Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising is a first-person shooter. It is a sequel to the 2001 game that attempted to change the genre by making squad-based shooters the norm. Dragon Rising is a fresh experience, but the game isn't for everyone. If you play first-person shooters, you probably love Call of Duty and games like that. Dragon Rising takes a different approach. It focuses on realism rather than ease of play.
The game takes you through eleven missions during a fictional conflict that puts the world's largest armies battling each other on an island on the pacific. The entirety of the game takes place there, and the types of missions that you play range from full frontal attacks to defend-the-objective. The one thing that makes Dragon Rising different from other games is the size of the maps. In every mission, you have to move through vast fields and forests to get to your objective. You aren't magically inserted in the heart of your enemy's defenses like in other games. You have to be stealthy and smart to complete your objectives. Weapons designs are loyal to their real counterparts and every different type of window behaves differently. Ballistics is a field that I usually do not pay much attention to in first-person shooters. Dragon Rising does a great job of making different weapons feel different and have different effects on both enemies and vehicles. I like that Dragon Rising manages to express the real difficulty of shooting someone across hundreds of meters. In Call of Duty, you simply zoom in and shoot away. You can see your enemies clearly, even when you are probably half a kilometer away. In Dragon Rising, this is not so, which makes it one of the most realistic shooters I have seen. Not everything is as easy as pointing and shooting. And that is why I say this game isn't for everyone. If you get easily frustrated, you will probably be better off playing other titles.
The game's strongest point is its single-player campaign. The fictional conflict is very epic and dramatic. You feel a sense of urgency during most of the game. Multiplayer was very disappointing for me. I didn't have fun at all playing it.
The game isn't without flaws, though. Graphically, there are some problems with character models looking all the same and there are also some glitches with the terrain. Vehicles are very hard do drive accurately and the A.I. can be really stupid at times.
The game is only $9.99 if you buy it on Amazon. For such an epic single player campaign, that is a very small price to play for and it is totally worth it.
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