Operation Flashpoint: Red River

If you’re expecting a fast-paced, over-the-top, explosive shooter then you can forget that at the door because Operation Flashpoint: Red River instead provides a realistic sense of warfare that unfortunately suffers from some annoying problems that leaves this war simulator a disappointment that fails to stand up against the kings of the genre today.

The game follows a group of four soldiers who are sent into real-world country Tajikistan to retake it from a group of rebels that have the country held in constant warfare. The story is nothing special or original and is there to give a reason as to why you’re fighting and nothing else. It’s a shame because the amount of realism in the game combined with the story could’ve been used to create an emotional, wartime thrill-ride like those found in movies The Hurt Locker or Black Hawk Down.

The game opens with a stylish cinematic detailing the events leading up to the control of Tajikistan. In terms of the presentation, it’s nice; it genuinely feels like a real military briefing video but this cinematic shows the full extent of one of the bad parts of the game. The video is narrated by a group of soldiers who you will eventually fight alongside with during the cause of the game.

Listening to what they’re saying gives you the impression the developers are turning the war in Afghanistan and Al Qaeda into a joke. For example, one of the soldiers asks “What came next?” to which another soldiers replies “9/11”. The first soldier then returns with “Give this guy a f*****g medal!” It’s just moments like these that make me feel uncomfortable playing the game and listening to what the soldiers are saying; I can’t imagine how offensive it must feel to someone who actually served in the war in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Gameplay in Red River is a mixed bag of good ideas and bad ones. Whilst it is a tactical shooter rather than a fast-paced one, Red River leaves a lot to be desired. The main objective the developers were striving for was to create a game anyone can play even if you’ve played Call of Duty all your life; unfortunately, that is not the case. The initial tutorial mission is awful at telling you how exactly to play the game as the writing is so small: it literally is almost impossible to read. Controls of the game are initially hard to use because the game doesn’t tell you clearly what they are. So, when the game demands you to know exactly what you’re doing, it can make for some pretty frustrating moments as you randomly click buttons, hoping you eventually find the one you’re looking for.

Once you’ve finally worked out the controls and what to do, Red River quickly becomes enjoyable. By the second or third mission, you’re effectively sending your troops to defend, hold and flank the enemy whilst you drive up the middle or provide suppressing fire. It’s in moments like these when the game becomes exciting and tense and, at times, brilliant. The threat of enemies appearing at either side of you is constant and forces you to play with your brain as well as your hands. Red River is a game that requires you to think and constantly be a few steps ahead of yourself, planning every single move you make. And with an easily accessible and well-presented tactical control wheel at your disposal, you feel as if the commands you make and the orders you give are changing the battlefield either for the better or for the worse.

But the good ideas of the game are held back by the bad. You AI teammates are, at times, annoying and don’t always do what they’re told to. They can run in front of your weapons, they can sometimes decide to go the long way to a destination and they do get stuck or lost, forcing you to travel all the way back to collect them again. This can make the game frustrating and tedious. Another problem is that you can easily play the game without using any commands other than “Follow” and “Hold/Defend.” Here you are with about twenty options and you only need to use two of them to complete the mission which isn’t really that tactical at all. And the game doesn’t feel realistic at all as you’re constantly reviving or healing teammates and, no matter how good you’re commanding skills are this will happen a lot.

Graphically Red River isn’t anything spectacular. The mountainous scenery that constantly surrounds you look nice from a distant but, up close, they are blocky and bland. At least the draw distance is impressive and regularly breath-taking as you can literally see for miles. Character models, however, aren’t anything special and are mostly made up of two or three boring colours. Guns look impressive and are actually quite detailed when compared with the soldiers you’re fighting alongside. And a few times during the course of the missions, you glimpse some rather impressive battle scenes occurring in the distance, with explosions and bullets flying high into the air.

The rating given to Red River is completely deserved and is worth noting. The back of the game states it “contains strong violence and language”. Because of this, Red River is not a game that should be played whilst children are around mainly because of the massive amount of language. One character, voiced by Aliens actor Al Matthews, cannot even say a simple sentence without throwing in a few. Initially and in battle, its fine; soldiers under fire is bound to bring a small amount language but when it’s just being used for the sake of it, it rapidly becomes annoying and, at times, offensive.

Red River is not a bad game; it just isn’t a particularly great one. It has some nice ideas (tactical wheel, dumbed down difficulty and upgradeable characters) but the bad points outweigh them massively. Mediocre graphics, frustrating gameplay and annoying AI can detract from the experience, making Red River a game that only deserves to be played if you’ve got the others in the series or if you can stick through the titles many negative aspects.