If you take a look at the development team of Codemasters, you’d see that they take a more realistic approach when they develop games. There past titles like Grid and Dirt 2 are both some of the best and most realistic racing games on the market. Now Codemasters is stepping into the first person shooter genre with Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising and its without question one of the most realistic tactical shooters on the market; but does the realism make the overall game enjoayble?

The story of Dragon Rising involves a fictional conflict between Russia and China which then causes the U.S to ally with Russia in order to stop the Chinese PLA forces from invading a Russian Island. Dragon Rising’s campaign mode will have you taking part in 11 missions that will have you doing things like assasinating high commanders, destroying key targets and clearing out the enemy forces. The missions as a whole aren’t the most enjoyable because they can move at a very slow pace, which for the most part has to do with the large amount of strategy that is involved when you approach each objective.

Visually Dragon Rising does impress. The game takes place on a massive island that you’re free to explore when you’re on a mission, which can make for some nice looking trees and landscapes. Although, as I was progressing through the missions I did notice that there was some texture pop in and some of the enviornments didn’t load properly at times. Another thing that unimpressed me was the character animations, because you’re squad moves like they’re robots and the movements overall look stiff and unrealistic.

As for gameplay, Operation Flashpoint could be one of the most frustrating shooters you may ever play. Since the game’s main focus is on realism all it takes is one shot from an enemy and you can die. There was even a time when I was killed from my squad for accidentally walking in front of their gun fire, the game is just that real. While you’re on missions, they will mainly play out as trial and error because most of the time you’ll be put against some overwhelming odds or you fail to execute the right strategy for you and your squad. You’re squad will consist of 4 soldiers and the A.I of you squad isn’t the greatest either. Sure they can kill alot of enemies on their own but there were times when they wouldn’t follow through with an order that I had given them.

Dragon Rising also features a fun co-op mode, where you and 3 other people can play through the campaign in its entirety. I found the co-op to be the most fun part of the game simply because being with a human controlled team made the missions much more easier and it was very satisfying when we would successfully complete our objectives. However the competative online is where things get ugly. The competative mode is plagued with bugs like texture issues on the weapons and my experience got so laggy that it just made me want to go back to the co-op.

In conclusion Operation Flashpoint is certainly not for everyone. The challenge level may throw some people off and the fact that you’re squad isn’t the smartest really hurts the story mode from being great. The online co-op is definitley where you will be spending most of time, being its the most fun aspect of the game, but the same can’t be said about the competative mode due to it being riddled with bugs that greatly hurt the online experience. If Code Masters spent more time fixing up these issues then Flash Point could have been something very special because its not often we seen a shooter with such a high attention to realism. Lets just hope that Code Masters can really make something great if they plan to do a sequel.

SCORE: 6.5/10