On My Horizon: Operation Flashpoint 2

One of the missions I remember most distinctly from Operation Flashpoint, originally released in 2001, was from a mission fairly early in the campaign where you and your squad are on patrol, come under heavy fire, you all run off into the woods and slowly but surely, all your squad mates and commanding officer are killed or wounded beyond repair. You are then left in the woods of an eastern european looking island with tall deep pine forests and dense undergrowth. Its you and you alone left alive. Enemy patrols are at your rear, your radio is shot to pieces and you have very little ammo. The last call you receive on your dying radio is that of an emergency broadcast telling all UN personnel to regroup at some coordinate to be immediately evacuated from the island. Lets just say, the mission goes from bad to worse at this point. The island is so big, you are probably in a conservative guess, about 15 miles from your evac point. And the terrain in front of you is crawling with foot, air and armor patrols.

Fast forward from 2001 to 2009. Enter Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising. This is the game I’ve been waiting 8 years for. I played the living crap out of the old PC titles and was one of the few to buy Flashpoint on console, but now, its a new ball game. A made for PC and Console military simulation. If you liked any of the Ghost Recon series games, Call of Duty Modern Warfare or Rainbow Six games, you might want to be keeping this game on close watch.

Based on a real life island north of Japan, the story line is loosly translated to, someone struck black gold, aka oil, the chinese want it, the japanese can’t defend it, the Americans are sent in to defend it. The developers chose the Chinese as the fictional enemy for two reasons. One, because its not THAT far out of the question that the US would go to war with China and secondly, the Chinese are the only conventional military on earth the US should be remotely worried about. Their weapons and vehicles match our own in technological superiority. Its basically an even playing field, which makes for an intriguing idea for a war.

So what makes this game so special? Why exactly is it different then that list mentioned before that currently have the strangle hold on the military FPS market?  Well for one, Flashpoint is unscripted. What I mean by that is think back to when you were running through COD4 Modern Warfare. As awesome of a game as it was, no matter how many times you played it, the soldier that kept killing you was still standing in the same spot. The airplanes still flew over and dropped bombs because you crossed an imaginary line in the game and more waves of soldiers still ambushed you from the same exact angle as they did last time. Essentially what you have in Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six and COD is linear and scripted game play. Imagine if instead of that linear style gameplay where you had one route to attack the enemy, you had a map the size of Grand Theft Auto’s Liberty City, except bigger. (85 sq miles/220sq km) and more detailed and you were given free reign to attack and command as you choose. Well, that is what Flashpoint aims to offer. Open environment, non-linear gameplay. You decide you fate and the developers said, the man that thinks he is rambo, will not beat the game. Interesting. This style of game play has been tried only once before. And that once before was in Operation Flashpoint on the PC.

Some interesting/fun facts about Skira island, where the game will take place…and let these soak in. This is real time, you could actually do this, although I don’t really recommend it, but apparently, it can be done in game. It takes 4.5 hours to walk across the island from end to end. It takes 2 hours to drive across it in a jeep and it takes 20 minutest for fly from end to end in the games fastest aircraft.

A google maps image of the island the game is modeled after

The other unique element to the game is its incredible level of detail. The game developers of Flashpoint 2 are not after the arcade sim crowd. Oh no. If you want to use a weapon in this game, you had better have the time to properly put it together. Take for instance the Javalin Missile launcher. It is an anti-tank rocket launcher that is extremely large and heavy. Generally it is carried in several pieces. That is what it will be like in game. If you happen to have one nearby, say in the back of a tank, you had better be prepared to put it together and then have one, MAYBE two shots at your target before it’s out of ammo. Similarly to damage, don’t expect a HALO style shield to re-load when you sit out of the action long enough. You have one life and you had better be prepared to use it wisely. If you die of course, the game will restart at a checkpoint but if you take a 50 cal round in the chest, don’t expect to walk away from it. In fact, the designers have said that the damage modeling to both human, material and the environment will be reflected on the size and calibre of the weapon as well as the type of ballistics being used AND the distance fired at. The developers have slowly been leaking information and videos like the following to tease the public on the level of detail in herant in the weapons being developed for the game. The following are in game sequences from Operation Flashpoint 2′s EGO engine.

Operation Flashpoint is no ugly duckling either. It’s game engine, called EGO has been used by gamers to great success and fanfare for the better part of a year now. Codemasters, Flashpoint’s developer, used the EGO engine in the racing game GRID. While the game itself did not really live up to much beyond the initial shock and awe, I can tell you, the environmental detail and damage modeling were bar none the best I’ve seen in a long time. Below is an in game sequential movie of an M1A1 Abraham’s tank firing off a few rounds. I recommend watching in HD.

Finally, if your motto is something like…variety is the spice of life, then Flashpoint is the game for you. With 50 drivable vehicles in the game (20 US, 20 Chinese and 10 civilian) there is little need to worry about boredom and repetition. Each vehicle is faithfully reproduced down to the nut, bolt and unique noise and weapons it has associated with it. Whether it be land or sea or air, Flashpoint is going to deliver you more variety of vehicles to choose from then ever before seen in a game. EVER.

Similarly, weapons will have the same level of detail and numbers associated with them too. With 70 to boot, ranging from pistols to shotguns, assault rifles, grenades, sniper rifles and anti tank weapons, each with unique options to add to it from laser sights, grenade launchers and scopes…you really can’t go wrong at all. To see more like what I have posted below, go to Flickr and search for Operation Flashpoint 2. Codemasters has been using Flickr to post screen shots and weapon specs as they develop the game.

I think that about covers what I want to talk about. Of course there WILL be multiplayer but the details of which have not really been released. I know the console versions will rely heavily on CO-OP game play with having real life people replacing your team members but we can only hope that they will use XBOX LIVE to its potential and have versus game play too. Maybe I’m crazy but I remember reading something about a game type they were experimenting with where there is a team of lightly armed men (think AK47′s) defending a base, or an object against a much smaller team of Marine Force Recon soldiers who are much better equipped. Sounds intriguing.

Expected Release Date: Autumn 2009