From the official forums... This review seems spot on to me (aside from his perspective on ArmA2, which I haven't played much)

Originally Posted by Incognito84

Okay, I'm going to put my 0.02$ into the pool. The forums are absolutely vapid right now and after spending several hours with the game I've begun to feel that a lot of the hostility is unfair.

Part of the reason for this is because of people who would probably be better off playing Arma2. This is not Arma2 and as far as I'm concerned, the developers were honest and forthcoming with their intentions prior to release. The overall tone and intensity of the forums, coupled with severe bouts of rampant speculation, muddled whatever clear messages CM was trying to convey.

With that out of the way, I'm going to be reviewing this from my perspective -- that of a person who enjoys realism to the extent where it doesn't get in the way of an enjoyable experience. I will be making a lot of comparisons to Arma2 in this review but as an aside, I will mainly focus on treating the game as a unique property that is not in any way connected to the original Flashpoint or it's supposed spiritual rival.

Hopefully this thread will help ease some of the tension on the forums or brew some constructive discussion on why the game "turned out the way it did."

This review is divided into the following sections:

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Gameplay
Overall "feel" and Style
Multiplayer
Visuals
Audio
and Conclusion
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Gameplay [--8/10--]

This is not Arma2. Watching the videos which began flooding to the surface many months ago made that much apparent. Historically, the game shares a deep connection to the Arma series but as a consequence of the separation between Bohemian and Codemasters the creative design of Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising took a very sharp turn away from the Arma2 series.

It helps to think of it as a reimagining of the first Operation Flashpoint at a fundamental level. It might even be more accurate to say that it is a homage to it's predecessor. Whatever your take on this is, it is clear that the game wasn't directly influenced by the original in a lot of ways. The complex button gymnastics have dissolved into a "radial menu" which houses much simpler options than the original.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (from here on in, "OFP: DR") concedes major multitasking and finger gymnastics and replaces it with accessibility and speed. In any situation where the inherent complexity shrinks from the size of a field manual to the size of an instruction pamphlet, there is bound to be some concessions made.

It is evident what Codemasters did to warrant these concessions and make them pleasing to the community: they tried to align the gameplay with the interface by vastly improving the former. The AI is dozens of times better than the original and several times better than Arma2. It isn't perfect, but its indisputably the best sandbox AI ever drafted for any game, ever. It responds to the situation, it adapts and it fights believably, all the while never succumbing to the need to cheat or have virtual omnipotence.

The competence of the AI concedes the simplicity of the command interface. Soldiers no longer need to be micromanaged, they only need to be directed as they would be in the field; their own volition guiding the rest.

Although I haven't played the entirety of the single player campaign, I can say that it is exhilirating. OFP: DR has shifted away from the cold and distant simulations of yore into a hybrid simulation / realization of the heat of battle. While some concessions made do subtract from the realism, those very concessions swing round to the other part of your brain that makes your heart beat and your fingers jitter. Accomplishing the realization of fear, through means both contrived and genuine, make this game more realistic (in some ways) than any of its predeccessors.

If ultimately, you feel, that the game fails to accomplish the realistic and viseral atmosphere that it strives for, then you must at least admit one thing: it is a hell of a lot more entertaining.



Overall "feel" and Style [--8/10--]

OFP: DR is the out of wedlock baby of Arma2 and COD4. Before your head spins in a complete circle, hear me out!

It borrows Arma2's unflinching realism in the face of certain death. One bullet will and usually does kill you, acting like John Rambo will kill you and not being on-the-ball/observant will kill you.

It borrows COD4's cinematic style, the "oh-dear-god-how-I'm-going-to-survive-this" moment and COD4's propensity to make the four foot radius around the player very lively and exciting. What it adds though, through its lineage dating back to the original OFP, is weight. Death can be a very negative thing in the game and you want to avoid it, therefore the bullet dust-spray-dance around your feet makes you want to run to safety before you have to repeat a substantial portion of the game, whereas in COD4 this dyanimc is nothing more than the equivalent to being surrounded by pesky mosquitos.

Arma2 and it's mil-sim ilk often succeed in making the battle as a whole exciting without really reaching out and touching the player. I mean, why should they? They're only simulators.

Although OFP: DR might not succeed as well on the macro-scale (mainly because of the design choices limiting the number of vehicles, units and sheer "epic factor") it far surpasses any other sim (if you want to call it that) on the micro-scale.

One thing is for sure: I can't recall many instances in which I've been meaningfully surpressed in a game. I can call dozens and dozens of those experiences in my short time playing OFP: DR. For some reason, its really gratifying to stand up just for a second only to have dust and splinters of wood completely envelope your line of sight (or to have a bullet completely envelope your frontal lobe).



Multiplayer [--6 or 7/10--]

Its too early to say, really. I spent a great chunk of time with it and had a blast, but noticed that the servers haven't really picked up much steam nor has the player base. This is mainly because most of the players are still on the shallow side of the learning curve with the game not even having been out for a full week yet (just came out today, here).

I might say more about this later. I'm going to give it a preliminary [6 or 7/10] because I'm concerned about the server browser and some of the prevalent game modes that I've played so far.

Will update later, when I know more.



Visuals [--7.5/10--]

This game looks great just so long as you aren't 2-inches away from a texture or a character model.

The use of atmospheric brushstrokes that paint a beautiful dawn or a serene nightscape coupled with view distances that might be able to show just where exactly Niel Armstrong walked really carry the games graphics forward. The lingering smoke effects look great, though they don't seem to be as realistic or tall as we were led to believe.

The visuals do take a huge hit right in the textures, trees, and foilage draw distance. This is where the games bleeds "I am also available on the Xbox 360" all over the place. If CM had any sense, whatsoever, they'd release a high-end texture pack for those of us with the horsepower to run it.

If the textures were sharper, the trees more varied and the far-away as detailed as the close-up, then I'd give it a [9/10].



Audio [--9.8/10--]

The audio is great. It *might* not be as realistic as other games, but who the hell cares (see preface)? It sounds freaking sexy. The splats, pats, whomps, whoooooooooooooooomphs and "[mandarin]Mother![/mandarin]"s really make it shine. I could go into detail but I'll leave it at this: in the greater context of the game, the audio suits everything very well.



Conclusion [--8.75/10--] (Not an average)

I'm not a mil sim fanboy but I enjoy realistic games more than unrealistic ones. I think people like me, which might make up a larger number percentage wise, are often misrepresented on here so I had a backbone ache telling me that I needed to drop some major input-bombs on you all.

I love the game. The most annoying part of writing this review is that I can't write it and play the game at the same time. I also wish I didn't have a job because if I didn't, I'd most definitely play it all day tomorrow.

The game strikes a fitting balance between realism and fun, style and substance. I also didn't mention this anywhere yet, but compared to Arma2 or any other mil-sim to date... this game has VERY few bugs that I know of on release. It runs like a dream with virtually no problems.

While it might be low to take a swing at Arma2 at this point, I'm gunna. Mainly because you fanboys need to be taken down a notch. Arma2 is broken and it isn't even a game. Nothing works and the only way to really enjoy it is to break both of it's arms, sit on it and continue to mangle it's already broken arms whilst saying "you're a game god damnit and I'm going to wrangle a gameworthy experience out of you even if I have to break your legs as well!"


Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is a solid, engaging, thoughtful and entertaining piece of mil-sim/tactical FPS/whatever put in a shiny blender. Unless you're an utter fanboy or a diehard twitch FPS gamer, then you WILL enjoy this. Don't let all the negativity ruin your experience! :clap: