Operation Flashpoint First Look

Hey, and you thought that 80's were famous only for Miami Vice, and moonwalking? What if for example the Berlin Wall didn't fall in '89? Better yet, if we were facing a global conflict between two military pacts in '85? Well, that's what Operation Flashpoint, the upcoming squad-based military shooter from Bohemia Interactive, and Codemasters is all about. It's very similar to Delta Force in a sense -- minus the voxels, crappy 2D guns, and the terrible AI.

Stay sharp!

I got you in my sights!

You gotta give credit to Delta Force though, and especially the enthralling multiplayer, but anyone who knows anything about squad shooters has given up any hope for DF single player a long time ago. Bohemia's Operation Flashpoint leans heavily on the concepts introduced by NovaLogic, but it also goes above and beyond the call of duty, as it adds a complex and engaging single-player game, a lot of driving and flying sim. elements, and some rather decent team and enemy AI.

As you know, the demo is out, and this write-up is supposed to give you a clearer look at what you might expect from the final product. The demo unfortunately includes only one single player mission, but that's still enough to convince me that Operation Flashpoint holds great potential. Primarily, OF represents the most methodical and systematic approach to creating a realistic PC squad based combat sim. to date. Yes, it's a FPS in a sense (you can play in 3rd person as well), but it also includes the possibility to drive various army vehicles like jeeps and tanks, and even fly jets as you try to overcome the threat of Soviet Union. There's been a lot of games released recently that technically fall in the same category: DF: Land Warrior, R6: Covert Ops, Project IGI, but Operation Flashpoint is really two steps ahead of the pack when it comes to realistically representing combat situations.

There were two things presented in this demo, which constitute an integral part of Flashpoint gameplay -- one is the simulation / driving aspect and the other is of course the hit-and-run and CQB combat. What we didn't get to see is the promised immersive storyline, but judging by the way that the designers are taking us into the battle there is more to that Saving Private Ryan pre-combat suspense than you'd initially think. I guess it wouldn't be at all nuts to assume that the final product will indeed feature an interesting storyline and a strong single player mode.

The driving physics are done exceptionally well - the military jeep behaves differently depending on the terrain configuration, incline, and the amount of damage, and you can even shoot its tires! Yeah, I know... it's just a small detail, but it really does add a lot to the whole 'realism factor' that Bohemia is trying so hard to convey in this game. Driving the jeep is easy, and you can mount it from the back, meaning that you'll be able to cover the driver and possibly shoot at the enemy during a heavy firefight getaway. The addition of sim. elements opens up a whole slew of possibilities for designers to create intense action sequences, and the whole thing gets even better once you engage in the first-person combat.

There's so many details that Bohemia has taken care of in Operation Flashpoint, it's almost a little scary to play it. The way that your character moves for example is depicted with great accuracy. It's pure pleasure watching him crawl when he's prone, or run with his M16. As you might imagine, running with a gun is no walk in the park - that thing's heavy and tends to get in the way. The designers have included the option to mount the gun on your back, so that you could maneuver more gracefully in the field. Also, don't even think about doing any of that "run and gun" action, because there's no chance in hell you'll be able to aim straight. The crosshair is fixed on your line of sight, but the little dot that focuses your aim swings around in its invisible bounding box, relative to how much you bounce with your gun while running, sprinting, etc. What's more, your gun is positioned naturally -- according to your current action. In other words, if you're sprinting the gun will be positioned lower, closer to your hip.

Ahead of you, 2 o'clock!

Get in, damn you!

First rule during an infantry charge is to stay low, and keep a respectable distance from your squadmates, so that a hand grenade doesn't take out half of the unit. Advancing your position is all about spotting "him" before he spots you, and praying to god that some stray bullet doesn't have your name written all over it. Infantry charges are usually like that -- you have to keep communicating all the time (Bohemia did a great job there with introducing the radio messages you receive during action - they'll tell you the enemies' position, status of your soldiers), and doing the ol' prone and sprint to the next appropriate cover exercise. Oh, and spotting an enemy from a 150m away is a bitch in real life, so don't expect it to be any easier in Op. Flashpoint. The game makes you rely heavily on radio coms. and instructions from your squad leader. Some people might find that irritating, but this is actually in the spirit of the general 'realism happy' design.

Add to this the solid AI routines, both of the enemies and your teammates, and with a click of a button, BAM! -- you find yourself in a tricky combat situation. Yep, Operation Flashpoint has that much gameplay depth, and that's despite my (feeble) effort to tone down on the hype.

Codemasters has slapped up a sticker on the demo's opening screen, saying it shouldn't be reviewed, but I just couldn't help it (and this is just a first look anyway). Visually, the game needs more work -- the terrain can unfortunately seem a tad barren at times and the color palette appears washed out, although the scenes look appealing enough overall. Maybe it's because of the decent shadows and lighting effects? What I did mind though is the game's crappy performance under D3D. It worked OK on a T-bird 1GHz and GeForce 2 Ultra, but it was choppy as hell on a PIII 600 / GeForce setup. Bohemia actually recommends a PIII 700 and a 32Mb Glide card, which is kinda funny since 3dfx cards are hmm... not really a standard any more. Anyway, let's hope that the programmers are given enough time to work these glitches out and optimize the D3D code until the final product ships.

The voice acting is, passable for the MOST part. Meaning, it can get awfully B-movie like every once in a while, but if Codemasters uses this test run smartly and works on some of the flaws that will surface after the feedback from the community starts pouring in, we could be looking at a new single player and multiplayer champion of squad-based combat sim. games.