GM Review: Operation Flashpoint: Red River
“No one stops, unless some stupid Taji motherfucker shows up like a boogie bag”
Meet Sgt. Knox, who guides you through the hard as nails campaign and keeps motivating you through your journey by saying such lines. Operation Flashpoint: Red River - made by Codemasters is one of the most gritty, tactical shooters out there. In fact, I would like to warn people interested in the game, that it’s absolutely essential to get the hang of the controls, and the small nuances, that helps you command your squad respectively.
The game set in Tajikistan, looks pretty decent on consoles. Utilizing the EGO engine, large draw distances and a huge rendering area are now possible, but it sometimes feels like an illusion, since you basically can’t go anywhere you wish. There are four classes to choose from, Rifleman, Scout and so on. Once you pick a class you are able to upgrade the weapons and your stats by performing well in chapters. Faster and more efficiently you finish a chapter, the more points you get to allocate towards the stats that benefit your skills or provide bonuses to your entire squad.
As the game starts, you are put in one of the most boring missions, I have ever played. Perseverance is the key. Once you clear a few missions, the game gets better and more challenging. You cannot run and gun here. One or two bullets is enough to take you out. However, if you get hit and possibly survive, you can heal yourself by performing a stupid animation by holding the cross button. It isn’t that annoying per se, but it forces you to play very defensively. It is a realistic shooter, I know that. But, there should have been a better healing mechanic here as it’s such a vital part of the game. You can heal your squad as well, and it seems like you have to do this often as one wrong command and their health will go in yellow.
It took some time for the game to grow on me, as I certainly did not enjoy playing it at the start. The game makes a really bad first impression with low res textures and what not. But that is understandable when you look at the scale. But that’s only one part of the equation, since Arma 2 offers you much more freedom compared to this game. As I mentioned before you need to command your squad A.I well, or it can be game over easily; if they run into a bunch of Taji or PLA soldiers. You have a decent amount of weapons depending on the class you choose, and they can be upgraded after you complete a mission.
The main drawback of the game is that it looks really blurry and unpleasant. Frame rate drops are frequent as well, but it’s just almost playable. It seems like Codies had to encounter a lot of challenges to fit the game on limited ram in consoles. When you look at the scale, it is criminal and probably a huge bottleneck. Some part of me feels that the game should have been exclusive to the PC, so that they would have had much more options to choose from.
Your squad can be pretty competent as well as dumb sometimes. It depends on how you control them and it’s really annoying to babysit them. If you stray away, it becomes hard for you to command them to come to you, even though you hear them responding to your commands. What I have noticed is that, being close to them and giving them commands usually works. They can suppress the enemies well, and sometimes it feels good when everything goes according to plan. As I mentioned earlier, as you keep playing the game, you will eventually know all the commands inside out and that makes it much easier playing the latter missions.
It has a huge learning curve that needs to be endured to enjoy the game. Sgt. Knox keeps on saying unneeded explicit things. It wasn’t that necessary but I guess it will keep you entertained in-game, if you like such talk. It is sometimes pretty hard to spot enemies and if you end up dying, you start again at the last checkpoint. Sometimes if you play slowly, it gets slightly annoying if you die at a vital moment. The story is pretty comical, and insignificant like most of the military games out there, the only reason you will be playing this game is for the action.
I remember when I called in air support, 50 meters near me and blew myself up. It was very hilarious and exciting at the same time due to the amazing sound effects. From the weapon reloading sounds to the bullets whizzing past you, it’s a surreal experience if you have a good sound system. In fact, it’s a must while playing such games. There are a lot of missions here, taking you on varied locations and giving you dynamic objectives like clearing the village or using nightvision and scouting an objective, so there isn’t a dull moment mostly if you know what you are doing.
The major plus point of the game is the co-op, instead of the AI, if you have a bunch of friends taking over and communicating over mic, then it will be a lot of fun playing through the game. It seems as if the missions were designed with co-op in mind. It’s a huge redeeming factor for the campaign.
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