Previews// Operation Flashpoint: Red River

As you collect points for taking out enemies, t’s possible to call in an extraction helicopter to bank the points you’ve earned during the insurgent assault. You’ll need to do this because you lose all of your collected points if you happen to die. Luckily that won’t happen quite as easily as in past games - every class of soldier has the ability to heal their own wounds by holding a button and bandaging themselves up.

If you’re really shot to shit, you can continue to hold the button until you’re almost fully healed, but this will expose you to additional gunfire unless you’re backed by your squad mates. While it does give you an extra chance to stay in the game, losing major points if you do happen to die is quite the punishment if you’re careless, so the meaning of life is not altogether lost here.

The team leader is able to send generic commands using the revamped radial system - but a lot of the time was spent simply communicating said tactics to fellow human players anyway. With a bit more time in single player we should have an idea of just how improved the co-op AI happens to be when responding to your orders, but for now my favourite element of this feature has to be the context-sensitive automated voice prompts from fellow players. It works really well in alerting you to various points of contact.

I also played a mission known as Hell’s Highway, which had me protecting an armoured convoy throughout a dense (and apparently deserted) city. This was one level where we were encouraged to use our compass and spread out a bit as we tackle insurgents from all directions.

With red blurs on the compass detailing last known enemy locations, a yellow mark indicating a ‘down but not out’ status and a red triangle to signify an enemy having you in their sights, you’re able to react and plan a defensive (or offensive) counter immediately.

Another mission involved my squad locating two downed pilots, with the helpful enemy insurgents constantly on our backs the entire time. This was clearly the hardest of the three stages I played, and where some of the revamped compass and help text features really saved my Danish bacon. Of course, these features will be turned off on the Hardcore difficulty, letting true sim freaks rely on their senses alone to complete vital missions.

All in all, Operation Flashpoint: Red River is feeling like a more accessible take on its military sim legacy, but it also feels more focused and refined. Teams aren’t wandering around trying to figure out where that sniper is coming from to avoid instant death, but are instead seeking the best locations for defence.

Maybe that’s the work of the map design rather than the feature tweaks - it’s too early to tell at this point. There are still some questions that need answering - such as the acceptance from the Operation Flashpoint elite about the whole ‘accessibility versus realism’ thing - but at the moment we have a war sim that’s valiantly trying to achieve the best of both worlds.