The graphics are a little bit of a mixed bag. Skira looks great, either by night, or by day, but at the same time, it can look a little sterile. Grass is pretty static- it doesn’t blow in the wind, and the rest of the environmental effects are also a little poor. However, they aren’t as bad as the character models and also the animation, which is very skittish and unrealistic, whilst the characters themselves seem pretty blocky and unrealistic compared to most recent releases.

 

 

In fact, they aren’t much better than the spectator models in Dirt or GRID at times. You can see why some of the stationary shots look stunning, but in motion, the game just doesn’t quite cut it. There’s also some dodgy texture work in places too- suggesting to me that the EGO engine- whilst perfect for the racing games it was built for, was never really designed for anything like this.

 

Sound is, again, mixed. There’s basically no music- just the haunting introduction theme that graces the menu screens- it’s subtle and pretty good- but it would have maybe been nice to have gotten a score during the missions, perhaps at critical points. Sound effects, however, are much better. Weapon effects are spot on, and there’s some decent environmental effects. Speech is not so good though- it sounds like a 90’s football game. There’s a clear load between phrases that just makes everything sound a bit wrong.

 

 

Multiplayer itself is a mixed bag. Co-op works brilliantly, with up to four people taking on any of the missions. You also get a number of respawns, so if a rogue bullet takes you out, you won’t have to worry about sitting on your bum for the next 30 minutes. All the achievements are available, and working with actual humans feels much better than with the lame AI. If you have other friends with the game- this is definitely the way to go to take on the campaign missions. Getting into games was easy, and whilst there was the odd lag spike, it worked pretty well, and a little lag, but far more effective team-mates is a price worth paying.

 

 

The competitive modes, however (assault and infiltration) are more of a let-down. Its 4vs4 here, and you also get a squad of AI to take into the fight with you. However, your AI are as useless as ever, and I also had real problems searching for, and getting into games, which were then plagued by lag and drop-outs, which isn’t great. However, I guess these modes will be of secondary importance to most people, especially as Codemasters have said that their focus will be on providing new missions to play through over the next year or two.

 

 

"Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising" had all the hallmarks of a great game, but at the same time, does it’s best to throw it all away. With some frustrating bugs, rubbish animation, awful driving, terrible checkpointing, unreasonably tough AI, dodgy speech, and an underused open-world setting, the game could have been a car crash.

 

However, the varied missions and decent online co-op do something to save the game. I’m not sure a few patches can completely fix everything that’s wrong with the game, but by the end I was just about interested enough to hope that a sequel can sort out my huge list of issues. If you’re looking for real war, you may find it here, but it’s flawed.

 

 

 

 

 

+ Huge world