certain rule of engagement be used? What does XP in multiplayer do? (Nothing, as it turns out.) The island is also devoid of nearly any semblance of civilization, coming across more like a mock environment set up for training rather than a real locale. Timed objectives can also test your patience, especially when a waypoint or checkpoint doesn’t register, forcing you to repeat a 15-minute trek or a difficult portion. For some, especially those familiar with the series, many of those won’t necessarily be problems – they come with the territory – but too many of the technical and design problems cut through all of the ranks.
It is more sim than most people are used to, but maybe not enough for the hardcore. For console others, though, there is little choice. All things considered, Dragon Rising is still an enjoyable title, and I prefer its take on the genre to its more action-oriented and bug-free competitors. The problems can’t take away the intensity of the firefights, as knowing that at any moment you could fall over dead tends to keep you on your toes. You can call for a medic and heal your allies when wounded, but I found myself dying from more one-shot kills than any other title since the original releases. There is just something about those moments when everything goes to hell that are intoxicating: your careful plans having resulted in chaos with rounds being exchanged all around, artillery is being called in (always a good time), and you bark out orders with your fingers crossed that a soldier doesn’t spot you while you’re flicking through the radial menus. When you find yourself walking out of a scrap like that, you have your hands tight around the controller and are literally on the edge of your seat. You don’t get too many of those moments in games, but Dragon Rising, even with all of its faults, provides those with a frequency that few other titles can match.
Overall: 7.5/10
(This review is based on a retail copy provided by the publisher.) © Copyright 1999-2005 by EntDepot.com |
