By Cody Webb

Gamers are used to seeing first-person shooters boasting that they’re “realistic;” from games like the Ghost Recon series to Rainbow Six, a lot of series feature a realistic mode or difficulty. Only one game series brings realism to the next level, and that series is the Operation Flashpoint games. The players who experienced the last game were treated to a teeth-grinding and nerve-shattering experience, with the only really bad thing about it was the fact that the graphics were downright ugly. Well, tactical shooter fans, Operation Flashpoint is back in Dragon Rising, and it aims to bring you as close to a real firefight as you’d ever care to get!

First things first: Dragon Rising is available for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Windows PC; and it’s rated M for Mature for a really good reason. With the realistic gameplay comes realistic damage features to human bodies, and it’s not pretty. Gamers with weak stomachs may want to avoid this, or at least avoid looking too closely at their kills. Dragon Rising was developed by Codemasters, the folks behind the Dirt racing games, which makes it a little depressing they didn’t provide the totally open-ended island they promised. Players are confined to a set mission area, albeit a large set mission area, that they aren’t allowed to leave.

Now that we’ve got the warning out of the way, let’s talk about the game itself. The story? Forget about it, it’s not that important. But if you want the short version: Russia asks us to fight Chinese forces on a resource-rich island for them. Fans of the series will be glad to note that Dragon Rising got a huge graphical upgrade from its predecessor. Grass sways about as you run and crawl through it, smoke drifts up from ruined vehicles and curls into the sky while obscuring your vision. It’s the little touches that make Dragon Rising more immersive. The only downside to the great visuals would have to be that now it’s a pain to spot enemies. I realize this is true to life, but I also get the feeling that most shooters will be swayed away by this.

The gameplay remains mostly intact from the original Operation Flashpoint; the controls feel solid and fluid. Again, the little touches that the developers added shine through here; from dropping into prone from standing and having dirt hit your face to standing up a little bit to crouch-run. As is typical in just about every game, there’s a difficulty select option, but in Dragon Rising it doesn’t affect damage taken or amount of ammo you can hold. The higher the difficulty, the less of a H.U.D. that players will have. In layman’s terms: if you’re on Hardcore you won’t have a compass, ammo counter, mini-map or health monitor, you’ll have to count your bullets and remember to check your map occasionally.

Another thing that hurts the experience is the incredibly stupid A.I. that drives your squadmates. Most of the time they’ll listen to the orders you give them, but you’ll often see them standing up in plain sight, or ignoring your orders altogether! This results in them dying at the hands of the reasonably smart enemy A.I., which leads you to having to heal them periodically. Honestly, the best way to play the campaign is with four friends over Live, PSN or broadband.

I cannot stress how much work Codemasters went into making each and every gun feel as unique and realistic as they do in real life. They perform just as they would in real life, and even sound much like they would as well. This same dedication to a realistic experience also went into the animations; Codemasters even went so far as to motion-capture real life soldiers to make each animation look real!

Finally we come to multiplayer; which has two different modes currently: Annihilation and Infiltration. Annihilation is essentially team deathmatch with players controlling their own squads of three; unfortunately, these three squadmates have the stupid A.I. that plagues the campaign which inevitably leads them to being cannon fodder. Infiltration fares better, though, tasking players to work together to achieve an objective. This leads to hours upon hours of tactically fun shooting, provided your team communicates and performs well together.

So there you have it. Dragon Rising brings realism back, but not with as big a bang as fans were hoping for. Out of the three systems you can get the game for, I recommend it most for the PC since you get an added in Mission Editor which allows you to create your own missions. Those of you stuck on consoles, though, don’t worry. Dragon Rising provides plenty of tactical shooting and strategy, earning itself a B.

Cody Webb, a 2008 graduate of Suwannee High School, lives in Live Oak.