Spent a bit of time with the new military shooter from Codies, Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising, yesterday - so here are a few initial thoughts.
PresentationSlick presentation as you would expect from Codemasters. Brings to mind games like GRID but with a more military style and a great piece of music playing in the background. Stats are displayed on loading screens (as is the norm) and you can view tons and tons of different stats for your campaign in the Extras menu.
Graphics & AnimationAlmost everything in the enviroments is a shade of Green, Brown or Grey, but the draw distance is good, textures look decent up-close and the whole thing zips along quite smoothly. Guns are rendered very well and smoke/bullet effects look excellent.
The animation of teammates and enemy soldiers in the first two missions I played through seemed well mo-capped. Not up to the standards of Uncharted but some nice touches. Sun glare and other weather effects add quite a bit of atmosphere. I particularly liked the way the sun seemed to rise in Mission 2. You start off with your Night Vision Goggles equipped, but after a few minutes you'll be able to spot the enemy without them.
SoundSuperb throughout, whether it is menu music, gun sounds or just ambient environment noise. If you have a surround sound/expensive set up I can imagine this to be one of the best sounding games ever. As it is, it still sounds ace coming through the tiny speakers on my Regza.
AIA mixed bag so far, but decent on the whole. Your teammates usually behave with intelligence and react well to changing and challenging situations. You can generally leave them alone and they won't do much wrong (they will die though - especially if you give them crap orders like me!).
Enemy AI is where I've noticed the game fall down a little. On the one hand, when sweeping forward down a hill to defend a SAM site for example (which is where I currently am), they are organised and deadly. It doesn't help that I've only got about 7 bullets left (you have to steal from dead enemies if you run dry) but they take up some great positions and constantly move around, trying to flank you and taking cover.
By way of contrast - At the end of the first mission I managed to get my hands on a rocket lanucher. Slowly creeping towards the helicopter pickup point, my squadmates spied some enemies guarding the position. 'No problem' I thought - bit of swift bazooka action and the heli will be able to land; except that after killing one guy with a rocket, his mates, stood less than 10metres away, decided to carry on looking in a different direction!
Thankfully I've not come across too many of these AI glitches for it to spoil the immersion and atmosphere that the rest of the game creates.
ControlsMapped slightly differently than most will be used to with the default settings. They work well though, but be warned, there are quite a few different menus (one for orders, one for support like airstrikes, one for equipment, one for ammo type) mapped to different buttons and you won't find out how to use them all into well into the frst mission. You can always read the manual though.
GameplayIn a word; Hard. You aren't given much of a tutorial (just some basic commands and controls during Mission 1). Within 3 minutes of my first go I was dead - shot repeatedly as I tried to take out a missle site without properly scouting the area. Lots of variety in mission objectives so far and the shooting mechanics seem solid and well realised. I've been invloved in several good firefights already and as already mentioned, I really enjoyed the fights at dawn on Mission 2.
The enemies are deadly, so if you don't scout out areas properly, or think you can stand on a rock and pick enemies off one-by-one, you'll swiftly find yourself in the morgue.
Checkpoints are well placed and you'll need them. Thankfully on normal your teammates will respawn whenever you pass through one. On hardcore mode you don't get the luxury of checkpoints or respawning teammates (or visual markers, or an ammo count!).
Co-opReviews and reports say that this is the way to play the game. Not had chance to try it yet, but if I spy any other threespeechers playing the game I'll tap you up.
OverallAs you will probably have guessed, anyone expecting Unreal Tourney will be disappointed. Each mission requires a bit of brainpower and planning, and even then you'll still get suprised or ambushed and end up with your head blown off (yes you can target limbs, although this is fairly tricky to do usually as close quarters combat is so tense you'll just pull the trigger and hope).
Despite the AI glitches and long sections on foot as you progress to objectives, OFP2 is fun and challenging. It won't be everyone's cup to tea, but I have enjoyed it so far and have a feeling that Co-op will be a blast. For anyone wondering, I got mine for about £28 from Shopto.net.
[pabloamigo]
