Operation Flashpoint: Red River Brings Us Modern Warfare Through a Webcam

Last week I was lucky enough to get my hands on Codemaster’s upcoming military FPS – and I’ll let you know right now, this isn’t the type of wargame you’re used to.

If you’re familiar with the Codies previous entries in the Operation Flashpoint franchise, then you know they were well received and applauded for their more realistic take on the military FPS genre.  Well, Codemasters is looking to continue that tradition with Operation Flashpoint: Red River.

War through a webcam?  Whatchu talkin bout Dave!?

If you’re keen on the military events that have transpired over the last decade or so, you’ve undoubtedly seen the countless first hand videos shot by soldiers via handheld camcorders and/or helmet cams.  There’s a lot of digital distortion, lens flares, and a general sense of hectic realism not found in more typical war documentaries.  Codemasters is going for more of a “Generation Kill” vibe with Red River.

You mean a modern war FPS that looks like Kane & Lynch 2!? No thanks!!

Not quite that intense and distorted. Codemasters is well aware of the polarizing effect the visual style of Dog Days had on it’s audience and their visual approach to Red River is toned down quite a bit from IO Interactive’s “summer shockbuster.”

Ok, sounds interesting.  I’m into a more realistic military FPS … but what about multiplayer?? I love me some CoDBlOps!!

Well, there isn’t any.  What you get instead is full 1-4 player drop in/drop out co-op throughout the entire campaign (8+ hours) and various game modes.

Well, that sounds kind of cool – not every wargame needs TDM and CTF – what’s it all about?

It is kind of cool, and I’m gonna tell you all about it . . . but first, watch this latest trailer.

The game’s campaign will find you fighting both the insurgency and the Chinese within Tajikistan (Between Afghanistan, Pakistan and China) in 2013.  This is not the scripted “interactive movie” sort of campaign you may be used to from games like Call of Duty.  The missions, and the map, are much more open for the sake of improvisation and squad based combat.

You will operate with a fire team and can give commands such as supressing fire, hold position, and follow me, to any member at any time via the inclusion of a handy (and easy to use) command wheel.

The missions will progress slowly as you move from house to house and alley to alley, since you never know where an insurgent with an RPG might be hiding, and taking a run and gun approach will surely get you killed.

As I said before, this isn’t the type of wargame you’re used to.

Besides the campaign mode, there are also four different game modes which are completely drop in/drop out for 1-4 players as well.

Convoy Escort – Rather self explanatory – you’ll escort and protect a convoy.

Combat Search and Rescue – Bring back a downed pilot behind enemy lines.

Combat Sweep – Moving through villages and compounds going house to house looking for insurgents and objectives.

Defense (I played this mode) – You’ll defend a town against increasingly difficult and larger waves of Chinese enemies.  While playing this mode I found that the first few waves were no match for me and my sniper rifle plus a few key commands that I’d given to my NPC teammates.  However, once the Chinese invasion got a bit heavy, I was forced to switch to a mounted MG and call my guys back for a more strategic approach to the defense.  The mode was fun enough by myself, but it would definitely be more fun with a couple of friends on my fire team instead of NPCs who’d simply bark standard military jargon at me.

The game also features a class system which works throughout the entire game.  You gain XP in all game modes and will be able to use that XP to advance both basic skills and unlock B mods (scopes, attachments) and specials (armor piercing, quicker reloads) which are similar to the perks found in Modern Warfare.  The classes available are Rifleman, Auto-Rifleman, Scout and Grenadier.  Each of these classes has their own set of unlockable mods and specials, so don’t expect to be a jack of all trades – specialization is defnitely one of the key elements to this game.

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All in all, Operation Flashpoint: Red River shows promise.  In a world dominated by military shooters that go, “over the top” it’s refreshing to see Codemasters stick to what makes the Flashpoint series so unique, while also trying to improve upon the franchise.  The game is not set for release until Q2 2011, so I’m sure I’ll have a chance to get my hands on it again in the near future.  When I do, here’s to hoping it looks even more promising.

Get Some!!