Review by: Dave VanDyk

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is in quite a unique position. Based in no small part from the hit tactical shooter Operation Flashpoint (circa 2001), the original development team for that game has since branched off to develop its own spiritual sequels in the form of the Armed Assault series. So the obvious question is: how will Dragon Rising, a game that has been hyped as a more accessible, arcade-style tactical shooter, compare to Armed Assault 2? Let's just say it's a work in progress.

The problem with Dragon Rising is that it seems to function more as a "proof of concept" model than an actual game, as if Codemasters just wanted to prove it could take a menacing title like OFP and turn it into something console-friendly. To its credit, many of the game's problems don't lie completely with the overall design; the weapons are responsive and feel satisfying, the vehicle physics are a hoot, and it's a lot of fun using the game's "command-wheel" interface to boss your subordinates around. However, that doesn't stop the rest of the game from just feeling outright half-assed.

Take the missions, for example. The game takes place on the fictional island of Skira, where China has taken over and America has to go in to clear them out. Throughout the short, 11-mission campaign, you command a number of different four-man squads (the exact group you control is fixed and depends on the mission) and engage in tasks such as killing enemies by shooting them in the face, killing enemies by telling your teammates to shoot them in the face, or killing enemies by calling down artillery or airstrikes. And for the most part that's it; many of the creative mission scripts seen in the game's predecessors and spin-offs simply aren't here.

With the exception of one or two black-ops missions, you rarely see scenarios where you have to do interesting things like lay down mines to soften up an incoming tank attack, escape enemy patrols after being shot down in an aircraft, or engage in long-winded searches across several towns (interrogating civilians along the way) for a fugitive High-Value Target. I'm not asking for rehashes of the exact same missions from other games in the series, but the fact that this game provides little more mission variety than "run in and kill everyone " really drags the experience down because the overarching layers of tactical gameplay that made these missions work in the other titles simply aren't present in Dragon Rising.