Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising Demo

Operation Flashpoint is pioneer of the tactical shooter genre, since it was among the first to employ team-based gameplay mechanics and a more more strategic approach when it comes to first-person shooters. The difficulty level is above average, since bullets kill you rather quick and the enemy rarely misses his target, as long as you keep giving away your position.

Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising is the long-awaited second title in the series and it aims to reproduce the same feeling and atmosphere as the first installment, but using a high-end graphic engine to do so. The very same mechanics are employed, but they received some serious improvements, in order to get with the times.

Story-wise, the game takes place on a fictional island called Skira and it presents the conflict between China, Russia and the USA. At the core of the conflict sits the fact that China decided to take over the Skira island and exploit its resources, in order to provide food and goods for the population. Russia, on the other hand, is not too happy with the lost territory and asks the USA for help, which promptly responds by sending a specialized team of marines to complete various objectives around Skira.

Although Skira may be a fictional name, it is actually based on a real island and the developers managed to copy and represent its features almost completely, which means that you can go anywhere you like and choose the desired path at the beginning of every mission. On the other hand, the large map also makes for a lot of lost time, especially since the distances you have to walk between objectives are quite long and the game world is not that populated, which gets boring really quickly.

Despite the lack of buildings, fauna and everything else in between, there's plenty of vegetation to go around, as well as mountains, hills and an ocean surrounding the island. Thus, the amazing graphic engine makes for some breathtaking landscapes, especially since many missions take place during the sunset or the sunrise. Moreover, the characters themselves are very well animated and you can definitely feel the effort they put in after running a few kilometers uphill.

While Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising is definitely a good game, it is certainly not as good as the first title and it is way too empty most of the time. There are numerous problems with the enemy AI, while the sneaking around part is not that fun now, because the missions are not very well designed to allow that.