Operation Flashpoint

Being a FPS fan of sorts especially those with a good multiplayer aspect I was intrigued by the gameplay described in most of the reviews I read for this game.

I shall start off by saying that this game is HARD! As said by many other people this game brings the true story to war, an enemy standing half a kilometer away becomes a deadly enemy, bravado becomes insanity and every form of cover becomes your best friend, bullets come zinging past your head triggering an instant action to shoot back but where? You can hear where it's coming from but you just know that the next shot wont be a miss and unlike other shooters this game can end very quickly, this combined with the fact that it take about 5 minutes to get back into the game gets the player thinking more about strategy than anything else.

The game takes place on two islands, the main one having been over run with Chinese PLA forces. Only two maps I hear you say? Trust me these maps are huge and it seems as if it could take forever to walk from one end to the other. The game itself plays out in a sequential set of targets i.e take this out, go here and then defend that with various orders obviously given in between.

The AI in Flashpoint can be rather good although I do question the use of the word "intelligence", enemies will find cover if shot at but sometimes if shot again while under cover will walk straight back into the line of fire!?! As in many other games the so called AI has a rather uncanny ability to tell from which direction the player is coming even when hidden behind a hill, the game gives hints such as "recon areas before entering by using your binoculars" but I found on many occasions that this process led to more frustration than had the player just run straight at the enemy, there can be nothing worse than spending a good five minutes spotting a number of gunners on a hill, planning out a best form of attack and then walking the long way there so as to maintain the element of surprise to find out that everyone knew you were coming anyway! Thinking that you have the upper hand and then having all of that taken away in an instant from a single shot can be very, very demotivating.

I also found on many occasions that this game is not as "realistic" as I was lead to believe, perhaps when it comes to the player dying yes but apart from that it seems that this game is heavily scripted and I often found myself failing a mission for what seemed to be no reason at all other than the fact that I hadn't done exactly what the game thought I was going to do. I also got the impression that the enemy seemed to take bullets a lot better than my own guys?!?! Not exactly fair.

These frustrations aside, Flashpoint is a good looking game, the islands look beautiful with lots of different kinds of terrain ranging from wooded areas to beaches to towns. There are a large amount of vehicles the the player may use from jeeps to helicopters and it's a real shame that as the levels go on the player is often constrained with time limits preventing them from really enjoying the sandbox style landscape and the vehicles provided.

Where the game really shines though is in it's multiplayer form, four player make up a fireteam and can then tackle the levels together making for a much better experience, the game becomes very tactical and can lead to much shouting and cursing but at least with four players the game only ends if all four are dead, this makes good leadership a key point and I'm sure with a bit of practice could be loads of fun.

All in all Flashpoint isn't as bad a game as I make out and as long as your a patient person with a need for a more realistic shooter I think you could do a lot worse than Flashpoint, bring into that mix the online play (for this I would definitely recommend a friend with a copy too) and one is presented with a decent shooter that can provide loads of entertainment.

Gameplay 7/10

Graphics 8/10

Sound 8.5/10

Total 78/100