Dusty Relics; Operation Flashpoint: Red River

Let's be honest, OpFlash Dragon Rising was a hot mess of a game. 

It had a fantastic concept but between the barefaced lying (claiming 200km^2 of map to explore but you'll never see any of it because of how restrictive the game actually is) and the absolutely terrible gameplay mechanics and practically zero replay/enjoyment value, it kinda shot itself in the foot, so naturally I wasn't expecting much from OpFlash Red River so I avoided that on release as well, however...

In hindsight and since playing it [Red River] now, perhaps I shouldn't have been so hasty to judge it. Operation Flashpoint Red River actually irons out a lot of the issues Dragon Rising had and in gaming terms this is a very good thing; sequels - either direct narrative related ones or simply successive games with the same title - should always improve on the previous title. In this respect Red River definitely delivers a better game than Dragon Rising but may have been victim to Dragon Rising's failure in many ways on it's release; guilty by association. 

Though Red River largely follows basically the same premise as Dragon Rising (DR) the first thing is that it is far more narrative lead than the first game. In DR I found it hard to remember who was even in my squad and even harder to care about what they were doing. Mainly because they were so unbelievably shit at everything. I also didn't care about the other teams or the command, the whole game you feel totally detached from it. It's not immersive at all. 

This was much improved in Red River (RR) with a very clearly defined virtual military structure and where you and your squad fit into it. From the outset you are left with no illusions about who you are supposed to be and what your goals are. This is all made abundantly clear by straight-talking no bullshit NPC Staff Sergeant Damien Knox who, besides the actual gameplay and missions, is a hugely integral part of what RR is and what makes it different to DR.

Sgt Knox is important because he is the key piece of the jigsaw that was missing from DR in many ways - he is what ties you the player to the action in the game and makes you feel a part of it. When he speaks in game you don't feel like he'a talking at your character you feel like he's talking to you and you should be shouting "YES STAFF SERGEANT!" at your TV and I swear if you play the game start to finish Sgt Knox's 10 rules will forever be emblazoned on your memory and you will carry them into battle in other shooting games as well. I know I do when I play Battlefield 4. 

In terms of the narrative of the game it follows the usual military campaign format, just the same as DR and indeed most others, each mission is essentially A to B kill the bad guys and  though slightly more linear than DR the missions feel much better thanks to this structure. 

The primary difference in RR is the battle arenas; in DR they claimed you had 'infinite possibilities' and a completely open approach to firefights when in reality you did not - the game restricts you if you start trying to test its "infinite possibilities" - but in RR no empty promises exist. The battle areas are still large and there are still many ways to approach each objective within these areas but the game is much more structured and because of this it each mission plays much more smoothly; it's better to have actual boundaries in a game like this than the illusion of freedom.

Another change from DR is the your squad load-out which previously didn't exist. You now have the option to play any one of the four squad members and chose what you want to use in battle; unlocking different weapons, attachments and equipment as you level up within that particular class. This was a real breath of fresh air from DR which was very restrictive in that manner as well, not allowing a player to chose their load-out at all - or what their squad uses.

So on the face of it Red River is a vast improvement over Dragon Rising but the key sticking point of DR was it's gameplay, which was clunky and frustrating at the best of times. The squad you were lumbered with were worse than useless in combat which turned and already frustrating game into a fricken nightmare. So did RR offer any better?

Yes!! I am pleased to say. First up your squad seem to have been improved in terms of AI, they actually take cover and use things around them to not get shot - like hiding behind a wall instead of standing in the open which was a constant problem in DR. They put enemies down as well so if you are reloading or sighting for an artillery strike you can, to an extent, rely on them to watch your back. Close combat is still extremely dangerous in RR however, so run your squad into close quarters and you'll lose men very quickly; with a single enemy soldier being able to wipe the lot of you out - this is much more of a MilSim bridge game than a casual shooter remember.

The orders interface has also been much improved over the messy system of DR though it is not without it's flaws and you'll need to familiarise yourself with it if you want to issue orders quickly and accurately but on the whole it works far better than the DR one. 

The main reason is that the orders have been condensed and simplified which was a good move, we didn't need 4 different formations for start...  To be honest though you'll likely only ever find yourself using about 4 of the orders frequently anyway and all of those are easy to get to with the new RR orders interface. 

You can now squad up with up-to three friends online, each acting as a member of your squad. Though in my honest opinion this was a good though short-lived option and the addition of being able to 2P split-screen would have been better, with each of you controlling yourself and one AI squad member much like the Conflict series did back on PS2. But if you do manage to find someone who still has this game online it can be a lot of fun with a mic.

The game also retains the realism from DR which means that pretty much any stray bullet can kill you instantly so this is still a good game for those who are looking for some realism in console FPS gaming instead of just sticking Call of Duty or Battlefield on 'Hard' and as far as I'm concerned console FPS gaming needs more of this kind of game. PC users obviously have things like ARMA (somewhat of a spiritual successor to OpFlash) but console gamers are left with very little to choose from if they want a decent squad-based realistic shooter. 

It certainly feels to me like Red River is the game Dragon Rising was trying to be but I fear the damage was done with Dragon Rising as still, 4 years after it's release, there is no word of any sort of sequel or continuation of the Operation Flashpoint series and Red River though receiving generally better reviews initially than Dragon Rising was still considered a less than exceptional game sadly.

The one thing you have to do with some older titles is look past the flaws and see what's good about the game. 

Yes, the graphics aren't as sharp as Battlefield 4 or the latest Call of Duty but y'know what? This game is nearly 5 years old, you can't compare them. Yes it might not play as fast as a modern casual shooter but this is supposed to be somewhat of a bridge between complete casual shooter and ultra accurate MilSim, so it's if you can't switch weapon in 0.5 seconds it's because you can't do that in real life either, these games are much more about planning ahead than having fast reactions because that's what you would have to do in a real firefight.

To strike this kind of balance somewhere between ARMA and more casual shooters like Call of Duty or Battlefield s a tough shout and Codemasters had their work cut out. 

However, it's the opinion of this Gamer than Red River needs more recognition than it got or is getting now for it's contribution to the console FPS scene. It's easy to poke holes in games and cast them away without actually taking any of the good things they did into account - Medal of Honor Warfighter was also a victim of this to some extent. The key to moving forward in gaming is to take the good things and build on them and that's what Red River did, sure it wasn't perfect, no game ever is but Codemasters build on the good things from Dragon Rising and produced a game that was superior to its predecessor in almost every way. Now that's something which doesn't often happen these days in gaming let's be honest; when the last time you heard someone say "oh yes the successor was much better than it's predecessor", sequels now are usually shameless cash-cows that need day 1 patches but Red River wasn't one of those.

In this respect Red River is still a game worth playing, it is definitely a dusty relic, dustier than some others of its time maybe but if you're serious about your gaming experiences and even improving gaming yourself - as now more than ever developers are looking more and more to the gamer for our opinions and suggestions; hell, DICE even made a knife for Battlefield 4 that honours the Battlefield Friends parody series on YouTube - then you need to get out there and get in the action a bit more.

So expand your horizons as a gamer; go out and find a copy of Operation Flashpoint Red River and give it a go, persevere with it, get used to it, play it, have fun with it and learn something new with it, it deserves more credit than it gets and I would argue that it deserves a successor on console too.

~

Thanks for reading.

It doesn't matter what you use, only that you game. 

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